Responsible Business

We are proud accredited members of The Good Business Charter (GBC). The Charter measures behaviour over 10 components: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee wellbeing, 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.

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.

Read our latest Responsible Business report.

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.

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.

Our ambition to achieve this by reducing our carbon emissions and offsetting only those unavoidable emissions.

We recognise that there is still a need for carbon offsetting to neutralise existing emissions and achieve carbon neutrality in the shorter term. Over the last few years we have partnered with ClimatePartner to offset our operational emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 business travel). These are the emissions we emit from our buildings along with business travel.

We also encourage a climate positive workforce. We are Responsible is one of the core business standards that underpins our culture. We support colleagues to live a responsible lifestyle by offering a flexible ‘green benefits’ package. Initiatives include salary sacrifice for the purchase of an electric car, cycle to work schemes and a climate positive impact benefit through our partner Furthr.

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.

We prioritise wellbeing to create a culture where everyone thrives and feels happy at work. We have clear, fair and transparent policies that support and encourage employee wellbeing and we provide this through our strategic focus on four pillars of Physical, Mental, Financial and Social wellbeing.

We provide colleagues access to resources such as the Headspace app, private medical insurance and an Employee Assistance Programme which provides free independent and confidential support, including short-term counselling.

We are members of the InsideOut Charter, which is committed to ending the stigma around mental health and driving the agenda at the Leadership level.

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.

We believe that a good financial plan can help change people’s lives, 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.

We want to continue to build an inclusive and diverse workforce, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work.

We have set up a number of engaging 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 over 300 colleagues now being a member of at least one network.

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.

You can read more about our other initiatives in our latest Responsible Business Report.

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, we are partnering with three charities chosen by our colleagues; Alzheimer’s Research UK, The Brain Charity and British Heart Foundation.

We run a number of volunteering and matching schemes, including 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.

In 2023, we raised over £120,000 for charities and colleagues completed over 1700 hours of volunteering.