Corporate Social Responsibility Policy (Dec25)

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a voluntary initiative for which no legislation has been enacted. It is a way of describing how companies measure and control their impact on society. As such, it is a self-regulation tool which aims to assess our impact on society from which we evaluate our responsibilities and hold ourselves socially accountable.

Purpose

This policy aims to inform us all of the activities that we consider appropriate to meet our CSR.

Scope

This policy applies to all employees in The Eric Whitehead Partnership, including managers and consultants.

Responsibility

Nicola Robinson (Director/COFA) is responsible for this policy and for monitoring and managing CSR.

We must all familiarise ourselves with this policy and put forward any ideas as to how we can improve our contribution to CSR. All ideas should be communicated to Nicola Robinson.

Policy statement

As a law firm, we recognise that we have a collective responsibility to the wider community and the environment around us which goes beyond our core activity. As such, we believe that our business behaviour must be socially responsible and should take account of the impact our activities have on the economy and society.

We aspire to make a positive impact on the community within which we operate through our three main themes of CSR activity, namely environment, community, and you.

Our CSR activities

Our activities are organised into the following three areas:

Environment

The firm is committed towards implementing and managing practical policies and processes which will reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. In considering the environment, we:

• include environmental considerations in our purchasing and procurement processes to encourage environmental responsibility amongst our contractors, suppliers, and staff.
• ensure that we manage waste through responsible disposal and make arrangements for recycling, where possible.
• encourage staff, where appropriate, not to print documents or to print documents double sided.
• minimise our use of electricity by encouraging staff to turn all electrical equipment off when not in use.
• encourage greener transport – we encourage staff to walk and use public transport to get to the office and to use greener fuels in their personal vehicles (such as electricity) where possible.
• educate our staff on local and global environmental issues, including climate change, pollution, water scarcity, unsustainable consumption and waste and how to become carbon literate (See the Carbon Literacy Project’s website for information ) and
• are committed to reducing our carbon footprint more generally and becoming carbon neutral as we believe this will have a positive impact on our employees and the wider community.

Community

We define ‘community’ as the local community within which we operate. We commit to contributing positively to the local community by being a responsible neighbour, by building strong relationships with the local community and by being actively involved in local issues. The firm currently supports the local community in the following ways:

• networking and supporting local business activities
• supporting local nominated charities
• sponsorship of local clubs, events, teams, etc.; and,
• career talks.

You

We want you to have rewarding careers and good opportunities for progression, but we also value you having fulfilled and happy lives outside of our business.

Therefore, we expect and ensure equality of opportunity in our recruitment, progression and learning and development processes, across our business. These values are set out within our separate Equality and Diversity Policy, Learning and Development Policy and our People Management Procedures which further outline our commitments to the way we treat and work with people.

Review of this policy

This policy will be reviewed at least annually by Nicola Robinson (Director/COFA)

December 2025