Our commitment

Our commitment to corporate social responsibility

Living up to your values is often a challenging journey, but always a rewarding one. First and foremost we are committed to providing a working environment that embraces equal opportunities and promotes diversity across the firm. We’re committed to making a positive impact on the communities we work in and we have a new charities strategy to do just that. We are also on the look out for ways in which we can reduce the impact of our business on the environment through new initiatives to reduce waste and shrink our carbon footprint.

We know that there is always more to be done and improvements to be made. But we’re aiming for continuous improvement to make our values a reality.

Charities

Our goal is to make a positive impact in the communities with which we work in and the choices of charities to support are seemingly limitless. So how do we make the right choice?

We have chosen to work with the Community Foundations in our three regions. The Community Foundations help us make sure our fundraising goes to community groups which are helping people in need to develop their potential and overcome problems or barriers. Community Foundations work with companies, private individuals, charitable trusts and local and central government to support local community projects. Our charitable fund is invested to provide sustainable, future income for community projects.

Community Foundations

We’re proud to work with our local Community Foundations and if you’d like to know more about their work, click on the logos below.

We have also introduced a staff volunteering policy which allows each staff member up to two days annually to work at the grass roots level on a Community Foundation project.

We also encouraged our staff to nominate an annual ‘Office Charity of the Year’ for their location to encourage local fundraising opportunities. This allows staff to participate in firm-wide initiatives as well as follow local interests.

Charities of the year for 2013

We have selected three charities local to our principle offices to support throughout 2012, these are

Please visit their websites to find more about the important work they do.

Environmental & Sustainability Policy 2013

Withy King recognises that that we may have a direct impact or indirect impact on the local, regional and global environments.

We are committed to minimising any negative impact and acting in a sustainable manner. We aim to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the welfare of future generation and the Earth’s resources.

We regularly review the work we do and the way we do it. We consider, whether through innovations & technological advances or through adopting alternative procedures we can deliver our services in ever more sustainable ways without compromising on quality.

To reduce the overall carbon footprint that Withy King creates:

We are members of The Legal Sector Alliance (http://www.legalsectorallinace.com) and as members we are fully committed to the following 7 points:

Measure, manage and reduce the impact of our operations.
Work with external stakeholders to reduce our indirect impact.
Integrate awareness of climate change across our business.
Advise clients on the opportunities and obligations arising from and under climate change law.
Work collaboratively to engage in the public debate on climate change and to develop, apply and promote best practice across the sector.
Report on our progress and be accountable.
Adopt and pursue a challenging emissions reduction target.
We aim to reduce our paper use within the business by at least 25% over the next 7 years; this will be achieved by scanning documents and duplex printing.

We will use endeavour to use sustainably sourced paper for our printing, where possible.
We have introduced technology to support a paperless working office and access for our staff to centrally held information and files, therefore reducing the need for paper copies of drafts and documents.
We will shred all confidential waste paper for recycling.
We have moved all offices over to renewable energy, where possible.
We actively encourage our staff to continually review and challenge more sustainable practices.
With dissemination assistance from the Carbon Trust Initative, we encourage all staff to switch off lights and electrical appliances before leaving the building. We also actively promote the aims of the Carbon Trust through display of promotional material
We utilise online information, marketing and advertising to limit our need to paper based promotional literature.
We promote and use Video Conferencing as often as possible to reduce inter-office and client travel requirements.
We support the Green Earth appeal and automatically forward e-mails with previous trail in attachments to lessen the burden of printing.
We encourage staff to cycle to work by participating in the Government backed Cycle Scheme (http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk)
We encourage walking, the use of public transport and car sharing when staff need to travel between office locations.

Social

Culturally we’re an informal firm and quite social too! Be it drinks after work on a Friday, our annual summer and Christmas parties or helping to arrange these events, there is something for everyone to be a part of at Withy King.