Environmental Sustainability

Good for the Environment, Good for Business!

Message from our CEO.

My company works in really challenging environments, from Yemen to Iraq. We try to positively impact those suffering as a result of state fragility and conflict. Not long ago I was in a bar in Toronto with a good friend who introduced me to a senior figure in Greenpeace. When asked what I do, I recounted my travels to support my colleagues delivering what I hope are meaningful projects that help vulnerable people. As such I was somewhat taken aback when my Greenpeace interlocutor rounded on me, saying 'Ah, you are a carbon bandit - what with all those flights'.

So that led us to take a more self-critical look at our own policies in relation to environmental sustainability. We have developed compliance and GDPR information management procedures; safeguarding, sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse guidelines; whistleblowing policies, as well as a strong focus on inclusion and addressing vulnerability. But when it came to our environmental policy, we had work to do, and still have work to do. We have done the basics - joined a green business group, done some clean ups around our offices and pursued recycling initiatives. Most recently we have moved to offset the CO2 of all the flights we take as a company. The really surprising thing about the latter was that it is remarkably inexpensive to do.

So in a week when Greta Thunberg won the Time Person of the Year award, I would not claim anything we have done is remarkable, but it is a start and in my experience truly complex problems are not addressed by the massive application of effort of a few, but the commitment and engagement of the many. If ever there was a multilateral issue that requires a response that reflects our shared humanity, it is the environment. There will be sirens, like Ms Thunberg, Al Gore or our very own David Attenborough, and their role is invaluable, but at the end of the day, we all need to do our bit, as the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.