Sustainability

Committed to our ambitions to be a responsible designer and manufacturer

We constantly strive to minimise any negative impacts that our operations can cause to the environment and each of our manufacturing locations proactively contributes to their local communities.

Our Board is responsible for developing and managing the Group’s strategy on sustainability including health and safety, environmental management, diversity, compliance with ethical trading practices, conflict minerals, and modern slavery and human trafficking.

The three pillars of our sustainability strategy:

A Sustainable Business

As a global manufacturer, Volex is dedicated to protecting natural resources and using energy efficiently.

We create positive community impact by providing stable and meaningful jobs while minimising our environmental footprint.

This aligns with the following UN SDGs:

UN sdg - 7 - Affordable and clean energy UN sdg - 13 - Climate action
Silver Medal Ecovadis 2023 (1)
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A Responsible Business

Our responsible business goal is to create an environment where our people can be at their best.

This aligns with the following UN SDGs:

UN sdg - 3 - Good health and well-being UN SDGs - 4 - quality education UN SDGs - 5 - gender equality UN SDGs -8 - decent work and economic growth UN SDGs - 10 - reduced inequalities

A Trusted Business

As Volex grows, it is crucial to maintain a strong governance framework.

We provide clear guidance to all employees – including those from acquisitions – ensuring fairness, compliance and swift issue resolution.

This aligns with the following UN SDGs:

UN sdg - 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Volex Code of Business Conduct

We have a well-established Code of Business Conduct that provides a foundational framework for all sites to use to train our employees in the core principles, policies and values of our Company. It is provided to our employees in all of our core local languages. We continue to review its scope and effectiveness and it is reviewed annually by our Board of Directors.  A separate policy and e-learning programme has been implemented to address the risks from conflicts of interest.

Whistleblowing and Speak Up

We upgraded our Speak Up policy during FY2022. Our Speak Up policy framework is communicated to all employees in local languages. Volex has a strong commitment to maintaining a workplace where employees can raise concerns in good-faith without fear of retaliation. Retaliation against anyone who reports in good faith an actual or suspected violation of the law of Volex’s policies is strictly prohibited. We have invested in the NAVEX Ethics Point system to provide an independent incident response and reporting solution that is accessible 24/7 and we have implemented this across the Group, providing access and information in 12 local languages. Reports can be made anonymously by anyone, including customers, suppliers and, of course, our employees. Reports are confidential and are handled independently by EthicsPoint, who then submits the reports to nominated Volex executives.

Anti-bribery and anti-corruption

As a Group, we prohibit any form of bribery and corruption. We have a clear policy on anti- bribery and anti-corruption, which has been reviewed and approved by the Board. This policy covers our workforce, customers and suppliers. Our policy includes the prohibition of  facilitation payments. This commitment is enshrined within the Group’s Code of Business Conduct. Each year, all eligible employees (sales, procurement, management) are required to undertake comprehensive e-learning programmes on topics including anti-bribery and  anti-corruption. In FY2025 94% of eligible employees completed this.

Modern slavery and human rights

Modern slavery is a fundamental violation of human rights. It takes various forms, all of which seek to deprive a person of their liberty for another’s commercial or personal gain.

Within our direct operations and across our supply chain, we fully support the principles for human rights established and recognised by the international community and those enshrined within the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015. We strictly prohibit the use of forced labour.

As required by UK law, we also publish a Modern Slavery Transparency Statement, which can be accessed below. We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity remains a key area of concern, with threats continuing to grow in both volume and sophistication across industries. The Company has previously classified cybersecurity as a high priority risk and this assessment remains unchanged. The Company has a robust information systems, technology and cybersecurity framework. Business Continuity Principles are in place across the Company and are subject to regular testing. We continue to maintain rigorous oversight of our systems, regularly assess risk and evaluate the robustness of our contingency plans. Our goal remains to ensure strong capabilities in prevention, detection and response to safeguard against future cyber threats.

As part of our preventative action plan we require all IT-enabled users to complete both monthly and annual e-learning. Over 5,000 of our eligible workforce completed annual e-learning training in the past year. This training is delivered in local languages and reflecting current cybersecurity threats, this training provides a vital layer of human security. It equips our staff to protect our business and to apply these skills in their personal lives, benefiting their family members as well.

Conflict minerals and responsible minerals

Volex has a dedicated policy addressing the issue of conflict minerals. We are committed to avoiding the use of conflict minerals in our products, and we ask our suppliers to ensure that materials used in components and products they supply to us, including tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, are conflict-free. In FY2022, we updated our policy to be our Responsible Minerals Policy and it can be accessed below.

Quality management

All of our sites operate ISO 9001 certification with many going further and gaining industry-specific quality management certifications, including IATF 16949, ISO 13485, TL 9000, AS 9100D. Each of these standards drives a series of independent verification audits ensuring that our quality management approach remains robust. Quality excellence is a central focus for our global Volex Excellence System, which drives the principles of manufacturing excellence across all our sites. Through a relentless focus on kaizen, all sites report on and share, their kaizen activities on a weekly basis.

Environmental management and sustainability

We comply with all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements in the jurisdictions in which we operate. In FY2023, we established our first Environmental Policy, which is accessible below. We have also established a policy on Responsible Water Use, which is accessible below. We monitor the environmental impact of our business activities and encourage employee awareness of waste reduction, recycling and responsible disposal. At end FY2024, 83% of our global workforce worked within an ISO 14001 certified facility. Each certified plant has local waste reduction and/or pollution-prevention programmes.

In FY2022, we started to report waste consistently across the Group, enabled by our investment in our V-SRS. At end FY2024, we reported waste data for all of our sites and we achieved a recycling rate of 82%. For more information about our improvements to our waste management and a wide range of ESG-related metrics, please refer to our Supplemental Sustainability Disclosures Report below.

We are compliant with the provisions of EU RoHS and EU REACH, and implement stringent controls to eliminate the use of hazardous substances. Our products are free from MCCP, phthalates, lead and DINP. We also offer a range of halogen-free cables.

Environmental management systems

Volex has a dedicated policy addressing Environmental Management within our business, which was published in FY2024 and in FY2025 we defined minimum sustainability standards for all sites to achieve. Our commitment to sound environmental stewardship is enshrined within the Group’s Code of Business Conduct, which has Board approval and oversight through the Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee. We are committed to minimising the impact of our business on the local environment in which we operate.  Many of our sites operate to ISO 14001, the environmental management system. We have also published a Responsible Water Use policy and conduct environmental education and awareness programmes across the company.