Ashfords LLP

ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE

Ashfords engages in a wide and ever-growing range of actions to support the social, economic and mental wellbeing of our communities inside and outside the firm.

Our ESG Programme focuses on three priority communities:

THE GREEN COMMUNITY

To ensure sustained and meaningful action, our environmental strategy is based on three core actions: “Manage, Minimise and Improve”:

• Manage: manage the impact our operations have on the environment, make environmentally conscious management decisions, and promote a firmwide green culture;
• Minimise: take steps to reduce our consumption of materials and energy, minimise waste and pollution, and meaningfully reduce our carbon footprint;
• Improve: actively improve the environment in the areas in which we live and work with a focus on increasing biodiversity.

We take our responsibility to the environment very seriously by publicly reporting our annual emissions and committing to reducing our year-on-year figures. Our other activities includes carbon offsetting through the UN Carbon Neutral Now Initiative, planting trees, reducing waste (with zero waste to landfill), and procuring local suppliers with green supply chains wherever possible. We have plenty more actions planned in the pipeline for the coming year.

THE ASHFORDS COMMUNITY

We want to provide a positive, rewarding and supportive environment for all employees. We do this through supportive initiatives such as staff discounts at local businesses, holiday purchase scheme, providing a robust health package, and introducing a flexible work policy.

Ashfords is also a strong advocate for supporting mental health, and recently launched a mindfulness app for employees. This sits alongside dedicated mental health awareness training, weekly movement and mindfulness activities, free access to counselling and alternative therapies, and additional life support such as money management webinars.

We are committed to promoting Diversity and Inclusion within our teams. We already have a strong set of initiatives in place (such as Apprenticeship schemes to improve Access to Law; post-maternity support; skills-based hiring processes; DEI training). We know we can always do more, the Board instigated a Diversity Action Group to spearhead substantial change in the coming years, with Diversity and Inclusion taking on a larger presence to ensure everyone is empowered to be the best that they can be.

OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

We actively contribute to our local communities and aim to provide support where it’s needed most through staff volunteering and fundraising, as well as financial support through The Ashfords Foundation.

THE ASHFORDS FOUNDATION

We provide financial resources to support local community organisations. We do this through two core funding streams i) Supporting Communities (a small one off grant to support small charities and similar organisation) and ii) Preserving Communities (larger grant sums with potential to secure funding over several years).

Our charitable mission is to make a real difference in the lives of these communities. As a grant making Foundation, we can only be as effective as the organisations we support. They are at the very heart of our mission. https://www.ashfordsfoundation.org.uk/

DIVERSITY REPORT

Here is a link to our diversity statistical report from August 2022: https://www.ashfords.co.uk/media/5122/ashfords-diversity-stats_2022_ecd.pdf