We launched our CSR strategy in 2004 to recognise our social and environmental responsibility to the wider community, locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

There are three main strands to the CSR strategy.

Community support

Partners and staff link up with local charities and voluntary bodies, such as Business in the Community, to donate our time and our expertise. The projects we work on benefit our own personal development as well as the communities within which we work and live.

We’re part of the Cares programme, which helps connect our employees with the communities through a range of volunteering opportunities. Projects our staff have worked on include helping to paint and decorate primary school classrooms, helped to build a dry-stone wall in a country park, and re-decorating a day centre for young people.

Ethical purchasing and consumption of goods and services

We encourage all our staff to make informed, ethical decisions when buying goods and services for the firm. For example, we use Fairtrade coffee in all our client-facing meeting rooms across the four offices.

We also encourage employees to be environmentally aware when using goods and services, for instance, by recycling printer cartridges, mobile phones and CD-ROMs. In addition, all our offices have motion-sensor-controlled lighting systems to reduce the amount of wasted electricity.

Charity of the Year

Working with a charity helps us build stronger relationships with the communities in which we operate. Each year, we nominate and vote for a single charity on which to focus our fundraising efforts. The amount of money we raise is matched by a contribution from the firm’s Partners. In addition, where possible, we also give our time and expertise to help the charity. Charities we’ve worked with in recent years include Cancer Research and NSPCC.

As a firm, our aim is to raise as much money as possible for worthwhile causes such as these.