Corporate Social Responsibility
Our firm has a long history of philanthropic activities dating back to our foundation in the early 19th century and we recognise that the way we deal with our stakeholder clients, employees and suppliers has a huge impact on the communities in which we operate and goes far wider than the simple delivery of legal services.
We aim to instil a culture of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in all of our Partners and employees to be a force for good, focusing on four key pillars; Community, Environment, Workplace and Marketplace.
Our CSR initiatives are Partner-led and we aim to always conduct our business responsibly, with integrity and with due regard for the interests of all of our stakeholders and the wider communities in which we operate at all times.
Heart of the City
We want to do well by doing good. We’re proud to be members of Heart of the City who support us to develop a responsible business programme that will help us have a positive impact on people, places and the planet.
Firm Charity Initiatives
As a specialist international construction and insurance firm, we aim to collaborate with charities which align with our business plan or philosophy, wherever possible. We also support a number of other charities chosen by our employees.
CRASH
In the UK we are a proud supporter of CRASH, a unique charity which supports homelessness and hospice charities in the UK by providing both financial assistance and pro bono professional construction services and materials for construction related projects, creating places that care for people.
Fundraising initiatives we have been involved in include the annual Christmas Card Appeal, Hampton Court Half Marathon and Ride London, a 100-mile charity cycle ride. Staff have also volunteered to collect donations at several construction industry events on behalf of CRASH and offered pro-bono legal services in respect of one homelessness residential project in South London.
ANEW and BUMBLEance
In Ireland we are proud supporters of two charitable organisations:
ANEW – Anew have been supporting pregnant women and new mothers, particularly those at risk of or experiencing homelessness, since 1981. Anew keeps the mother and baby as the top priority and through their unique service, work intensively to support, safeguard and protect the women, babies and children they work with, while supporting them to access appropriate housing and accommodation as soon as possible.
BUMBLEance is Ireland’s Children’s Ambulance Service. As the world’s first interactive ambulance purposefully designed for children, BUMBLEance has the capacity to operate the latest medical equipment, ensuring children have access to access medical care, regardless of location or resources.
Payroll Giving
In the UK, the firm offers all employees the opportunity to participate in Payroll Giving, a government backed scheme that enables employees to give to charity directly from their gross salary (before tax is deducted). Employees are able to support charities and causes of their choice and the cost of the administration of the scheme is funded by the firm.
Volunteering / Community Service
The firm has a Volunteering Day Policy and offers all full-time employees one full day of paid leave per year to volunteer or undertake community service for their chosen charity or community cause.
Environment
Measuring, offsetting and reducing our impact on the environment is a core part of our Responsible Business Strategy.
We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality specialist legal services sustainably and in an environmentally conscious way. We aim to minimise our impact on the environment wherever possible, including in particular, reducing non-essential travel, the use of renewable energy and reducing disposal of waste and materials used. The firm is in the process of updating its Environmental Policy. However, some of our recent environmental initiatives have included the following:
Energy
The firm is committed to reducing the impact of energy use by operating as efficiently as possible and where possible by using renewable resources. The firm endeavours to purchase all or part of its energy supplies from a green energy tariff (energy that is generated from a renewable source such as wind or solar). An example includes switching last year to a taxi provider in the UK that uses hybrid vehicles rather than petrol or diesel cars.
Waste
The firm ensures that minimal waste is sent to landfill sites and continues to put in place, where possible, measures to recycle as much of the waste generated as possible be it paper, cardboard, metal or glass, or redundant office equipment. To reduce waste we have adopted electronic filing, encouraged our staff to only print documents when necessary and if necessary, ensured they are printed double-sided, eliminated single use plastic cups from our offices and replaced them with reusable glass (this small step has resulted in us saving around 7,000 plastic cups per year). We have also removed all individual desk bins to encourage staff to recycle.
Materials
The firm actively promotes the reduction of its impact on the environment through more efficient use of materials, and where practicable, selects eco-friendly or recycled materials unless there is no alternative.
Suppliers
Our firm works closely with its suppliers to ensure that their activities support our environmental targets and objectives. We endeavour to employ only those suppliers who have policies, procedures, and appropriate management systems in place to deal with their own environmental impacts. For example, in early 2019 we changed our cleaning company in our London office to one where 90% of its cleaning agents contain no chemicals and 100% of its cleaning agents are non-toxic and safe to aquatic life. They also commit zero to landfill targets and, in London, pay their staff the London Living Wage.
If you have any queries about our CSR policy, please contact Nathan Modell, our CSR Leader.
