Good Business Charter

The Good Business Charter (GBC) is the UK’s benchmark for responsible business. With 97% of the public wanting businesses to act responsibly, the Good Business Charter accreditation is a simple and effective way for an organisation to demonstrate its commitment to people and planet. As a University, we have held GBC accreditation, reassessed annually, since February 2021.

The Charter was launched as a charity in 2020 by Julian Richer, owner of Richer Sounds and an honorary graduate of the University, working in collaboration with the CBI, TUC, and FSB. It defines what it means to be a responsible business and aims to make ethical practices the accepted norm across UK organisations and to shape a fairer, more sustainable future.

Our journey

We became the first university to receive the Good Business Charter Accreditation in February 2021.

In June of the same year, York became the first city to sign up to being a Good Business Charter City, with the University acting as one of the initial key organisations helping the city to achieve this status.

In October 2024, we hosted the Sustainable Futures Forum at the Guildhall, bringing together innovators, investors, academics, and business owners from York and beyond to explore and discuss sustainable practices across various industries, with a focus on building a prosperous and healthy society for all. The forum was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, the Good Business Charter, the FixOurFood programme and the School for Business and Society, University of York.

Each year, we apply for re-accreditation: this is an ongoing commitment, not a one-off achievement.

What it means for us

The Good Business Charter aligns closely with our Vision for York and our commitment to being a University for Public Good.

In order to become GBC accredited, we have to comply with each of the ten components of the Charter:

Real Living Wage: paying all directly employed staff and regular contractors the real Living Wage determined by the Living Wage Foundation
Fairer hours and contracts: avoiding mandatory zero-hours contracts and providing security of hours
Employee wellbeing: offering support for mental/physical health and fair sickness policies
Employee representation: ensuring a voice for employees to engage with senior management
Diversity and inclusion: actively monitoring and improving diversity in the workplace
Environmental responsibility: committing to an environmental policy that reduces environmental impact
Pay fair tax: paying tax in the UK and not using tax avoidance schemes
Commitment to customers: showing clear commitment to customers, gathering and responding to feedback
Ethical sourcing: applying due diligence throughout the supply chain
Prompt payment to suppliers: adhering to the government's Prompt Payment Code, paying at least 95% of invoices within 30 days

We have gathered these ten components into three areas of focus: our people, our planet and our practice.

Our people

The components that make up this area are:

Real Living Wage
Fairer hours and contracts
Employee well-being
Employee representation
Diversity and inclusion

Our community is what makes the University. Our students, researchers, academics and professional services staff all matter: we ensure that everyone is heard and valued, and that our employees are paid the real Living Wage.

Our commitment can be found in our association with Athena SWAN and other awards that we hold evidencing our approach to gender equality, representation and success for all. Our EDI Strategic Objectives set out key goals and explain how we're working towards them.

Staff and student voices are heard throughout our Governance and Management structure, with representation in bodies up to and including Council and Senate. The campus Trades Unions and the York Students' Union are consulted around changes and developments.

Our 2030 strategy includes a commitment to "eliminate gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps”. We demonstrate transparency in our approach with our annual pay gap report which includes our action plan to address the gaps and break down barriers to equality.

Our planet

This is the Environmental Responsibility component of the Charter.

Sustainability is one of our four core principles, to be embedded throughout our activities from campus operations to our research themes and the knowledge that our students take with them. We're an institution with both local roots and global outreach, at the heart of the cutting edge of research and knowledge: as such, we're well-positioned to advance sustainability.

Our Sustainability at York pages present our Sustainability plan and transparent annual progress reports, and detail activities including:

Addressing climate change through formal governance and our Decarbonisation Plan
Research with real world impact, with our SDG Highlights Report showcasing some of the research that progresses the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Our Student Sustainability Hub which enables students to take action and get actively involved in all areas of sustainability
Work within the local community to widen the participation and reach of our activities by joining forces with other local businesses with shared values. This includes our Sustainability Clinic, FixOurFood, and BioYorkshire

Our practice

The components covered by this area are:

Pay fair tax
Commitment to customers
Ethical sourcing
Prompt payment to suppliers

Universities like York are more than educators - we recognise that we are part of a community and that we play an important role in supporting a fairer society, ethical leadership and a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

In terms of our business practices, this means that we demonstrate integrity in every transaction. Whether it’s paying our local York suppliers promptly or ensuring our tax contributions support public services, we lead by example - and we know that this is much appreciated by the businesses we work with.

Our students are more than just our customers - their voice is heard at all levels. But we also offer them the respect that commitment to customers requires, for example through our Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Policy, by providing routes for feedback, and by analysing and responding to information gathered by the National Student Survey and Postgraduate Research Experience Survey.