Climate Change Data

Environmental Metrics

ESG Focus Areas

• Environment
• Social
• Governance

Environmental Achievements

• Updated fleet car policy to be exclusively electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
• Introduced a salary sacrifice car scheme to encourage the transition of employees to more environmentally friendly vehicles.

Social Achievements

• Appointed a new People Director to lead human capital initiatives, including diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Continued to support hybrid working arrangements.

Governance Achievements

• Appointed external consultants to advise the board on material areas of focus for sustainability and ESG strategy.
• ESG goals and action plan approved by the board.
• Sustainability group formed.

Climate Goals & Targets

Environmental Challenges

• Recruitment and retention of high-calibre partners and employees.
• Business continuity risks from significant non-IT events.
• Operational gearing with high proportion of salary and property costs.
• Liquidity risk reliant on asset realisations from insolvency appointments.
• Market susceptibility to macroeconomic movements.
• Highly competitive market.
• Legal and regulatory compliance.
• IT system failures or interruptions.
• Acquisition risk.

Mitigation Strategies

• Competitive reward structure, benefits, career development support, and long-term incentive awards.
• Business continuity plans and ability to work from alternate locations.
• Flexing resource levels to align with activity levels and maintaining prudent spare capacity.
• Regular cash management, forecasting, and headroom within banking facilities.
• Diversified service lines with differing exposure to macroeconomic environment.
• Consistent marketing and sales activity, strong relationships with key work providers.
• Dedicated compliance functions and robust processes.
• Off-site back-up and resilience in IT systems, Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, disaster recovery plans, and cyber response insurance.
• Well-established processes for evaluating, structuring, and integrating acquisitions, clear post-acquisition integration strategy.

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement

• Approved supplier process to mandate zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Environmental Metrics

ESG Focus Areas

• Environmental
• Social
• Governance

Environmental Achievements

• 65% of company car fleet are now ULEVs (up from 36% in 2023)
• Migrated directly contracted energy supplies onto renewable tariffs
• Migrated IT services away from on-premise hardware to cloud-hosted solutions, reducing hardware footprint and energy usage
• Office-based printer and scanner refresh program saved over 10,000 print jobs (equivalent to over 40 trees)
• Migrated IT equipment disposal to a more sustainable provider offering recycling and reuse

Social Achievements

• Introduced SmartHealth, a health and wellbeing service for all colleagues and their families
• Improved mental health and wellbeing support with surveys and action plans
• Enhanced employee benefits package with more flexibility and options
• Overall colleague engagement score of 76%
• Retention rate of 87%
• Supported 121 colleagues in gaining professional qualifications
• Enhanced pay for maternity, adoption, and paternity leave
• Introduced stress at work and menopause policies
• Launched updated voluntary and charity work policy
• Introduced new hybrid working and sabbatical policies
• Organized inaugural national charity event (three peaks challenge)

Governance Achievements

• Continued to maintain high standards of corporate governance
• Robust compliance and governance procedures in place
• Policies in place for whistleblowing, anti-bribery and corruption, modern slavery, data protection, and information security
• No data breaches from group’s managed IT infrastructure

Climate Goals & Targets

Environmental Challenges

• Reduced levels of M&A transactions impacting advisory and corporate finance
• Recruitment and retention of high-calibre partners and employees
• Business continuity risks from significant non-IT events
• Operational gearing with high proportion of salary and property costs
• Liquidity risk reliant on asset realisations from insolvency appointments
• Macroeconomic movements impacting markets
• Highly competitive market
• Legal and regulatory compliance
• Potential challenges to opinion-based services
• IT system failures or interruptions
• Risks associated with acquisitions

Mitigation Strategies

• Investment in teams to support ongoing growth, including talent development and wellbeing
• Business continuity plans in place
• Flexing resource levels to align with activity levels and controlling discretionary expenditure
• Regular cash management and forecasting, maintaining headroom within banking facilities
• Diversified income streams across economic cycle
• Consistent marketing and sales activity, maintaining strong relationships with key work providers
• Dedicated compliance functions and policies
• Robust processes, internal review processes, and third-party professional corroboration
• Investment in IT team, hardware, software, and specialist third-party consultancies
• Off-site back-up and resilience in IT systems, Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, IT disaster recovery plans
• Well-established processes for evaluating, structuring, and integrating acquisitions

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement

• Approved supplier process to mandate approach across suppliers

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Physical Risks

• Extreme weather events impacting IT infrastructure
• Energy demand increases
• Extreme weather events causing operational disruption

Transition Risks

• Compliance with evolving legislation and disclosure requirements
• Investor sentiment regarding ESG performance
• Increased costs associated with carbon taxes

Opportunities

• Developing solutions to assist clients in managing decarbonisation obligations
• Advising on and arranging finance for capital expenditure requirements
• Access to finance through demonstrating strong ESG credentials

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: TCFD

Certifications: Cyber Essentials Plus