We sat down with Carl Wright, Partner and Sustainability Lead, to understand the motivations behind their journey, the actions they’ve implemented, and the challenges they’ve overcome, offering valuable lessons for other firms looking to start their own sustainability journeys.
How does Clive Owen LLP integrate sustainability into its business practices and corporate strategy?
As Clive Owen LLP has grown, we have recognised the need to develop a responsible business culture across the firm, to benefit our team, our community, and our clients.
Across our five offices in the North of England, we have reviewed our existing policies and embraced change management to enhance our responsible business practices. This is led by a strategic team who meet regularly to discuss short and long-term plans and initiatives, with our wider colleagues involved in sustainability efforts who benefit from regular updates on new processes and ideas.
Since the formation of this team, the firm aligned its business values with five of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a starting point, demonstrating a commitment to broader global sustainability efforts that refreshed our sustainability goals and objectives. This focus also led to our adherence to the Prompt Payment Code, ensuring fair payment practices, becoming a Real Living Wage employer and, most recently, achieving Good Business Charter status.
Further supporting our colleagues, we have introduced flexible working to enhance work/life balance, including our innovative 9-day fortnight, among other employee-friendly initiatives such as delivering free EDI training courses and offering one day of paid leave for colleagues to volunteer at a charity or cause of their choice.
The firm has also committed to adopting a range of energy-efficient measures across its offices, such as LED lighting and smart heating systems, to minimise energy consumption.
Through these example initiatives, Clive Owen LLP actively contributes to a sustainable future while enhancing our corporate responsibility and community engagement.
Clive Owen LLP has achieved the Good Business Charter accreditation recently. Can you explain how this recognition ties into your broader sustainability and climate goals?
Gaining the prestigious Good Business Charter accreditation is a significant milestone for Clive Owen LLP. It reflects our unwavering commitment to supporting our people, clients, and communities, reinforcing the firm’s dedication to providing a safe, rewarding, diverse and inclusive environment that promotes personal growth and development for our colleagues.
Adopting the ten essential components of the Charter, including employee conditions, environmental impact, and the treatment of clients and suppliers, has really focussed our attention on the areas where we can have the biggest impact.
The acknowledgement of the accreditation – both internally and externally – also brought a sense of pride amongst our workforce, as conducting business responsibly really matters to our team.
You’ve worked closely with Decerna to develop a climate action plan and track your carbon footprint. Could you share more about how this partnership has helped shape your climate goals.
Complementing our existing sustainable practises, Clive Owen LLP’s partnership with Decerna was a key driver in framing our climate action plan and educating staff about our carbon footprint and how we can as a collective reduce our emissions. Decerna’s team have a wealth of experience in the carbon reduction arena and their support has been invaluable to our progress towards net zero. The BringAbout tool, in particular, allows us to accurately track these emissions and has helped to spark ideas for further carbon reduction initiatives.
Can you share some specific examples of how your sustainability initiatives have positively impacted your operations, staff, or the communities you serve?
The firm is actively working to reduce its carbon impact with sustainable measures and responsible actions. As such, we have implemented a number of schemes and initiatives to reduce waste, avoid excess pollution and make our offices more environmentally friendly.
To support this mission, every member of staff has been provided with a recycled water bottle and is encouraged to reduce their paper usage and ‘go digital’ where possible. We are also about to embark on a large-scale solar panel installation project at our Durham office, further highlighting our commitment to conducting business responsibly. Additionally, we have introduced a range of environmentally friendly initiatives for staff, including a cycle to work provision, an electric vehicle (EV) charge scheme and an EV salary sacrifice option.
The firm’s increasingly popular Volunteer Programme has also seen a shift in focus to accommodate environmentally friendly initiatives to support the local community. These include beach cleans, with many in collaboration with other businesses in the regions in which we operate, further widening the impact we are having in terms of reducing our carbon footprint.
Every sustainability journey comes with its own set of challenges. What obstacles have you faced while implementing your climate and responsible business initiatives, and how did you overcome them to stay on track with your commitments?
Since we began our responsible business journey of course there was always going to be challenges that arise, especially in the infancy of the shift in culture and mindset. The initial buy-in and implementation posed some challenges, but communication remains one of our firm’s main strengths and we were able to present it in a way that was easily accessible and, crucially, explained the purpose of our journey. The creation of the Sustainability Team was also instrumental in communicating processes and procedures to the wider staff body as it is now a resource that colleagues can access and raise questions to.
The publication of our annual Impact Report is another measure that has strengthened and validates our sustainability journey. It provides key information for all stakeholders and outlines our objectives and how we are actively making a difference.
What message would Clive Owen LLP like to convey to other firms considering embarking on their own sustainability journey?
Carl Wright, Partner and Sustainability Lead at Clive Owen LLP, said: “For a sustainability strategy to be successful it is vital that you get buy in from across the organisation. Our initiatives have the support of all levels of our team, from the partner group to our graduates and apprentices. Our delivery team includes people from all of our offices and draws from all levels in our hierarchy. Whilst I would recommend seeking third party support for more complex and technical projects, lots of the changes we have made have come from internal suggestions that we implemented quickly and cost effectively. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to our sector, and it is our responsibility to take these important steps to ensure a more sustainable future. Making small changes can make all the difference.”