At PKF Francis Clark we want to make a positive difference and we recognise the importance of our impact on our communities and the environment. A key theme of our strategic plan is to develop a comprehensive environmental, social and governance (ESG) plan to actively support different communities, reduce our carbon footprint and minimise our environmental impact, as well as ensuring the firm is properly governed.
To understand where we are and how we can improve, we’ve benchmarked ourselves against the B Corp assessment criteria. We’re starting from a good place but we want to go further.
Environmental initiatives
We are fortunate to be based in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. We want to do more to care for our precious natural environment, making a difference through our day-to-day activities and longer-term commitments.
We’ve installed electric vehicle charging points at some of our offices and do all the things – like reducing printing, recycling our waste and avoiding single-use plastics – that you would expect. Our ESG plan will establish commitments and pledges to build on these existing measures.
We are introducing Green Teams in our offices to come up with ideas and implement changes to reduce our environmental impact and lower our carbon footprint.
We’ve invested heavily in IT hardware and software to support a hybrid working model, giving staff the flexibility to work remotely and minimise unnecessary travel. As a result, we expect our fuel consumption to remain significantly lower than it was pre-pandemic. In the year ending March 2021:
Our aggregate energy consumption was 55% lower than the year before
Our carbon dioxide emissions per full-time equivalent employee reduced by 56% year-on-year
Social initiatives
We respect our colleagues, value their diversity and care about their wellbeing. Without them, we would not be the successful firm we are today.
As a significant regional employer, we want to have a positive impact on the communities where we live and work. We want to work with likeminded clients and suppliers whose values are aligned to ours.
We’ve introduced volunteering days to encourage all our people to make a difference to the communities and environment we live and work in, through activities such as cleaning beaches, planting green spaces and preparing meals for the homeless.
We are working with a charity, SMA Poland, to ‘sponsor’ several Ukrainian families with at least one member who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and would otherwise struggle more than most to find a home in the UK.
We are introducing Green Teams in our offices to come up with ideas and implement changes to reduce our environmental impact and lower our carbon footprint.
Governance initiatives
We are a substantial employer in South West England and we want to continue to attract and retain the very best talent.
We want to understand more about our current and future colleagues, and ensure they feel a sense of belonging and being supported. We need to see more diversity within our senior management teams and be more transparent in our decision making.
We’re actively making changes to governance to help create an even better firm, whether this is through the ethics of board members, diversity standards, firm culture or the sustainability of our day-to-day operations.
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