Former North East Company of the Year, Aspire Technology Solutions has received an 'excellent' rating for its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance from Sustainable Advantage, one of the UK's leading energy and waste consultants.
Upon evaluating x57 ESG metrics to measure positive impact on employees, community, customers, and environment, Aspire’s ESG performance was measured at 75%. The Excellent rating was driven by a number of factors including:
-Aspire’s management team sees ESG as an important priority and we have made significant efforts to improve our environmental, social and governance credentials.
-Aspire recently moved into a newly constructed, energy efficient, head office at Gateshead Quays which has helped to reduce their carbon footprint.
-Aspire’s supply chain is deemed low risk in terms of responsible sourcing issues.
This latest development comes just weeks after Aspire secured significant minority investment from LDC, the UK’s leading mid-market private equity firm, in a transaction which values the business at £85m.
Aspire is one of the fastest growing IT managed service and cyber security providers in the UK and was launched 15 years ago by CEO, Chris Fraser. The company now has multiple offices in locations including Gateshead, London and Stockton-on-Tees, and employs more than 200 people.
Aspire is currently delivering plans to create more than 150 new North East jobs across its recently opened HQ, based on the site of the former iconic Baja Beach Club at Gateshead Quays, and a new base at Fusion Hive, a business and innovation centre based on Stockton’s Northshore.
With a large network of UK customers, Aspire delivers leading technology solutions across a range of applications including cloud, connectivity, voice, technical support, and cyber security. Its full fibre network provides bandwidth speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second – some of the fastest connectivity speeds available in the UK.
The business has scaled rapidly with revenue rising to £30m in the last 12 months of trading, growing more than 48% over the past three years.
Rob Fraser, Chief Revenue Officer and lead director for ESG at Aspire said: “We are delighted that this report recognises the social value that Aspire is delivering. I am pleased with the progress we have made with our ESG strategy. This is an area of focus for our stakeholders, including many of our employees and customers.
Whilst this is a great outcome for a first assessment, we are not resting on our laurels. We are planning a number of initiatives to improve our ESG credentials such as benchmarking our performance and tracking our sustainable development goals