ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance
I’ve blocked out some time, turned off my emails, and settled down to write an article on ESG. I thought it was time to tell the world how great Agility EOR is, and how we’ve got our Employer of Record ESG responsibilities nailed.
But here’s the thing; we’re not doing enough.
I’m confident we’ve got “S” (Social) and “G” (Governance) covered in a manner that’s appropriate to the age and stage of our business. Here’s how:
S – Social Responsibility
To ensure we are doing our best to be socially responsible, our team came together to identify all the groups of people our business impacts. The list included our own employees, partners, clients, clients’ employees, advisers and our suppliers.
We discussed how our values would relate to each group and developed statements to outline our commitments. We also set out plans to support the wider communities we work in, through sponsorships, volunteering, and charitable giving.
G – Governance
Governance is a core part of our business and an area in which, by definition, we must be strong.
With increasing and ever-changing amount of regulation surrounding international employment, we work hard to stay ahead of the game. We are properly licensed where required, carry appropriate insurances, and are hot on data protection.
What’s more, we carefully follow rules on corruption, bribery and money laundering, providing additional and regular training to our teams to help them in these areas. Across our business, our ethics of doing the right thing (even when it’s not the easiest!) and avoiding grey areas, have always stood us in good stead.
But it doesn’t stop there. Our ESG values are revisited on a regular basis to ensure they still reflect our understanding of what our ESG responsibilities are. By checking against our actions against our promises, we keep ourselves honest and grounded.
E – Environmental responsibility
So, what about “E”? This is where we can be better.
On the plus side, our business facilitates remote working that helps other companies be greener. But that’s only a side effect and I want Agility to be more deliberate in what it undertakes to be environmentally friendly. We’re not irresponsible, I just don’t think we are being consciously responsible. This is something I want to change.
As a service-based business, we may have fewer opportunities than some other industries to make meaningful changes. But there are some commitments we can make, and the following are reflected in our formal environmental policy:
- Consider our travel arrangements – Even though we work remotely, we do meet in person on a regular basis and attend events. I commit to walking when the distance is relatively short and choosing rail journeys over flights where possible.
- Cutting office waste – I commit to printing only what I need and have learnt to print double sided. I will buy recycled products when possible and recycle my own office waste.
- Choose responsible suppliers – I commit, as a minimum, to understanding which of our partners have their own environmental policy.
- Share green learnings – I commit to positively questioning our colleagues and offering training to those who want to reduce their personal impact on the environment.
- Support environmental organisations – I commit to investigating carbon off-setting and prioritising these types of good causes over the next year.
Some of these things are small, but they are all positive and achievable. Over the next 12 months, I will reflect periodically on our progress in these areas and hopefully report back on meaningful and improvement.
If your business has made steps to reduce its environmental impact, we’d love to hear what worked and the difference it made.
As they say, “Every day is a school day”, so please share your learnings and we’ll see what we can also adopt here at Agility EOR.
