Our corporate sustainability strategy - building a better blueprint for business
Sustainability sits at the very centre of our vision to do the right thing for our clients, our people, our communities and the planet.
Turning this vision into a reality means integrating sustainability into everything we do - from the advice we give to clients to our contributions to public policy, and from being a great place to work to minimising our own environmental impact.
Making a difference externally
Many of the issues relating to sustainability remain relatively poorly defined or understood, with few common methods to measure or value them. But our success depends on our ability to give organisations advice and assurance that will improve their financial and business viability, both in the short and long term. So we've a responsibility to use our skills to define, achieve and assure methods that really help champion sustainability.
And we do. We're uniquely placed to help our clients and policy-makers tackle sustainability-related challenges such as climate change, ecosystem services and social equity. Visit our annual report pages to see how we're working with leading companies such as Puma and the UK Department for International Development to pioneer change in this area.
Making a difference internally
Our people are also interested in our sustainability agenda. They want not only to be able to give something back to society, but also to play a role in helping us to reduce our carbon emissions, the amount of resources our firm consumes and the waste we produce.
For our corporate initiatives, we're guided by three overarching sustainability objectives:
- Being a responsible employer by developing a diverse pool of talented people who create a high performance, respectful and inclusive culture
- Protecting our planet by reducing our environmental impact.
- Valuing our communities by sharing our talent and putting something back
We've consciously decided to embed sustainability in our business rather than treat it separately. Each part of our business owns and champions our sustainability goals alongside their other business objectives. We challenge ourselves to make changes that count, supported by strong policies and commitments that stretch us, so that we add measurable value both to our communities and to the planet.
As a knowledge-based organisation, we feel we've a significant contribution to make to the sustainability agenda, and focus our programmes on innovations that can help us build a new blueprint for better business, sharing the lessons with our clients and other stakeholders.
Setting standards for sustainable buildings
Sustainable buildings are a good example of our pioneering approach. Our new office at 7 More London, is designed to cut our overall carbon emissions by 58% after installing the UK's first site-level, tri-generation technology. We are using this technology to recycle biomass into useful heating, cooling and energy - one of the many innovations that have led this office to be the first building in the capital to achieve BREEAM Outstanding rating. (BREEAM is the leading and most widely used method for assessing a building's environmental impact.) We learned a lot while we were planning and developing the building - and now we're sharing these lessons widely with our clients and other organisations. For more details, watch our video, Building our Blueprint for 7 More London.
Creating sustainability mindsets
Another example of our commitment to new ways of working is our extensive sustainability awareness programme designed to help our people understand the complex issues at the heart of sustainability. This campaign includes a bi-monthly speaker series, a sustainability training module, and ongoing tips and support to work more sustainably, for example, using video conferencing, electric vehicles, bicycles and other sustainable forms of transport. Launched in May 2011, the campaign used the move to 7 More London as a catalyst for change and more than 3,000 of our people have already signed up to this programme in our London offices alone. We're now planning to roll it out across our other UK offices in 2012.
Next generation community affairs
Meanwhile, we've re-energised our community investment to more effectively tackle employability and social inclusion, a pressing concern in UK. Using our ability to build relationships and create value, we've set up the Fire Station, a social enterprise hub near our More London building which is the result of unique collaboration across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
A centre of innovation for social entrepreneurs, the Fire Station incorporates a social enterprise bistro, wine bar, private dining and event facility as well as a social impact knowledge centre. Open this autumn, the facility is a focal point for our community programmes across the UK, providing a link to the regions through our network with the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprise UK. Visit our Fire Station page to learn more.
Sharing lessons
When it comes to sustainability, we share our knowledge widely and collaborate with a wide range of our stakeholders and peers. We're a founding member of the Professional Services Sustainability Initiative (PSSI), a group that gives us a chance to collaborate with other professional services sustainability experts to encourage practical and tangible steps toward sustainability.
Visit our impacts section to learn more about our innovative approach to corporate sustainability.
