Environmental, Social and Governance

The ambition to enhance the lives of older people is at the heart of everything we do.

An age and menopause friendly employer

Our working lives are getting longer, but many people over 50 still hear “When are you going to retire?”. We want to change that mindset and show that age is no barrier to continued professional success. That is why we have taken the Age-friendly Employer Pledge with the Centre for Ageing Better and we take care with the wording we use in recruitment advertising, avoiding language that might introduce an age bias. We were the first major UK firm to offer paid leave for new grandparents, giving our colleagues the opportunity to support their families.

We are also moving forward the conversation on menopause, upskilling our leaders and role-modelling a more accepting and open culture. We worked closely with industry experts, Henpicked, to create the tools and resources to support our colleagues in the best way. We were delighted to continue to receive the Menopause Friendly Accreditation.

During the year, we launched the second part of our ‘Basics of Ageing’ training to all colleagues. This second module focused on understanding how we can reframe the conversation on age, exploring and debunking myths around ageing, and investigating how our beliefs about ageing can create positive outcomes for older people.

As we provide opportunities for older people, we must ensure that we protect our environment.

Reporting our environmental impact

For our latest emissions reporting, please refer to our 2024 Annual Report and Accounts. Our reported greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption are verified annually to the ISO 14064-3 standard. You can read our 2024 verification report here, and our 2023 verification report here.

Climate change resilience

We, and our stakeholders, recognise the importance of future-proofing our business against the threat of climate change. During the year, we completed climate change scenario analysis aligned to the recommendations of the Taskforce on Cimated-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). For further information on Saga’s climate change resilience, including details of our climate-related risks and opportunities, please refer to our TCFD report within the 2024 Annual Report and Accounts.

CDP

Since 2015, Saga has responded to the CDP climate change questionnaire. In 2023, we scored a ‘B’, demonstrating that we are taking co-ordinated action on climate issues. You can find our 2023 CDP response here and our 2022 CDP response here.

Partnerships to promote biodiversity

Our ongoing partnership with marine conservation charity, ORCA, plays a key role in helping to monitor important marine mammal populations and habitats. Saga is ORCA’s longest-standing cruise partner and was the first to take ORCA’s dedicated teams further across the oceans to collect essential data on whales, dolphins and porpoises.

ISO 14001 accreditation

CustomerKNECT, our in-house mailing and printing business, located in Seaham, has been ISO 14001 accredited since 2015. The accreditation covers the provision of the direct mailing services including printing, packing, data handling and arrangement of delivery. 

Waste management

With a zero to landfill policy, all waste collected from our office sites was recycled or diverted to an energy-from-waste facility.  Our historic office waste statistics are shown in the table below.

During the previous financial year, waste disposal from our owned cruise fleet totalled 9,549m³, of which 7,716m³ was landed in port for treatment (including recycling, incineration or biofuel production). The remaining 1,833 m³ was ground or comminuted food waste, discharged at sea in line with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships Annex 5.

Saga specialises in providing products and services specific to people aged over 50. We are not a manufacturer of goods or products and, therefore, do not use raw materials in the creation of our products or undertake any product lifecycle analysis.

An inclusive and diverse culture allows our colleagues to thrive.

Gender pay and female representation

We continue to support the UK Government’s ambition to address the gender pay gap and our commitment to equal pay for equal work is central to this. Our report, detailing our gender pay gap and commitments, can be found on our website here. Our commitment to gender representation is why we have set the ambitious target to increase female representation across leadership positions to 50% by December 2027, alongside a commitment to increase female representation on the Board to 40% by 2027, in line with the recommendations of the FTSE Women Leaders Review.

Rewards and benefits

We think it’s only right that when we do well, our colleagues do too. That’s why we share our business success by awarding all eligible colleagues free Saga shares. We also pride ourselves on ensuring our pay and benefits are competitive and fair as we continue to embed our reward principles. We are delighted to announce that Saga is now a fully accredited Real Living Wage employer.

At the Employee Benefits Awards 2022, Saga won, ‘Best Benefits to Support Employees Post-Pandemic’ and was received Highly Commended in the ‘Best Benefits to Support Work-Life Balance’ category.

Community

We believe that supporting our communities is essential to good business. We make regular donations to community charities and our colleagues are offered paid volunteering days to share their skills and time with the communities in which they live and work.

Saga is the main sponsor of the Folkestone 10k, an annual event that attracts participants from across Kent and beyond. A Saga team of 60 colleagues entered the 2023 race as well as a virtual race for our crew and guests onboard Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure.

As well as promoting Saga’s preferred charities, we also support our colleagues who are fundraising for other charities through our matched funding scheme. Each month, colleagues have the opportunity to tell us about their fundraising activities and apply for matched funding.

We also administer a Saga Workplace Lottery, giving colleagues the opportunity to win a monthly prize while raising funds for good causes. The proceeds are distributed quarterly, determined by a colleague vote.

Saga is proud to be a silver signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, a recognition scheme that rewards the efforts of organisations that provide support to this community. At Saga, we do this in several ways:

• Seeking to support the employment of veterans, young and old.
• Through our Reservist Policy which provides support to colleagues who choose to be members of the Reserve Forces.
• Offering flexibility in granting leave for service spouses and partners.
• Making donations to Armed Forces charities. 

We have extended our long running scheme, which provides educational bursaries for the children and siblings of our Filipino crew members. 443 children of our Filipino crew received an educational bursary during the 2022/23 academic year.

Labour standards

The landscape of employment is changing fast. There is a broad mix of full-time, part-time and ‘gig economy’ contracts in use across a number of industries today. Increasing automation and digitisation affects the demand for workers and types of employment. The disruption by the pandemic has also led to new perspectives in the world of work. In a future sustainable society, people have access to health, participatory processes, education, and justice. There are many ways labour standards and human rights are part of the day-to-day at Saga plc. You can read our Labour Standards Policy here.

At Saga, we are committed to creating a truly inclusive culture, where all colleagues can bring their full and authentic selves to work. Our ambition is that our colleagues are able to do the best work of their lives when they’re with us. This is irrespective of the wonderful differences that make us all unique, including age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, ability and all other characteristics that make us who we are.   

We are also a committed member of the UK Government’s Disability Confident scheme, supporting the employment and advancement of disabled people in the UK.

We support the UK Government’s ambition to address the gender pay gap and our report detailing our gender pay commitments can be found here.

Saga's Equal Opportunities Policy covers bullying and harassment and provides colleagues with information on how to raise concerns, including to their managers, the People Team, or through Saga’s Speak Up process. Details of how to proceed with these concerns are also included in Saga’s Grievance Policy, where managers are supported by the People Team to investigate concerns. The organisation’s Speak Up process provides all colleagues, including managers, with a channel to report concerns anonymously and a dedicated team is then assigned to investigate. We are committed to ensuring that our attraction, recruitment, promotion and development practises are barrier-free, fair, objective and inclusive to all with a focus on continuous learning. We actively encourage all colleagues to access our training and development tools to support their careers.

How we work is as important as what we do and why we do it.

ESG Governance

During the year, we reviewed and updated our ESG governance framework. We introduced a new ESG Steering Committee, tasked with supporting the delivery of ESG strategy and targets and driving ESG accountability across the business units and Group functions. We also appointed an ESG Champion, acting as the voice of ESG on the Board and ensuring that ESG factors are captured within Board decision-making.

Fines and penalties

Our cruise vessels have a strong safety and environmental performance record. No environmental fines or penalties have been imposed and we are not aware of any ongoing investigations or proceedings which could result in the issue of any such penalty. 

Anti-corruption

The Group values its reputation for financial probity and integrity and recognises that it has a primary duty to protect its customers from all financial crime, including bribery and corruption. The Group takes a zero-tolerance approach to incidents involving bribery and corruption and supports the organisational policy which lays out clear guidance for the appropriate assessment of any risk of bribery and corruption across all business functions. All colleagues are trained annually to ensure their understanding of the risks and appropriate action if they encounter any activity of concern.

Risk management

Our risk management framework has been designed in conjunction with external risk expertise to bring together best practice risk management standards and draw upon a number of risk standards and professional body guidance, including the Institute of Risk Management, the Committee of Sponsoring Organisations, ISO 31000:2018 and Basel risk classification guidelines. These standards, frameworks and guidelines support specific design considerations of our risk framework, whilst ensuring the final result is fit for Saga and reflective of its risk maturity.  

Saga expects its colleagues, managers and leaders to carry out their business and perform their duties to the highest ethical standards and in compliance with all relevant laws. This is reflected in our Personal Standards and Ethics Policy. These standards of behaviour apply to Saga’s dealings with all stakeholders including customers, regulators, colleagues, suppliers and investors. The Board reviews the Group Personal Standards and Ethics Policy, and compliance with it, on a regular basis and will take prompt action should it discover any behaviour that isn't aligned to this. Where appropriate, adherence to standards is assessed through the risk management framework and assurance work undertaken across the three lines of defence. Any areas of non-conformity are reported through the established governance framework to Executive Committees and the Board as appropriate. Policies are reviewed periodically to ensure that they remain effective.  

In addition to reporting labour-related incidents to the Board, the business works closely with all its regulators and, in the event a non-conformity or reportable incident is identified, this would be disclosed to the relevant body. Where the business has a responsibility to submit calendar-based disclosure reporting claims or incidents of non-compliance, these are submitted in accordance with the schedule set by the regulator.

Under Saga’s Modern Slavery Policy, each business area is required to risk assess all new suppliers before operating with them. It is also a policy requirement to carry out follow-up risk assessments with existing suppliers every three years to assess the potential of any residing risk. 

Due diligence is conducted on our suppliers to help determine our future relationship with that supplier. It is policy for all new agreements with suppliers to be in writing and contractually oblige the supplier to comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

It is the responsibility of each business area to attest continued compliance with Saga’s Modern Slavery Policy annually. Any areas of non-compliance are reported through the governance framework to the appropriate executive committee and Board, where appropriate.   

ESG and climate risk feature in the Group's principal risks and uncertainties included within our Annual Report and Accounts and are tracked by the Operating and plc Boards to ensure the risks are being managed effectively. ESG and climate form part of our risk framework.

Whistleblowing (Speak Up)

The Company’s robust Whistleblowing and Open-Door Policy is known within Saga as the Speak Up Policy. The Audit Committee are responsible for reviewing the adequacy and security of the Company’s arrangements for its colleagues and contractors to raise concerns, in confidence, about possible wrongdoing in financial reporting or other matters. The Committee shall ensure that these arrangements allow proportionate and independent investigation of such matters and appropriate follow up action.

External auditors

Our current external auditors were appointed in 2016 following a competitive tender process. We completed the rotation of our audit partner in 2022. 

Supplier Code of Conduct

Central to the success of our operations are the suppliers we work with. Corporate integrity, responsible sourcing and the safety and wellbeing of workers in the countries where we do business are of paramount importance to Saga. These core principles are reflected in our Supplier Code of Conduct - Expected Behaviours, which establishes the behaviours Saga expects from any entity that supplies products or services to the Saga Group. Suppliers must notify us immediately upon becoming aware of any actual or suspected non-compliance by it, or its own, supply chain.