Responsible Business
We are more than just a business. What we do makes a difference to individuals, to families, and to society.
We’re proud to publish our second Responsible Business Report, highlighting our continued ambition to become a leader in responsible wealth management. We aim to play our part in the global effort to reach net zero by 2050. And we aim to uphold the highest standards in our conduct with clients, colleagues, the communities in which we operate, and society as a whole.
2022 Publication of first Responsible Business Report
2023 Responsible approach to investing
2030 Net zero carbon operations
2050 Net zero
We take pride in helping people realise their dreams.
We are committed to our employees’ wellbeing, creating an environment where they can bring their whole selves to work.
We commit to act responsibly in all of our business practices, ensuring we are fair and transparent throughout the value chain.
We seek to make a positive impact in our communities, in society and on the environment.
To bring about change, we need to concentrate our efforts in areas where we can make the biggest difference. That may often mean joining forces with others.
Being a responsible business underpins our ethos. In our first Responsible Business Report published in April 2022, we outlined what being a responsible business means to us. You can read our inaugural report here.
We’re committing to making a difference and joining forces with others across five important themes:
Being a responsible business -The Good Business Charter
Being a sustainable business
Being a diverse and inclusive business
Promoting wellbeing
Building better communities
We will take action in these key areas for our clients, employees, the businesses we work with, the communities in which we work, and the environment.
What action are we taking?
The Good Business Charter
In August 2021, we signed The Good Business Charter (GBC) and are delighted to have received re-accreditation in 2022. The Charter measures behaviour over 10 components: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee well-being, employee representation, diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, paying fair tax, commitment to customers, ethical sourcing, and prompt payment.
An organisation must meet all 10 components to receive accreditation and is focused on encouraging responsible business behaviour and publicly acknowledging those organisations who exhibit such behaviour.
We’re very proud of our Good Business Charter accreditation and since April 2022 have produced an annual Responsible Business Report outlining the actions we are taking in line with each of the 10 components.
These actions include paying a fair living wage, treating our colleagues with dignity and respect, mitigating our impact on the environment, making a clear and transparent commitment to our clients, responsibly sourcing our supplies and paying our fair share of taxes. Take a look at the latest report here.
Sustainable business and climate change
Climate change is one of, if not the single most important issues of our time and one which SPW is committed to making a priority across the business. We are determined to play our part to tackle global warming and the impact it is having upon our planet and its inhabitants. We are committed to taking action on climate change and other environmental issues on behalf of our colleagues, clients and communities.
Over the past couple of years we have been on a journey to determine our operational carbon footprint and develop a robust sustainability framework including data collection, reporting and developing a plan to achieve net zero carbon operations by 2030.
We’re delighted to have achieved carbon neutrality across our operations in 2022 through offsetting our operational emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 business travel, colleague commuting and working from home), validated by Climate Partner. These are the emissions we emit from our buildings along with business travel, colleague commuting and working from home.
We’ve also partnered with climate positive impact organisation Furthr, planting more than 100,000 mangrove trees in 2022 in order to offset colleagues carbon emissions. In addition to planting trees, all our colleagues have access to additional support to help them understand and reduce their own carbon footprint. Through our partnership with Furthr, from January 2023 we are also planting seagrass, which has incredible potential for carbon sequestration (the capturing, removal and storage of carbon dioxide CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere).
We believe in collective action, with the vision that the thousand little steps each individual makes, can collectively make a huge difference. Through our internal responsible business network and sustainability champions, our colleagues are the driving force of sustainable initiatives within our business. These champions are focussed on promoting sustainability understanding, ethos and good practice, and supporting the education of others.
Employee wellbeing and mental health
We're an organisation willing to take the lead in social change through speaking openly about mental health.
We prioritise wellbeing to create a culture where everyone thrives and feels happy at work. This includes signing the InsideOut Charter, which is committed to ending the stigma around mental health and driving the agenda at the Leadership level.
We provide colleagues access to resources such as the Headspace app, as well as our Employee Assistance Programme which provides free independent and confidential support, including short-term counselling ’
We’ve also partnered with Harkn to provide a platform which allows colleagues to anonymously reflect how they feeling in a safe space. This allows us to genuinely listen and understand how our colleagues are feeling day to day to enable positive action to be taken when required.
Financial wellbeing and education
We also want to create a better, happier society and we can do that by sharing our financial knowledge to help people aim to make their money work for them, so they can reach their life goals. That’s why we champion financial wellbeing and education.
Our annual Money and Mind Report, allows people to understand how their day-to-day finances could impact on their wellbeing and stress levels.
Diversity and inclusion (D&I)
We want to build an inclusive and diverse workforce, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work.
Here are just a few of the great diversity and inclusion initiatives we have got involved in so far:
We have set up a number of engaging D&I employee networks who all seek to drive change for the causes that they are passionate about. We are proud that our networks continue to grow, with a third of colleagues now being a member of at least one network.
We are a part of the #10000BlackInterns programme.
We've partnered with 'Women in Finance' for their Accelerating Change Together programme. A piece of research that helps us to bring about better gender equality in the financial services industry.
Community and charity
We want to make a difference in the communities we work in and that's why we champion volunteering and charitable initiatives that are close to our hearts.
To centralise all of the great work we do in this space, in 2022 we launched the SPW Charitable Foundation. Through the Foundation, this year we are partnering with three charities chosen by our colleagues; Alzheimer’s Research UK, The Brain Charity and British Heart Foundation. Throughout the year we’ll be doing a range of fundraising to support these fantastic causes.
We also run a number of volunteering and matching schemes and sponsor local community teams and initiatives. This includes all colleagues receiving two Community Action Days per year to support the local community in which we operate, or a charity they are passionate about.
Our partners
Good Business Charter
The Good Business Charter is an initiative of the Good Business Foundation, a charity registered in England and Wales.
10, 000 Black Interns
10,000 Black Interns seeks to offer 2,000 internships each year for five consecutive years across 24 sectors and more than 700 companies.
Furthr
Furthr is an employee benefit that makes climate action fun and easy, whilst driving engagement on sustainability. Each month they plant protected trees and reduce carbon emissions on world-leading renewable energy projects and provide personalised advice on how to live greener.
Fair Tax Foundation
The Fair Tax Mark accreditation scheme, run by the Fair Tax Foundation, seeks to encourage and recognise businesses that pay the right amount of corporation tax at the right time and in the right place. In order to meet the standards and requirements of the accreditation scheme, we have published some additional information to explain our corporation tax charge here.
Living Wage Foundation
The Living Wage Foundation celebrate and recognise the leadership of responsible employers who choose to go further and pay a real Living Wage based on the cost of living, not just the government minimum.
Prompt Payment Code
The Prompt Payment Code is a voluntary code of practice for businesses, administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner on behalf of BEIS.
Alzheimer’s Research UK
Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK's leading dementia research charity, dedicated to causes, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure.
The Brain Charity
The Brain Charity helps people with all forms of neurological condition to lead longer, healthier, happier lives. There are more than 600 conditions affecting the brain, spine and nervous system. The Brain Charity champion neurodiversity and provide practical help, emotional support and social activities for every single one.
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation’s vision is a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. They raise money to research cures and treatments, so we can give people more time with the ones they love.
Our Commitment
Sustainable Tax Principles
At Schroders Personal Wealth, we understand that tax is one of the ways that we can contribute to our society.
We are committed to adopting sustainable tax principles that align with our broader ambition to be recognised as a responsible business.
We look to achieve this by:
Paying fair taxes
Maintaining our tax integrity by engaging in fair tax practices
Ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations
Maintaining open and transparent relationships with tax authorities and stakeholders
Acting in accordance with our Tax Strategy