RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
HFW is committed to being a responsible and sustainable business, and one that considers the needs of our colleagues, our communities and our environment, as well as the impacts of our actions. We are proud of what we have achieved so far, but we recognise that there is much more work to do, so
we continue to review and improve our approach to ensure we are delivering meaningful and lasting progress.
Our strategy comprises four key areas:
OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS
How we operate day to day in relation to our clients and suppliers is an important part of our responsible business strategy. Our relationships with our business partners is based on a strong foundation of acting ethically, with integrity and in line with all of the firm’s risk and compliance policies.
Collaboration around responsible business issues is another important aspect of how we operate with our clients and suppliers – many are addressing
the same challenges as we are, and by working together, we can achieve much more.
OUR COLLEAGUES
We are committed to recruiting diverse talent and creating a working environment in which all of our people can reach their potential, with a particular focus on diversity and inclusion (D&I), wellbeing, and engagement.
Our D&I Committee approves, monitors and reviews progress against our D&I strategy, and reports progress to our Management Board on a monthly basis.
We also have global networks for gender equality, LGBTQ+, mental health and wellbeing, race and ethnicity, and social mobility, with broad representation from across the firm.
OUR COMMUNITIES
We want to be an organisation that contributes significant value by having a provable impact on the issues that affect our global and local communities.
Our community investment work is focused on two key global principles: access to justice and legal services, and education and employability.
We prioritise programmes where we can make a real difference to people’s lives and build long-term relationships.
As a sector-focused law firm, we have industry-specific charity partnerships with The Air League (aerospace), Renewable World (construction, and energy and resources), and The Mission to Seafarers (shipping). These enable us to use our knowledge, expertise and passion to address social issues relevant to our core sectors.
OUR ENVIRONMENT
We are committed to measuring and reducing our environmental impact. We want to reduce our energy consumption, non-essential business travel,
paper consumption and waste production, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and move towards being carbon neutral and then net zero