As a Social Enterprise, TRACO are always keen to find out about changes in the ever-developing field of Social Values in business and industry. So, it was no surprise that this year, we jumped at the chance to attend the Social Values Leaders’ Summit in London.

The event took place at the Strand Palace Hotel, near Covent Garden and was well subscribed, with attendees across many different business sectors. Speakers included representatives of both the Public and Private sectors, highlighting that Social Value cuts across all sectors of business and is becoming an increasingly important part of the company ethos. As our customers demand more accountability in this area, businesses need to be promoting their Social Values to clients and customers both within and outside of the business community.

      TRACO were represented by our Sales Manager, Deborah Tegerdine, who brought us back some valuable insights into various areas, many of which resonated with us as both a Social Enterprise and member of our local community. For example, Mete Cohban, the Deputy Mayor of London for the Environment and Energy related the inspiring story of how his parents came to the UK and made their life here, overcoming the challenge of having to learn English. Deputy Cohban is a big advocate of Social Enterprises and spoke about how he was pioneering Hackney’s Community Energy Fund to change the circumstances of children and adults in the deprived areas of London.

      To put that into local terms, it’s well known that Portsmouth, as an island, is considered one of the more deprived areas of the UK and there is plenty of information online about how the City council is working to create better recreational spaces, more housing and bring business opportunities to the area. All these activities can only help to bring jobs to the City and help support the local economy. So, despite the distance, there were many obvious parallels to our own locality and the problems faced.

      Another interesting point was the difficulties businesses face when trying to communicate their social values to their customers and clients. Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes Social Value, and this is potentially influenced by our own unconscious bias towards areas we feel particularly strong about. So perhaps the best way to illustrate what TRACO feel strongly about is to give some examples of areas and activities we feel passionate about and how we include these within our daily activities.

      As many people will know, TRACO is a Social Enterprise. But what you may not know is what we do on a day-to-day basis. Put simply, TRACO is a furniture clearance, storage and installation business. We are situated in the Portsmouth area and work with large and small businesses in relation to their furniture and storage needs.

      However, TRACOUK believe strongly in the value of the Circular Economy, and this drives our Social Values. We believe that, rather than throwing things away, many can be given a second life. Therefore, where we clear and store furniture that is no longer required, many of the items are put back into use through our sales programme. This brings enormous benefits to many of our customers who can afford quality furniture for their businesses, home offices etc. that would be unaffordable if they were to purchase new.

This doesn’t just apply to the big items of furniture we clear. At TRACO we operate our “Donations Container,” a large red container we regularly fill with items that can be used but don’t fit our catalogue of products. The container items change constantly, and anyone, yes, anyone, is welcome to take anything they might find useful. And the best bit of all? Anything in the Donations Container is free! If it can be put it back into use, that supports our re-use ethos, and that’s a green win in our eyes.

      Of course, whilst this might sound like a sales pitch, there is a more serious side to all this. By providing furniture and free items we can help support the reduction of CO2, thus helping to reduce the carbon footprint of both ours and our client’s business. Re-using furniture and other objects is a massive plus to the way in which we can all look at reducing our carbon footprint. And this is probably one of the biggest drivers of TRACO’s Social Values.

      The Summit also looked at the effect actions being undertaken to support Social Values have on the local community. Again, this resonated with TRACO as we regularly offer help to charities in the form of donations of items of furniture, and have even supplied new carpet tiles to a local charity whose flooring was ruined due to winter flooding.

      We also believe everyone should have the opportunity to secure gainful and fulfilling employment and at TRACO we have a long history of offering permanent work to under-represented members of the workforce. Our current staff make up includes semi-retired employees, staff with physical disabilities who are employed in our offices, and people from organisations looking to place staff who have, for whatever reason, found it difficult to get back into the workplace.

      Because we have such a diverse mix of employees at TRACO, not only do we believe this is a positive for our community, but we also have a closeknit team of staff who work well together, creating a community or our own within the business.

      There is still a long way to go in defining and communicating Social Values for many businesses out there, and the Summit highlighted the difficulties many businesses face in communicating their Social Values to clients and customers alike. At TRACO, we will be continuing to support and grow our own Social Values and look to support our customers and clients to enhance their own values, utilising our experience in the circular economy as we work together for a positive future.