CSR at Viper: Leading with Purpose, Impacting Lives

July 29, 2024

Viper Innovations champions corporate social responsibility (CSR), prioritising employee wellbeing, community engagement and environmental sustainability. We currently do this through wellbeing programmes, encouraging volunteering, and supporting initiatives such as STEM education and local charity fundraising.  

The Stogumber project underlines Viper’s commitment to reduce our environmental footprint and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. We believe in building a better future, and Viper’s CSR Committee embodies this belief.  

Our CSR Committee and strategy plans  

Viper’s CSR Committee has been formed to ensure our employees, local communities and the environment benefit from Viper’s actions. This committee is tasked with delivering our CSR programme, and our CSR responsibilities have become an integral part of business decision making at Viper. The committee, led by CSR Committee Chair Shelley-Anne Douglas, meets monthly to manage our CSR programme and related events.  

Viper’s CSR strategy for the period 2023-28 is shaped around four pillars: staff and workplace, communities, the environment, and CSR and ethics. Out of these pillars, we have established five strategic priorities which demonstrate our CSR ambitions.  

Read our CSR Annual Report 2023-24

 

Southwest STEM Challenge

Our 5 strategic priorities  

 Along with an example of how we are delivering on each, these strategic priorities are: 

  1. To focus on employee development and wellbeing – mental health and first aid training is being provided, including for line managers
  2. To continue to have a positive impact on local communities – ongoing support for local STEM students and Viper’s involvement in the Southwest STEM challenge
  3. To be a low emissions business – we have calculated Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for the financial year 2022-23
  4. To build a resilient business – we are investing in R&D and promoting CSR within our supply chains
  5. To improve biodiversity – at our woodland site at Stogumber we are operating wildlife and ecology education programmes for employees, their families and the local community

Committed to action  

To put these strategic priorities into practice, we have made a series of commitments that link with our four pillars. These are:  

    • To involve Viper’s leadership team in volunteering programmes 
    • To commit a budget to invest in and achieve our CSR goals 
    • To maintain accreditation to appropriate benchmarks 
    • To build a culture of volunteering and allow employees time for involvement in community projects 
    • To promote employee wellbeing 
    • To provide work experience and apprenticeships to local school children 
    • To reach a carbon neutral position by 2030 
    • To providing a safe, inclusive and inspiring workplace for all 
    • To demonstrate CSR progress through set metrics  

Viper’s CSR achievements to date: what have we been up to? 

The financial year 2023-24 was busy for us, and there are achievements we want to share. We have: 

  • Launched and published our CSR Strategy for 2023-28 
  • Reported and published our carbon footprint report for 2022-23 
  • Become a ‘Young Person’s Guarantee’ pledge Partner in Aberdeen 
  • Expanded our CSR initiatives to Viper’s Houston office 


Initiatives like yoga sessions and stress management workshops support our staff and workplace commitment. With the support of North Somerset Council, Viper is completing a gap analysis to assess how we could further improve employee wellbeing in the workplace. Employee development and wellbeing was also the theme of last year’s summer conference, supported by our volunteer mental health first aiders. 

Mental Health Awareness Session for Staff

Christmas Charity Donation

Within our community pledge, our volunteers lend their time and talents to support causes like the Bristol-based Julian Trust to provide food and clothing to those in need. The Aberdeen office donated funds to the Lighthouse, a local charity that provides support services to the Tillydrone community with the aim of social reintegration. We are encouraging Viper employees to suggest local charities or initiatives that we could donate to that are relevant to our CSR pillars and priorities. One example is a local chess club. 

Education-related initiatives have formed an important part of our ‘communities’ pillar. In Aberdeen, Viper is a Young Person’s Guarantee pledge partner, helping young people to find work placements and seize enterprise opportunities. In Portishead, Viper participated in judging the Young Enterprise final. We remain involved with the Arkwright Engineering Scholarships programme, and in FY24 awarded the ‘Viper Innovations Arkwright Engineering Scholarship’ to a student at Marling School. In addition to taking on apprentices and electrical engineering interns, providing work experience to an Arkwright student and supporting university student bursaries, Viper has promoted STEM education through our volunteers participating in Global Underwater Hub’s STEM Challenge in Bristol and Aberdeen.  

We run regular Macmillan coffee mornings in Viper’s offices where people bake goods to raise money for the charity, and we work alongside the Portishead-based charity Turn the Tide to collect litter every month. Volunteers from our Portishead office have been carrying out work at Viper Woods, enlisting local school children to help expand biodiversity and manage the woodland environment.  

Viper’s dedication to social responsibility shines through in our participation in challenges like National Walking Month, which also supports our staff and workplace pillar. This initiative unites Viper’s offices in the support of local charities. So far, 42 employees across our offices in Aberdeen, Houston and Portishead have walked a combined 11 million steps and donated money that is matched by donations from Viper.  

Monthly Litter Picking

CSR at Viper: 2024-25  

Viper will continue, and expand on, many of these activities. We want to have representatives from every Viper department on our CSR Committee and we encourage everyone at Viper to get involved in charity events and volunteering opportunities. We will also start new initiatives and finalise activities to support our strategy, such as: 

  • Applying for an initial bronze Better Health at Work Award 
  • Launching a volunteering policy that allows employees to take two days off a year to work on a community initiative or volunteer with a charity that supports one of our four pillars 
  • Continuing to work at Viper Woods and giving employees opportunities to take part  


To learn more about CSR at Viper, contact Shelley-Anne or stay informed through our CSR page.