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Rothschild & Co | Annual Report 2017
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1. Overview
4. Financial statements
3.
Management report
2. Business review
The overall governance of environmental matters comes from the Group
Environment, Health & Safety Committee. This Committee is formed of
senior representatives championing Environment, Health & Safety within
Rothschild & Co. This Committee, which reports to the Group Executive
Committee, a senior management committee at Rothschild & Co, is
required to:
• review and provide direction on Rothschild & Co’s environment strategy;
• promote alignment of Rothschild & Co’s Environment Policy across all
Group legal entities;
• review and provide direction on Rothschild & Co’s environmental goals
and targets; and
• review and endorse environmental content for the Rothschild & Co
Annual Report, including the Corporate Social Responsibility Report,
and environmental content of all other Rothschild & Co reports, and
the Rothschild & Co website.
The Group Environment Manager is responsible for coordinating all
environmental activities, with senior individuals at each of our offices who,
in turn, are accountable for their location’s environmental management.
Implementation of environmental management activities at each location
is the responsibility of the location’s Environment Advocates, with
environmental stewardship being the responsibility of every Rothschild & Co
employee.
4.1.2 Employee training and awareness on
environmental protection
Rothschild & Co raises employee awareness of environmental challenges
affecting the Group primarily through its Intranet R-connect, email
communications, notice boards and face-to-face meetings.
In 2017, the Group participated in many global initiatives to increase
employee awareness on various environmental challenges. One of the
initiatives, Zero Waste Week, was aimed at increasing awareness of
the waste generated from our daily activities. Focusing on eliminating
disposable packaging, employees were encouraged to have a zero waste
lunch by, for example, bringing in leftovers from home or asking their local
café to fill reusable containers. Employees were asked to take a photo and
explain what they had done to reduce lunchtime waste before entering a
competition judged by the EH&S Committee. The winners were invited to
select a charity to receive a donation from the Group on their behalf.
The Group also shared environmental impact information of the office
operations internally with infographics. Using these infographics, staff were
able to compare the relative impact at an absolute and per person level for
waste, material use, water use, energy use and CO
2
emissions. The results
were broken down into tangible comparisons, like the number of showers
the Group water use amounts to per person. Communicating the impact
in this way enabled employees to compare offices against each other
more easily.
Environmental Advocates have been identified for each office location.
This has helped ensure clear understanding, consistent messaging and
sharing of best practice to address environmental challenges that are
commonly found across the Group.
In due course, Rothschild & Co will develop and deliver training that
addresses environmental challenges that are common across the Group.
This training will be made available for all Rothschild & Co employees and
where appropriate, third-party contractors.
4.1.3 Amount of provisions and guarantees for
environmental risk
In 2015 and 2016, Rothschild & Co undertook a global legal compliance
and conformance assessment to understand the legal environmental
responsibilities in each jurisdiction where Rothschild & Co has an office.
This assessment led to the development of the Group environmental
conformance standard for offices worldwide, which the Group regularly
monitors and uses to continuously improve.
To date, no particular provisions or guarantees have been identified or are
required for operational environmental risk.
4.2 Pollution
4.2.1 Measures for preventing, reducing or
offsetting discharges into the air, water and soil,
with a severe impact on the environment
As an office-based business, Rothschild & Co does not consider its
discharges into air, water and soil to be material environmental risks.
4.2.2 Sound pollution and any other form of
business-specific pollution
As an office-based business, Rothschild & Co does not consider sound
pollution to be a material environmental risk, nor does the Group contribute
to any other business-specific forms of pollution.
4.3 Circular economy
Rothschild & Co understands that applying a traditional approach to
resource use places undue pressure on global resources, is wasteful
and is uneconomically viable in an increasingly challenging business
environment. The Group believes that promoting circular economy activities
is in line with being a responsible, sustainable business that helps uphold
its commitment to responsible consumption and production, as defined
under the 12
th
Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations
(responsible production and consumption).