Corporate responsibility
My consultancy approach is based on the belief that companies and organisations need to address ethical, environmental and social challenges in order to build sustainable and robust businesses. This means that it is not enough to focus on the short term financial bottom line, but necessary to adopt a long term strategic approach that will be enriching and sustainable. This applies as much to smaller businesses and non-profit organisations as it does to large multi-national companies.
Responsible Finance
I was chair of EIRIS (leaders in providing environmental, social and governance information for responsible investors) for 8 years and since December 2016 have chaired the board of Investing for Good CIC (a leading social finance intermediary that mobilises capital for social good). I am also a non-executive director of Bristol Pound CIC. I have a good understanding of the issues surrounding responsible finance and investment, including the implications and opportunities for social enterprises and charities.
Human rights and modern slavery
Companies have both positive and negative impacts on the communities and societies they engage with — whether as employees, customers, suppliers, business partners or local residents. Human rights provide an internationally recognised framework within which to explore and understand these issues, and what businesses need to do to be responsible citizens. The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 aims to hold larger corporations to account for modern slavery in their business or supply chain. These are complex areas and people working in corporations need to understand their responsibilities and the expectations society has.
How I can help you
I have worked with businesses to identify ethical and human rights issues, both internally and within the supply chain. I have used my expertise to help them consider approaches to mitigating negative impacts and develop more responsible ways of engaging with stakeholders.
I have developed tools to enable practitioners to understand corporate responsibility issues. These include: training programmes on ethical sourcing, human rights and modern slavery (including face-to-face, online and blended programmes); strategy documents on CR; reviews of existing CR programmes; and assessment tools to enable companies to review their own and their suppliers’ impacts on labour rights, the environment and health & safety.