Environmental, Social and Governance
At Crowe we recognise the importance Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and are committed to delivering on our ESG promise in a coordinated and committed way that supports our firm’s strategic vision and values.
Crowe leads and responds to the bigger global issues in order to survive and be competitive for the future. We will meet the needs of the present without compromising the future for generations to come.
We play our part in building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet through the harmony of three core elements that are interconnected and crucial for the well-being of individuals and societies:
- economic growth
- social inclusion
- environmental protection.
Our values
Our values reflect our corporate social responsibility and inform our work to deliver our ESG programme.
We care
We care about:
- our environment and the communities that we work in
- the diversity of those who work in and with our firm
- the extent to which we provide opportunities to people from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, thereby enhancing their social mobility
- the sustainability of what we do
- our own governance because this guarantees that we remain a responsible business.
Our keen interest in the environment highlights challenges for our people, our clients and the wider world. We seek to understand such challenges, faced today and in the future, to better our knowledge and make smart decisions.
At Crowe, our most successful relationships are based on ongoing open dialogue. By supporting our local communities we build mutual respect and trust with those we work with.
Our commitment to equal opportunities underpins these lasting relationships with our diverse workforce, clients and the wider community, including those who are socially disadvantaged. Close working relationships are at the heart of our approach to our ESG programme and we rely on our firm’s good governance to ensure that this remains the case.
We share
We share knowledge and the skills of our people to increase our impact within and outside Crowe. Our approach to ESG is professional and pragmatic.
Our people use their experience to apply the best advice to our communities in a way that is easily understood and can be practically applied.
We are not afraid to ask challenging questions about our own policies and procedures, as well as those of our clients, to ensure we are adopting best practice. We work together to realise our firm’s goals and encourage feedback, ideas and contribution from our people.
We invest
We invest in continuous quality assurance and training and have a passion for innovation, agility and creativity which helps our clients, our people and our communities to prepare for the future. We encourage our people to develop their skills, ways of working and to create solutions to ensure they are contributing in a way that will add lasting value. Through supporting local communities our people develop their own communication, teamwork and leadership skills as well as that of others. Across the firm we advocate equal access to training, career progression and development as part of our ESG programme.
We grow
We grow by making smart decisions that have lasting value. We support our people, our clients and our communities to develop their skills so they can achieve success. In a world that is rapidly changing, we help them to answer tomorrow’s questions, achieving growth with a comprehensive ESG programme.
We have grown to be one of the UK’s leading firms. As a member Crowe Global, the eighth largest accounting network in the world, our skills and resources have a wide reach allowing us to support many diverse communities.
Environmental performance
We take our environmental performance very seriously through the following actions:
- reducing our carbon footprint by continuous review of our resource usage
- reducing our waste and landfill by encouraging recycling and reuse
- ensuring environmental issues are taken into account during procurement
- seeking to ensure all our people are aware of, and educated to understand, the impact of their activities on the environment.
Our carbon management strategy involves:
- minimising our emissions by improving operational efficiencies and investing in technologies and approaches to reduce our resource consumption and the waste we generate
- minimising unnecessary travel by encouraging our people to adopt new technologies to collaborate with colleagues and clients remotely
- working with our suppliers to understand the opportunities to improve our supply chain footprint.
We look across the different areas where we have an environmental impact – carbon emissions, travel, waste, energy consumption and resource consumption – to make sure that our impact is positive not negative.
Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
The SBTi has approved Crowe UK’s near-term science-based emissions reduction target.
- The SBTi’s Target Validation Team has classified Crowe UK’s scope 1 and 2 target ambition and has determined that it is in line with a 1.5°C trajectory
- The SBTi commends our 1.5°C-aligned target, currently the most ambitious designation available through the SBTi process.
Community involvement
We want to give something back by sharing our skills and our time to help tackle current UK issues. We seek to use our networks for the mutual benefit of our clients, the local communities that we work in and our people. We offer a variety of ways to contribute, so that as many of our people as possible can participate in the opportunities available.
As a leading professional services firm with offices across the UK, we have a responsibility to many stakeholders, including the local communities in which we operate.
Our support involves volunteering, fundraising, discounted work and financial contributions. Where our people contribute we recognise that both they and the communities that they work in will benefit.
We know that many of our people want to ‘give something back’ to society, while developing their skills, so we are developing a programme offering paid time off for any of our people or partners to volunteer.
Workplace and diversity
Our goal is to build a diverse, inclusive and empowered workforce. We ensure our people are digitally upskilled and ready for the future and aim to create a culture that's genuinely inclusive and respectful, and promotes wellbeing both in and out of work.
We also have a responsibility to help reduce inequality, raise aspirations and promote social and digital inclusion. We seek to recruit and develop our people so as to maximise their potential and our collective success.
This is rooted in the firm’s clear policies and statements, which indicate what we will do:
- agile working
- disciplinary and grievance
- equal opportunities
- family friendly
- GDPR
- harassment and bullying.
We review our employee benefits annually and all of our policies on a regular basis.
We seek to combat discrimination in whatever form it takes, including where it is on grounds of gender, gender identity/expression, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, mental illness or ability, sexual orientation, religion or creed. We provide specific training and guidance to all our people.
We recruit fairly:
- offering flexible benefits as part of our benefits package
- actively addressing gender disparity in our new trainee cohorts, including opening our recruitment process and assessment days earlier in the year (which resulted in a 7% increase in female attendees)
- attending student fairs and events and recognising that good quality recruits can come from a variety of educational institutions and backgrounds
- displaying our gender pay gap figures on our website a year earlier than legally required
- allowing re-sits for student applicants who fail our school leaver and graduate programme tests marginally.
We develop our people recognising the responsibility we have to help them maximise their potential and the responsibility they have to help the firm grow and prosper. Our actions include:
- courses that cover all grades and areas including technical and management development training and training specific to particular sectors
- courses are available nationally across all of our offices.
In the future we will also be:
- further expanding our training programmes so we have a wider variety that cover all levels, disciplines and locations
- putting in place easier access to training using intranet-based portals
- better tailoring training to particular learning styles.
Social mobility
We support the Social Mobility Pledge campaign and the Levelling Up Goals led by the Rt. Hon Justine Greening. We commit to developing, more specifically, the following three areas of action:
Outreach
We will work to reach out to schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.
Access
We will work to provide structured work experience and apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.
Recruitment
We will work to adopt open employee recruitment practices, which promote a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.
Sustainability and governance – remaining a responsible business
Our firm will continue to use accurate and transparent accounting and reporting methods and take decisions in a way which is consistent with the best principles of professionalism. We will avoid conflicts of interest, not use inappropriate means to gain influence or unduly favourable treatment and, of course, not engage in illegal practices.
We are a professional services firm which operates with integrity and ethics at the centre of our business decisions. We closely adhere to professional codes of conduct, ensure legal and regulatory compliance, and comply with our own ethics and risk manuals. We have a Supervisory Board which ensures the firm is run as intended.
We grow sustainably focusing not just on the short-term but on building the firm for the medium and long-term. We seek to deliver real benefits and concrete outcomes for our clients. We understand our responsibility to help create a better society by using our skills to help solve problems and to maintain the financial health and effectiveness of our clients, as they provide employment, produce and provide goods and services, and deliver important charitable purposes across the UK.
It is because we are a responsible business that we have adopted this ESG policy and we will continue to energetically pursue its aims.