Introduction
Simon Ridpath, Managing Partner Bart Peerless, Senior Partner Lesley O'Leary, Chief Operating Officer
We take our responsibility to people and planet seriously and wish to have a positive impact on the world around us.
This report describes the progress we have made this year in understanding and improving our environmental impact and enhancing the value we create for our clients, our 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, in addition to setting 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 currently work with businesses across all sectors — and those who own, invest in and manage them — helping them to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Environmental, Social and Governance (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.
We are incredibly proud to work alongside clients who are sustainability leaders and to feature some of their innovations and ground breaking ways of working in this report. So much of the focus of sustainability for so long has been on businesses and investors in public companies. One very significant shift that has gained momentum in 2022 has been the acceleration of sustainability thinking in private markets and we feature here some extraordinary examples of private capital driving positive impact.
As a firm we are in a period of exciting strategic growth and development. At the heart of our strategic plan is a commitment to grow responsibly and this report is just one of the tools we have to keep ourselves accountable for that commitment. We thank you for reading and welcome your feedback.
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