Our Environmental, Social and Governance Strategy

Making a difference, together...

Graham Street - Managing Partner RWK Goodman

What ESG means to us...

While ESG covers a broad range of topics, at its core, we believe it is all about making a positive difference.

Whether it be improving our environment, or supporting our colleagues, clients and communities; as a forward-thinking and people-focussed firm, we are committed to acting responsibly and engaging authentically to deliver better outcomes. Our ESG commitments are more than words on a page. They are part of our culture, enabling us to drive real actions, with real purpose, that have real impact.

While we continue to make great strides, our ambitious nature keeps us focussed on innovating to do better and be better. By delivering on our commitments below, we know we will not only achieve our vision and business targets, but also support our clients, colleagues and communities to thrive.

Environment – Driving towards carbon zero

Social – Supporting our colleagues, clients and communities

Governance – Ensuring transparency and accountability

ESG RWK Goodman - Environmental commitment
Our commitment to the environment

Environment - Driving towards carbon zero

We recognise that our firm may have a direct and indirect impact on our local, regional and global environment.

As part of our environmental commitment, we will focus on embracing sustainability across all aspects of our operations and supply chain and supporting our colleagues to contribute to positive change. As a forward-thinking firm, we will prioritise raising awareness of key environmental issues and encouraging innovation in our working practices, to have a positive impact on the environment, without compromising the quality of service we deliver.

We are committed to:

  • Raising awareness and understanding of environmental issues and how we can have a positive impact.
  • Reducing our carbon footprint to achieve Net Zero emissions as part of our membership to the Legal Sustainability Alliance.
  • Maintaining a responsible, efficient and sustainable supply chain.

We are achieving our commitments by:

  • Setting clear targets to reduce consumption, waste and increase recycling across our firm and supply chain.
  • Implementing carbon reduction actions as part of our Environmental and Sustainability Commitment, as well as a new ‘Digital First’ way of working.
  • Supporting our colleagues to reduce their personal impact on the environment.

We are measuring our success through:

  • Carbon Standards reporting, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 measurements.
  • Benchmarking against the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) Annual Data Tracker.
  • Physical and financial monitoring of resource usage.
  • Waste disposal certifications.
The Legal Sustainability Alliance

We are members of The Legal Sustainability Alliance. The only not-for-profit sustainability network run by law firms for law firms. The LSA has been leading the way in sustainability for UK based law firms since its inception in 2007. During that time firms have moved from measuring and managing their carbon emissions to committing to Net Zero by putting sustainability at the heart of their businesses.

Find out more

"For over a decade, all energy used across our offices has come from renewable sources."

Mark Jones
Chief Operating Officer
ESG RWK Goodman - Social commitment
Our Social commitment

Social - Supporting our colleagues, clients and communities 

We’re proud of our dynamic and inclusive culture which enables our colleagues and communities to thrive.

By creating this culture internally, we nurture the best talent, which means as well as delivering an exceptional service for our clients, we can also support the wider communities we operate in.

 

We are committed to:

  • Putting our people first and providing opportunities for them to drive their careers in a diverse and supportive environment.
  • Building authentic and long-lasting relationships with our clients by delivering personalised, high-quality service.
  • Supporting our wider communities, giving back and making a positive difference.

We are achieving our commitments by:

  • Monitoring colleague engagement and rolling out Wellbeing, Social, Charity and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) initiatives to further enhance our culture and colleague offering.
  • Building strong relationships with key clients and partners, listening and responding to client feedback.
  • Supporting and fundraising for our flagship charities, as well as engaging in pro bono work within our local communities.

We are measuring our success through:

  • Colleague facing Annual and Pulse Surveys (including eNPS).
  • Diversity statistics as part of our Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting.
  • Client feedback, NPS and testimonials.
  • LEXCEL/ SRA accreditations.
  • Charity fundraising figures and number of volunteering days used by colleagues.

"Together, our firm has contributed over £242,000 for our flagship charities and local causes...and counting!"

Amanda Dow
HR Director
ESG RWK Goodman - Governance commitment
Our commitment to Governance

Governance – Ensuring transparency and accountability

Our governance structure will be key to achieving our ESG objectives, making sure our leaders are visible and accountable, ensuring our committees have clear roles and responsibilities, and helping colleagues understand how they can contribute.

We will evolve our existing CSR Committee structure into a new ESG Steering Committee to provide governance and reporting. Through regular reporting, we will be able to demonstrate we are meeting our goals, allowing us to monitor our progress and keep pushing for even better outcomes.

We are committed to:

  • Maintaining and promoting a dynamic culture where all colleagues can fulfil their full potential and act as ambassadors for our culture.
  • Providing strategic leadership to the business, ensuring our structure, vision and values align with our sustainable business objectives.
  • Having structured governance in place and completing regular reporting to hold us accountable, allowing us to continue to drive positive change.

We are achieving our commitments by:

  • Promoting our culture, high quality work and opportunities for progression to attract and retain talented colleagues and build more diverse succession pathways.
  • Clearly communicating our strategy and purpose, ensuring leaders and colleagues are aware of the part they can play.
  • Regularly reviewing our business performance and ESG progress through our governance forums, updating key stakeholders and holding ourselves accountable.

We are measuring our success through:

  • Regular performance reviews for leaders and colleagues, as well as overall business performance towards key objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
  • Use of our Career Development Frameworks (CDF), compliance with SRA Codes of Conduct and benchmarking against the SRA Diversity Survey.
  • The Lawyer 200 Survey’ and ‘PWC Annual Law Firm Survey’.

"We’re proud to have been ranked in Legal 500 across 22 practice areas, with multiple colleagues achieving individual rankings as ‘leading lawyers’, ‘next generation partners’ and ‘rising stars’"

Mei-Ling Huang
Partner | Chair of Partnership Committee