The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) is committed to undertaking our business in an ethical way. This includes our conduct in the way we interact with our key stakeholders (employees, members, business partners and suppliers), government and regulators, the public and environment.

To achieve this, every employee and volunteer must take seriously their role in building and protecting our reputation and acting in accordance with our legal requirements, and our values.

Our approach to ethics and compliance highlights our commitment to ensuring we engage with all of our stakeholders in a fair, honest and open manner.

This policy covers:

• All BSSS employees and volunteers
• BSSS suppliers.

Where we operate in conjunction with third parties, but do not have management control, we will promote the application of this policy.

This policy’s purpose is to:

• Act in accordance with laws and regulations
• Establish a culture of integrity
• Behave fairly and honestly
• Respect others.

This includes a strong focus on the ethical behaviour of our employees and volunteers, and on conducting ethical relationships with our members, suppliers and contractors.

BSSS commits to:

• Conduct our operations on sound business principles with trust, honesty and integrity at the core of our activities. We respect the legitimate interests of all those with whom we have relationships
• Comply with UK laws and regulations and conduct our operations in accordance with accepted principles of good corporate governance
• Provide a working environment in which employees and volunteers can realise their full potential and contribute to our success
• Respect the dignity of the individual and support the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other core conventions
• A diverse working environment where there is mutual trust and respect and where everyone is accountable for their actions and feels responsible for the performance and reputation of our company. Our Diversity and Inclusion policy sets out our commitment to this
• Provide our staff and volunteers with safe and healthy working conditions and practices
• Positive working relationships with our suppliers based on mutual trust and honesty. We will honour our commitments to suppliers and will not make any commitments which we cannot keep. Our Procurement policy sets out how we aim to procure services fairly and ethically
• Ensure our communication with stakeholders is accurate, fair, timely and easy to understand
• Make a positive social contribution with the soil science communities we work with, and the general public around the theme of soil
• Consider our impact on the environment and work to reduce the impact our operations have. Our Environmental Policy provides more information on how we aim to do this
• Ensure our staff and volunteers feel confident to report any non-compliance to this policy to the Executive Officer or President. Any information received in this way will remain confidential and the issue will be investigated fully.
• Any person expressing in good faith and selflessly their ethical or compliance concerns will not have any measures brought against them for expressing this.

Anti-Bribery and Conflict of Interest

Staff and volunteers must not accept any gift, reward or hospitality from any organisation or individual as an inducement either for doing something or not doing something in their official capacity. Any employee or volunteer who feels they have been offered a bribe, should notify the Executive Officer or President as soon as possible.

In the event of a conflict of interest, which may occur if an employee or volunteer has an interest in an organisation providing goods or services, that interest must be declared in writing at the earliest possible opportunity and maintained in a Register of Interests.

Modern Slavery

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or any part of our business. We outscource very little of our operations and where outsourcing does take place, this is largely within the UK. We will ensure our suppliers commit to operating in line with our values including responsible sourcing and paying employees at the prevailing minimum wage. If we become aware that any of our suppliers are engaged in, or supporting modern slavery, we will immediately cease trading with them and report their activities to the relevant authorities.

Ethical Investing

We routinely invest funds with third-party organisations through the regular investment of surplus funds. Although our aim is to secure the maximum returns from our investments, we recognise the need to take into account our social, environmental and ethical responsibility as an investor.

Wherever possible and in accordance with the Charity Commission guidelines, we make investments in ways which are consistent with our mission, values and other policies, even where this may reduce the value of our returns.

Our Environmental Policy sets out our commitment to reducing our impact on the natural world through our business operations. Our investments will seek to do the same, and as far as possible, we commit to investing in funds which support our environmental and ethical principles.

This ethics policy is fully supported by BSSS Trustees and Council.

December 2020