Principles and ethics

Principles

Mouchel’s guiding principles present a framework within which corporate responsibilities are communicated to staff. The company’s appraisal system ensures that these principles inform behaviours at an individual level and are reinforced through its own communications and events.

The Mouchel Guiding Principles:

• A passion for success.
• A spirit of adventure.
• Integrity at heart.

Find out more about our guiding principles in the about us section.

Business ethics

Corporate and personal integrity are top priority at Mouchel and the company follows a strict code of conduct in all its dealings. Its policies on staff conduct, ethics, whistle-blowing and fraud set the standards it expects of employees, and provide a framework that ensures everyone acts with integrity. The directors for human resources and fraud policy are responsible for ensuring that contravention of these policies is reported to the Executive Management Board (EMB) for further action.

Regrettably Mouchel reported four incidents relating to potential fraud in 2010/11; these have been investigated and one closed satisfactorily. Three remain open. Two instances, which related to events in the previous year, remain under investigation. In no case was there any indication that the company’s systems and procedures were deficient.

Ethical investment

As members of the FTSE4Good Index, Mouchel incorporates its minimum eligibility criteria within the company’s governance processes, ensuring that its policies and procedures meet best practice requirements in terms of evolving standards on human rights, the environment, supply-chain labour, bribery and climate change.

In April 2011, FTSE4Good launched their ESG Ratings scheme - designed to objectively measure the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) risk and performance of companies worldwide – providing a valuable tool for investors who wish to incorporate these factors into their investment decision making processes. In this first assessment, Mouchel achieved an overall score of four out of a possible five, and was placed in the ninety-fourth percentile when compared to other equivalent sector participants.

Carbon disclosure

For the fourth year running, Mouchel participated in the global Carbon Disclosure Project – the largest voluntary programme for measuring climate change impacts – including the reporting of ‘supply chain’ carbon emissions generated through its work on behalf of the Office of Government Commerce and National Grid.