Love Topsham’s Business Practice

We try to minimise the environmental impact of our activities, minimise wasteful print, when we do prints we use FSC sustainable papers. A lot of our communication is using online channels and an online newsletter. The online newsletter goes out to 1400 addresses and has an open rate of around 66% every month. Our Christmas lights have now all switched over to LED lights, requiring far less power, and many of our displays are battery or rechargeable. We have run campaigns around re-usable cups and were pro-active during lockdown in providing places and materials for visitors to the town to enjoy their visits safely.

What processes do you have in place when sourcing supplies? 

We try to minimise the environmental impact of our activities, minimise wasteful print, and when we do print, we use FSC sustainable papers. A lot of our communication is using online channels and an online newsletter. The online newsletter goes out to 1400 addresses and has an open rate of around 66% every month. Our Christmas lights have now all switched over to LED lights, requiring far less power, and many of our displays are battery or rechargeable-powered. We have run campaigns around reusable cups and were proactive during lockdown in providing places and materials for visitors to the town to enjoy their visits safely. We have very few suppliers, and we choose them carefully in how they act and supply to us. We believe that a material should be reviewed before purchase in these three areas: Creation, Useful Life. Disposal. In general, our policy is to reuse materials as often as possible. Any materials that are no longer required are always recycled wherever possible to minimise waste to landfill.

How does Love Topsham run as an orgaisation

As an organisation that is totally run by volunteers, we do not use contracts with our volunteers. When we employ professional support, we ensure that their values match our own and that any contract is mutually beneficial. We evaluate events to ensure volunteering is enjoyable. We recognise that every volunteer has made a choice to volunteer with us and has a positive experience when they do. The Love Topsham team has five directors, none of whom receive a salary from Love Topsham.

Give examples of how you actively support and encourage employee wellbeing. 

We are a volunteer organisation, run by volunteers and supported by volunteers. Every event or project we do has a health and safety assessment, which is shared with each volunteer at a briefing, and each volunteer is given a copy, and a set of contact numbers for the event organisation team. Our larger events are run by our local council assessment panel, including emergency services, first aid, and crowd assessment. We have four directors who hold DBS checks and two have had safeguarding training to ensure our safeguarding policy is written into the event plan and is implemented at events.

What measures do you have in place to encourage diversity and inclusion? 

Our aim is to make our activities accessible to all. In our CIC charter, we have a clause which does not allow us to campaign for any individual pressure, religious or political group. Our goal is always to include the whole community of the town of Topsham. That community includes residents, businesses and visitors to the town.