Founded in 1891 as the National Canine Defence League, Dogs Trust is the UK’s leading dog welfare charity today. Their purpose is to help all dogs live full, safe, and happy lives. Dogs Trust has 22 rehoming centres in the UK and Ireland, and for as long as they can guarantee a dog’s health and happiness in kennels, Dogs Trust will do everything they can to rehabilitate every dog to find their forever home. In 2022, Dogs Trust cared for 11,464 dogs, with 10,454 adoptions. 3,284 dogs spent time in foster care.
In addition to supporting dogs, the charity helps the people who love them, too, with a range of services designed to prevent more dogs from being given up. This programme of support includes a nationwide training scheme, “Dog School”, pet food banks and a Behaviour Support Line. Dogs Trust also runs a range of projects both in the UK and internationally, including a campaign to ban Puppy Smuggling and international vaccination projects to eliminate Rabies. The charity also funds long-term research projects in dog welfare.
Setting out on a sustainability journey
Dogs Trust got in touch with Grain in November 2022. Having recently begun its sustainability journey with various initiatives, including the ‘Carbon Pawprint Project’ to calculate its carbon footprint, the charity felt it was an opportune time to conduct a materiality assessment. The aim was to help define and prioritise ESG topics, identify and listen to key stakeholders, and ensure all relevant material issues were covered in its work.
The kick-off meeting helped us assess what Dogs Trust hoped to achieve, familiarise ourselves with its key stakeholders, and understand current sustainability projects. We explored key topics and emerging trends in the sector, which ranged broadly from the electrification of vehicles to the carbon emissions of dog food, and issues around faecal and plastic waste (we don’t often get to use the poo emoji in our work!). From this, a shortlist of 13 priority material topics covered environmental, social, and governance issues.
Engaging stakeholders
Six anonymised interviews were conducted between April and June 2023 with various Dogs Trust staff members and external stakeholders. Additionally, a survey was sent to all employees to evaluate their views on the meaning and importance of sustainability and rank the material topics’ priority. Together, the interview and survey results offered valuable insights, which led to the creation of a materiality matrix that visually portrays priorities. The priority topics were waste, energy, and emissions.
Encouraging sustainable change
Grain provided data visualisations and a report presenting the findings of our work. It was encouraging to see that 95% of Dogs Trust employees were on board, feeling that sustainability was a priority for the charity moving forward. As Dogs Trust incorporates many different entities and types of stakeholders, including charity shops, rehoming centres, office workers, and veterinary staff, it was interesting to observe differences in opinions and listen to employees’ thoughts on how positive sustainable changes could be made in each area of the organisation. Initiatives such as employee engagement groups and lunch and learns were suggested, alongside changes to daily working habits, low-carbon travel opportunities, and the use of compostable dog waste bags.
A positive partnership
We really enjoyed working with an organisation where all employees are so passionate about animal welfare. The high engagement with sustainability topics was a positive indicator that Dogs Trust will move forward in making meaningful changes. This project was a great opportunity for Grain to support sustainability in the charity sector, working alongside an organisation that shares many of our values.
“We enjoyed working with the team at Grain to carry out our first materiality assessment at Dogs Trust. The priorities identified through the assessment have since been embedded into our sustainability strategy to ensure we meet the needs of our stakeholders.”
— Stephen Last, Environmental and Sustainability Manager at Dogs Trust