That means recognising that our long-term success as a responsible business depends on the health and resilience of our clients, our people, our communities and our natural environment and working hard to ensure that we make a positive contribution for all our stakeholders.

What is a Responsible Business?

For us, making a positive contribution includes:

• Operating a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace for our people, prioritising wellbeing and attracting a diverse pool of talent to the Firm.
• Growing our business as cleanly and sustainably as possible, with minimal impact on the environment.
• Making an investment in our communities in order to spread the rewards of good performance more evenly.
• Helping clients to run their businesses and serve their stakeholders as responsibly as possible. 

We take our responsibility to society at large seriously and wish to have a positive impact on the world around us. We have made progress in the last year in understanding and improving our environmental impact and enhancing the value we create for people: our partners and staff, our communities and society at large.

We have reduced our carbon emissions in line with our interim targets on the path to achieving net zero by 2030 and much of our focus this year has been on refining our net zero pathway and action plan. We have strengthened the governance of our diversity and inclusion efforts, with strategy and action planning now coordinated from the very top of the business and set a further target for gender representation in leadership roles. We have also continued to strengthen our social impact programme, putting the skills, resources, networks and influence of our business at the disposal of the Charles Russell Speechlys Foundation’s charity partners.

As professional advisers, a significant part of our capacity for positive impact lies in the advice and support we give our clients. We are working with businesses across all sectors – and those who own, invest in and manage them ¬¬– helping them to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of ESG, to manage risk, to scan the horizon for relevant developments, to make decisions now that future proof business and investment value and to tap into new commercial opportunities in this impact-conscious climate.