Social Responsibility

Social Responsibility

Mid Cork Pallets & Packaging (MCP’s) Social Responsibility Policy

The essence of Social Responsibility is to ensure that businesses regulate themselves in order to ensure that all of their activities positively affect society as a whole. Founded in 1978, MCP are the largest automated pallet manufacturer in Ireland. We have modern facilities (state of the art warehouses, machinery, equipment etc.) and provide pallets and corrugated packaging solutions to most of Ireland’s largest Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical & Manufacturing companies.  MCP’s main stakeholders are our employees, customers, suppliers and local community, however we understand that corporate social responsibility extends to our entire supply chain. This policy encompasses not only the products and services supplied but also the human rights, ethics and social practices of our company and our suppliers.

MCP’s Social Responsibility aims to guarantee that MCP work ethically, considering human rights as well as the social, economic and environmental impacts of what we do as a business. At a minimum MCP aim to meet or exceed, any relevant legislation, and if legislation does not exist in a particular area, then MCP ensure they carry out best practice. In addition, MCP has a number of policies which demonstrates our commitment to Health & Safety, Human Rights, Ethical Trade, Environment etc.  These are available on request from MCP.

MCP are committed to ensuring that our business undertakings are conducted as ethically as possible by:

Looking after our Employees

We employ nearly 100 staff across our 2 sites and are a tight-knit, service-focused team who know a thing or two about pallets and packaging (we’d want to after 44 years!), as well as the importance of providing a dependable, reliable and efficient service.  We know that to retain loyal and productive employees, it is vital to maintain a good working environment and therefore we abide by all Irish and European legislation including employing staff under their own free will with no employee being subjected to bonded or forced labour, child labour etc.  MCP staff are paid correctly and ontime and all wages exceed the National Minimum/ Living Wage.

MCP recognises and fully accepts its statutory and moral responsibilities to provide the highest standard of Health and Safety protection for its employees and conducts all its activities in accordance with Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007. S.I. No. 299, 2007_2016.   MCP realises that the achievement of a safe and healthy working environment requires the commitment and co-operation of all employees.  Therefore, MCP require its employees to take reasonable care for their own safety and the safety of others who may be affected by their work, co-operate with Management in terms of Health, Safety and Welfare at work and to use the protective equipment provided.

Effective training and development is of mutual benefit to MCP and its employees. To this end MCP are vigilant in identifying areas where continued training and development is necessary. Employees are encouraged to inform Management of relevant training programmes and courses, which they would be interested in pursuing.

At MCP we operate an open-door policy. Feel free to come to your Manager/Supervisor with work related or personal concerns, which are always treated in the strictest confidence and with sensitivity.

Looking after Customers

MCP are the largest automated pallet fabricator in Ireland producing over 2.5 million pallets per annum including ISPM15 Heat Treated Wooden Pallets, EURO pallets, Custom crates etc. and supply, store and distribute in excess of 6,000 custom designed corrugated/cardboard packaging across the Food & Beverage, e-commerce, Pharmaceutical & Manufacturing industries. MCP recognise that it is important to look after your customers, to make sure that they have a positive and lasting impression of your business. We guarantee a quality, reliable product at competitive prices, exactly when and where our customers need it. Our long-standing history in the industry has allowed us to understand the importance of providing a customer-focused and reliable service.  We have streamlined processes, modern facilities and dedicated staff to consistently deliver what your business requires.  We pride ourselves on engaging with our customers’ evolving needs to consistently improve the quality of service and delivery of pallets and packaging solutions – including reliable delivery, timely follow-up and impeccable customer service.

The knowledge of our serviced industries expands 43 years of manufacturing pallets and 29 years of providing a top quality corrugated packaging service.  Our long-standing history in the industry has allowed us to understand the importance of providing a customer-focused and reliable service.  We have streamlined processes, modern facilities and dedicated staff to consistently deliver what your business requires.  We pride ourselves on engaging with our customers’ evolving needs to consistently improve the quality of service and delivery of pallets and packaging solutions – including reliable delivery, timely follow-up and impeccable customer service.

Our goal is to deliver on the promises that we make by providing:

• Top quality pallets and customised corrugated boxes to meet our customers’ requirements (our manufacturing process has been accredited by the National Standards Authority of Ireland to the ISO 9001:2015 standard since 2007 and we are also BRC certified to an AA standard for Storage and Distribution)
• Reliable and prompt service to keep business and supply chains moving (early morning/late night deliveries can be arranged)
• Quality, certified products to guarantee compliance and accreditation to a number of standards
• Creative teams on hand to for custom designs and instant prototyping/sampling service that spur innovation and customer satisfaction
• Dedicated and experienced staff on hand to offer advice, best practice and efficiency

Suppliers’ Standards

We care deeply about the origin of our wood and source all our pallet wood locally from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified suppliers. In terms of our other core raw material of corrugated packaging, we source our packaging solutions from recycled sources and FSC certified suppliers. MCP utilise both local and internationally certified suppliers who have similar robust business practices to MCP and require all suppliers to complete a supplier questionnaire, and communicate our Code of Conduct, Human Rights, Business Ethics and Ethical Trade Initiate Base Code.  MCP ensure this by engaging closely with our suppliers to ensure that we have a good working relationship with them. In addition, MCP require all its suppliers to adopt similar robust practices and procedures.

Protecting the Environment

MCP manage our operations to minimise environmental impacts in areas such as waste, energy use and emissions. We are constantly reviewing our production processes and our Environmental Management Plan to be mindful of the impact our business has on our environment and as a result are taking several preventative steps to minimise our carbon footprint. In fact, according to recent research published by the Pallet Foundation “the reusable nature of wooden pallets makes them a more circular, sustainable form of reusable packaging, when considering the life cycle of a pallet and they can have a potential net carbon positive impact and therefore, through the unique properties of wood, carbon offsets may be achieved by the reuse of pallet materials and substituting wood fuel from pallet waste (e.g., unusable pallets) for biomass”.  It must also be noted that wooden pallets can also be recovered, reused, repaired, recycled and even upcycled which makes them once of the ultimate sustainable products on the market today.

Other steps include:

• Investing heavily in our premises to increase our sustainability with the introduction of our Combined Heat & Power Plant which will heat our Production facilities, power our 10 onsite kilns and generate green electricity.  Cork Green Energy produces 1.2 megawatts of green electricity per hour, which is being supplied directly to the national grid and can power the needs of up to 1,000 homes
• We have installed a 598KWp solar generation facility on 3,359 square metres of unused rooftop space at our Clondrohid & Dunboyne sites which will reduce our CO2 emissions by 265 tonnes a year
• Intelligent & Responsive LED lighting systems
• We also supply plastic and aluminium pallets (which are typically known for their reusable capabilities) and a wide range of second-hand pallets.

We aim to reduce our carbon footprint, one pallet or package at a time.

Community Engagement

MCP are passionate about supporting our local communities and are sponsors of various local sports teams/grounds in our communities, supporting local charities, supporting the surrounding community by employing local people etc.

Making a Protected Disclosure

If any of the above listed stakeholders would like to raise any issue this amounts to a protected disclosure, then you must in the first instance report any concerns you may have in writing to the General Manager who will treat the matter with complete confidence, and your identity will remain protected. If the problem related to the General Manager, you should bring the matter in writing to the attention of another member of Senior Management.