Environmental, Social & Governance
ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and is a set of factors that assess how an organisation impacts on the environment and society. Freeths are not only committed to providing the highest standard of legal services to our clients, but also to doing this in the most ethical and sustainable way possible.
Our ESG policy encompasses our range of initiatives and policies across the firm, including:
- Green Group
- Black Lawyers Network
- SHINE network
- Parent and Carer Group
- Wellbeing Committee
- CSR Group
- Mental Health First Aiders
- The Social Mobility Network
- The Disability Network
Environmental
> Agile working policy
> Environmental audit
> ISO 14001 & ISO 2700
> Sustainable solutions
> Carbon Net Zero by 2040
> Green group
Social
> D&I outreach & community projects
> Health & wellbeing
> D&I networks & action plan
> Charity sponsorship & events
> D&I pledge
Governance
> IT transformation
> Supply chain & modern slavery
> Policy engagement
> Management board involvement & direction
> Compliance & risk
About our ESG team
Our ESG team is made up of representatives from the Management Board, HR and senior lawyers, who all play an active role in other initiatives across the firm. Their combined experience and interests will drive the group forward.
| Key contact | Role | ESG | Focus |
| Mark Keeley (Joint Head of Private Client Division) | Chair | E | The Green Group |
| Philippa Dempster (Senior Partner) or Becky Egan (Head of Diversity & Inclusion) | Member | S | Diversity & Inclusion |
| Carole Wigley (HR Director) | Member | S | CSR |
| Chris Freeston (Nottingham Office Managing Partner) | Member | S | Wellbeing |
| Paul Thorogood (COLP) | Member | G | Governance |
| Mark Blakemore (Chief Operating Officer) | Member | E, S, G | Chief Operating Officer |
What our ESG strategy looks like
- Investment in IT equipment to reduce the need to travel to meetings and allow more agile and flexible working
- Sustainable sourcing is used where possible for all branded marketing items and equipment
- We use recycled products where possible
- We encourage recycling across all of our offices
- We are ISO14001 and ISO 27001 accredited
- We have regular audits across our offices and look into renewable energy sources where possible
- We are Stonewall Diversity Champions
- We are signatories of Business Disability Forum and are currently working through our Action Plan following a recent audit of our processes from an accessibility and disability inclusion perspective
- A partner of Change 100 – an internship scheme for talented disabled students and graduates
- ‘Small Employer of the Year’ in the enei (Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion) Awards
- We are an employer member of the Tommy’s Pregnancy and Parenting at Work programme
- We are an employer member of Working Families and we are happy to talk flexible working in relation to any of our vacancies
- We are active in the communities, using our D&I pledge to engage with local and national projects such as action tutoring, or locally the brilliant club (from our Oxford office) amongst other projects
- Mentoring schemes with local universities and colleges across the UK and we have a partnership with Young Diverse World Changers where we have 50 mentoring partnerships supporting disadvantaged students into a career in law)
- The Legal Scholarship scheme – a bursary and paid work experience at our Milton Keynes office
- Our corporate social responsibility programme encompasses a wide range of fundraising initiatives for both local and national charities each year
- We have trained 38 Mental Health First Aiders
- We are members of NOTICED – the UK’s first inter law diversity forum hosting events, training, networking opportunities aimed at increasing diversity within the legal profession
- For us, its important that our activities under ESG are aligned. As an incentive to sign up to our D&I pledge we committed to planting a tree for every person who signed up in the first year of launching the pledge, so over the next 2 years in partnership with the Tree Council, we will be planting 500 trees
- Cyber Essentials certified
- Silver Investors in People – an award recognising workplace leadership and management
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