We’re delighted to have been rated as Silver in our 2023 EcoVadis assessment, moving from Bronze in 2022. EcoVadis bill themselves as “the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating” and have rated over 100k companies across 200 industries.
You, our clients, are increasingly requesting ESG ratings as evidence of our Sustainability credentials – we’re delighted to have achieved Silver and feel it is an accurate assessment of our achievements to date.
You, our clients, are increasingly requesting ESG ratings as evidence of our Sustainability credentials – we’re delighted to have achieved Silver and feel it is an accurate assessment of our achievements to date.
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We place the upgrade down to seven key areas delivered during 2023 (for a quick view, check out our infographic):
- Broader range of evidence – you can add 55 more documents each year you’re assessed to evidence your approach more strongly.
- Aligning to global standards – during 2023 we’ve aligned to standards from the United Nations and Science Based Targets initiative to guide our approach:
- As a signatory for the United Nations Global Compact we’ve committed to support delivery of the UN Sustainability Development Goals and align our business and operations to the UNGC’s Ten Principles covering human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
- Our commitment to align our climate goals to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), will ensure we’re playing our part in preventing the worst impacts of climate change.
- ‘Best Practice’ initiatives – our annual review of leading sustainability companies inspired two significant enhancements:
- Board-level oversight provided by our Group Sustainability Committee (GSC) who sets our ambition levels and provides strategy advice, oversight, leadership and challenge to our Sustainability agenda.
- Linking Executive-remuneration to Sustainability through a dedicated Let’s Talk objective that has a direct impact on their Bonus.
- Strengthening our policy suite – we’ve added two new policies to help colleagues and suppliers understand and support our Sustainability agenda:
- Environment Policy - sets out our environmental commitments to lessen our impact by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions we create, reducing waste generation, focusing on recycling and managing our non-mandated paper consumption levels.
- Supplier Code of Conduct - sets out our expectations from suppliers for Sustainability matters including Environment management, Labour and Human Rights and is linked to contracts via our Terms & Conditions.
- Increased transparency – we’ve added more depth to our annual Sustainability Report on topics including; Financial crime, colleague development, wellbeing and health and safety and information security.
- Progress towards targets – strong progress underpins our rating:
- Continued above market rate Customer Net Promoter Scores.
- 99% client satisfaction scores in 2022.
- 42% of senior roles had a female successor option by end 2022.
- 100% of colleagues offered a paid volunteering day during 2023.
- 57% reduction in scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions between 2019 and 2021.
- Auditing and Assuring our work with the same rigor as our financial reporting:
- Internal Audit confirmed ‘appropriate level of scrutiny’ to Sustainability Strategy development.
- Internal Audit reviewed all Scorecard metrics, feedback has been taken onboard and enhancements made for our 2023 Report.
- Limited 3rd party assurances planned for our 2023 Report.
Carol Ord, Group Head of Sustainability said:
“It’s a privilege to co-ordinate and drive our Sustainability agenda. Being rated as Silver in our second assessment year is a great achievement and one that will make us more attractive to clients, investors and colleagues alike. It’s recognition of all the hard-work from colleagues to deliver better outcomes for our stakeholders and manage environment, social and governance topics at Lowell during 2023."
For more information visit Lowell.com or speak to your Client Relationship Manager to arrange a chat with Carol Ord, our Head of Sustainability.
