Our core belief is that the only way to create long term value in our business is through sustainable, responsible growth. Consequently, we seek to embed responsible practice throughout our activities. The corporate responsibility impacts, achievements and strategy of our business are evaluated through the three pillars of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Framework:
Our ESG Steering Group was established two years ago to guide implementation. Its outputs are monitored by the Chief Executive, who along with the Executive Board ultimately decides the ESG strategy.
We strive to maximise the positive impact of our work, dealing honestly and fairly with all stakeholders and, in the process, building mutually beneficial partnerships.
We support our people and clients in looking for low carbon solutions and environmentally sensitive ways to work. Our employees have access to mobile, remote and video conferencing technology as standard, which they are encouraged to use instead of travelling.
We have reduced business travel through the use of collaborative tools. Video conferencing is popular among our staff and has become an alternative to travelling for internal meetings.
Reducing carbon emissions remains a primary goal. As a key part of our ESG strategy and activity review we implemented improved systems to record our CO2 emissions which gave a baseline for our reduction strategy, which includes a variety of potential improvements, including replacing fluorescent lights with more efficient LEDs and installing photovoltaic panels.
Environmental impact also forms part of our property strategy. During 2016/17 we improved utilisation at our key properties and moved a significant amount of IT equipment from our offices to our data centre, these activities have contributed to considerable C02 savings.
In the final two financial quarters of 2015-2016 we estimated that our UK offices would emit a total of 1844 tonnes of CO2. We have now collected full year figures in 2016-2017 and can report as follows:-
We have a centralised IT recycling policy, at the end of the last financial year (2016/17) 97% of our redundant IT equipment was recycled or re-used, with the remainder disposed of according to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling (WEEE) regulations.
We consider the positive impact our business can have both through our client partnerships and the active contribution of our people.
