Corporate Social Responsibility 2022

Our sole purpose as a family business is to offer safer, greener, more efficient highways products and operations.

A dedicated team of 130 employees helps drive a culture of continuous improvement across all aspects of our business and ensures that treatment of all our stakeholders, including the environment, is fair and ethical.

Previously, our contributions across the three areas of sustainability (the environment, the economy and human society) have only been demonstrated in our product design and our everyday business activities.

We have now reached a size that means we have the available resources to start effectively reporting our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. This will allow us to benchmark our Group’s efforts against previous years and hold ourselves accountable to commitments and continuous progress towards holistic sustainable development.

A word from our Group MDs

As MD of a Traffic Group company it may sound shocking to say how little our formal CSR and Sustainability activities have affected us. The reason being that the ethical heart of the Traffic Group companies had embraced the essential traits of Sustainability many years before it became a business buzz.

The first issue of our annual Sustainability Report was testament to the fact that Traffic Group has lived a philosophy of “doing the right thing” well before it was documented and evidenced. In the same way that Quality cannot be inspected in as an afterthought, any business paying lip-service to Sustainability soon shows its true not-so-green colours. The fact the Traffic Group companies had already put an array of measures to meet Sustainable Development Goals in place, often without consciously realising it, underlines the culture that lives within.

We are a set of businesses that manufacture and consume materials but, in doing so, we have always understood that the products we produce must have longevity in the market, be upgraded to match changing needs and supported throughout a long and useful life. That demands careful design, forethought and vision. We believe that our products have a positive impact on society and that the way in which we work with our partners also gives them the opportunity to add real further value. Nothing we produce can be classed as quick-tech, disposable or gadgetry – we actually provide the products that make journeys and communities demonstrably safer, greener and more efficient and we are proud of that.

These foundations have underpinned the formulation of more formalised programmes of ongoing work that this second annual report highlights. Perhaps, what it shows best, is that we have a commitment at the heart of what we do to make our businesses successful not at any cost but with true care and attention to our global impact.

Steve Walker – Managing Director, MAV Systems

Waste & Water

Reducing waste was a clear top priority when we asked our team for feedback on our CSR efforts. As a result, significant effort has been put in to reducing waste, saving well in excess of a tonne of waste per month on average.

• MAV introduced plastic recycling to their remote location, previously thought unattainable, becoming zerowaste-to-landfill.
• AGD introduced polystyrene recycling, becoming zero-waste-to-landfill.
• TGS introduced mixed recycling at Pike Works and flexible plastic recycling across manufacturing sites, becoming zero-waste-to-landfill.

Radix Partner

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Radix founder Dick Duley in 2022. In his memory, The Traffic Group has donated í1,000 to Prostate Cancer UK. The contributions of Dick Duley and Milan Fuchs to the traffic industry, particularly in making roads safer for vulnerable pedestrians through the development of the ‘rotating cone’ tactile equipment, have been immeasurable. As part of AGD’s portfolio, Radix continues to be synonymous with this essential technology.

Care First Partnership

In 2022 we adopted an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 access from Care First’ to support our employees and their close ones with their mental health and well-being. This decision was catalysed by the prolonged impacts of COVID and the increasing financial pressures faced by individuals.

Skill Development & Knowledge Sharing

In the past, members of the senior management team have participated in events at local educational institutions such as Cirencester College, University of Gloucestershire, Warwick University, and have made Radio show appearances – most recently joining John Darvell on BBC Sounds. Our senior management team also includes a STEM ambassador.

Work experience is offered to Year 10+ students from local schools giving them the opportunity to work across different areas of the business, including Production, R&D, Customer Services, to get an overview of working life and how a business operates.

Apprenticeships have been offered to employees of all ages, where it is felt there is either a skills gap or to assist them in progressing within the business. Recently, two employees have completed their L3 Advanced Apprenticeships in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, which has resulted in one of them transferring from Production into Engineering as a PCB Design Engineer.

Apprenticeships

Tom Robertson (main image)

Tom began working for Hollco as a production operative back in 2015 and expressed a keen interest to evolve his role when new opportunities became available in product development for the RC2. After demonstrating exceptional progress in his new role within the software engineering project team, Tom was encouraged to pursue his BTEC L3 qualification. As TGS’ sole Test Engineer, Tom now plays a crucial part in testing all software used in new and existing radio-connected portable signals at TGS to ensure highquality functionality. This is done alongside completing NVQ design projects for our testing facility.

Qualifications: BTEC Level 3 Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Mateusz Batugowski (inset image)

Mateusz has worked at AGD for 6 years, initially recruited as a production operative. His positive attitude, engaging personality and willingness to take on a challenge is demonstrated through his progression from moving into the service centre and enrolling in a BTEC Electronic course early on, to undergoing intensive training and joining the engineering team prior to the retirement of his colleague and mentor. He has made exceptional progress and is now responsible for designing all PCBs for the products being developed by AGD and works closely with the electronic design engineers.

Qualifications: BTEC Level 3 Electrical/Electronic Engineering, HNC in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, currently studying HND from September 2022-2024.

Case Study - Stantek Electronics Ltd & AGD Systems

One of our longest standing relationships in The Traffic Group is that between AGD Systems and Stantek. Stantek supply some of the printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) as well as cable assemblies and are only 7 ó miles down the road from AGD.

Stantek has embraced sustainability in their business and have initiatives which range from introducing 4-day working weeks, to only purchasing second-hand furniture for their offices.

“Stantek’s growth from a small free-issue company to a multimillion-pound turnover subcontractor may never have been possible without the support and guidance of AGD. Since the start of our relationship in 1992 AGD’s guidance and support has been a vital part of Stantek’s success. Throughout our 30-year relationship, AGD’s support and advice has never wavered and the relationship today continues to be as strong as it was as the very start.” – Errol, Director at Stantek

AGD’s entire product range benefits from high standard, specifically-designed cables and brilliant twoway communication with Stantek helping us problem solve at multiple levels.

Stantek have grown from a 1,000 Square Feet facility in 1993 to their now current premise since 2012 12,000 Square Feet.

Services to Extend Product Life

Driving forward with its strategy to support the UK’s sustainability goals, TGS has launched its eco-conscious Evo ACM series of portable traffic signals. The metalwork and electronics of the company’s established Evo Multi product line have been recycled and remanufactured to create a new, modern and environmentally responsible signal.

In the development of TGS’s new Evo ACM Signals, we’ve kept in mind the materials used in the previous models. The new ACM Signal can be almost entirely repurposed from the old models – even the newly designed plastic signal head.

Extending life of product materials

We try to equip our customers with the knowledge to sustainably dismantle our products when they’re no longer useful using ‘End-of-Life’ (EOL) diagrams. Of our entire product range, we’ve determined the percentage of products with end-oflife care information. We’ve reclassified this metric to only include full product diagrams, which has shown a decrease in percentage this year.