We strive to uphold the highest standards of governance, professional integrity, risk and ethics, and commit to reporting and disclosing transparently alongside communicating authentically. We believe working in meaningful partnerships can drive innovation and positive change.
Governance
We recognise the importance of a culture that upholds the highest standards of compliance, ethics and integrity. Overall accountability for this rests with our Board of Directors, with oversight of our Responsible Business strategy provided by the Executive Board and its committees, including our ESG Leadership Committee, Operations Committee, Commercial Conflicts Committee and Risk & Audit Committee. These committees play an integral role in embedding strategy across all levels of the business. Dedicated groups are established for specific workstreams to oversee strategic priorities and to monitor and report progress. Where required, these will be refreshed in due course to reflect the priorities across our revised Responsible Business strategy.
Reporting standards and frameworks
Our strategy, reporting and disclosures are informed by and aligned to key ESG and sustainability frameworks including:
- Global Reporting Initiative
- Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
- International Financial Reporting Standards
- World Economic Forum Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics
- UN Global Compact
- UN Sustainable Development Goals
- European Sustainability Reporting Standards Taskforce on Climate Financial-Related Disclosures (TCFD)
You can read our Impact Reports here which includes our mandatory TCFD disclosure
Ethics and risks
Our approach to risk and ethics is centred on strong governance, with oversight from the Board, Executive Committee and other groups and stakeholders to ensure ESG, ethical, regulatory and operational risks are identified, assessed and managed through the Group’s wider enterprise risk management framework.
We embed ethical behaviour in business and value chain through various codes, policies and practices including our Business Code of Conduct, Supplier Code of Conduct, mandatory training, and global policies covering areas such as environment, anti-bribery, human rights, modern slavery, people and inclusion and health and safety.
We apply an ESG and ethics lens to decision-making through client onboarding, supply chain due diligence, human rights and modern slavery programmes, AI governance, and transparent reporting, ensuring our business activities align with our values, stakeholder expectations and responsible business commitments.
Partnerships and collaborations
We recognise the value of collaboration and actively engage in industry and sector partnerships that help drive meaningful progress. These help us embed and drive forward our environmental, social and governance agenda and deliver against our purpose with our colleagues, clients and communities. Our commitments are underpinned by Sustainable Development Goal 17 – Partnerships for the Goals – and are made to ensure we contribute and benefit from the innovation, creativity and progress that working in collaboration brings to the ESG and sustainability agenda.
Transparency
Transparent reporting, benchmarking and disclosures are a crucial factor in understanding business performance and in demonstrating our progress to all stakeholders and we engage in these proactively. We are also subject to investor ESG scrutiny and legal sector benchmarks for responsible business.
