Investment & Retirement Solutions Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the act of incorporating environmental, social concerns and increasingly sustainability into a business.

At Investment & Retirement Solutions we are often mandated by clients to develop suitable sustainable and CSR investment strategies to meet client objectives, but did you know that corporate sustainability and social responsibility are embedded in our business ethics?

We believe that sustainability and positive change can be brought about with many small steps; here are some of the steps we’ve taken so far:

Our business is designed for remote working, most members of our team spend at least some of their working week working from home, balancing our commitment to support our clients alongside family commitments, but also avoiding the environmental impact and wasted time of needless travel.

For ‘office days’  we deliberately located our Head Office in Ransom Hall, set in Sherwood Forest. Unlike any other business location we know, there is a public commitment that no more than 30% of the site will be developed, the remainder staying as nature intended – green space.

When we’re in the office we do tend to use rather a lot of electricity, but we do so with a slightly clearer conscience than you may expect. Why? Ransom Wood has it’s very own three-acre Solar Farm – making our office and those of our neighbours, entirely electrically self-sustained with green power.

Our green space: Ransom Wood provides a range of habitats for wildlife including lowland heath which is rare in the area and supports a number of uncommon plants and animals.  The variety of bird life is astounding (several breeds of Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tits, Owls and many more) and mammals such as Fallow Deer can be seen grazing from your window. The site is also used to return healed animals and birds to their natural environments, such as Tawny Owls, Kestrels and even a Buzzard.

 

When it’s appropriate we strive to reduce our carbon footprint even further, increasingly we correspond with clients electronically and one of (maybe the only) positive change to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic has been the increased desire of clients to meet electronically, something we’ve supported for many years

Our Corporate Social Responsibility is always in mind, but it doesn’t dictate how we work. If clients need physical post, we send a physical post. If client’s need a real-world face to face meeting then we’ll get in a car.

hybrid car

All members of our team are obliged to particpate in annual training and testing across a broad spectrum of subjects, many which will be obvious, but some less so, for example: the Equality Act 2010, Ethics, Staff Conduct, Treating Customers Fairly and Vulnerable Persons training. We also support team members to be involved in their community, for example Paul H shares his governance experience as a director of community not for profit, Paul C teaches academic and vocational personal finance/investment for professional bodies, universities and in several local prisons.

 

Investment & Retirement Solutions is proud to be recognised by the Department of Work and Pensions as a committed ‘disability confident’ firm

 

Investment & Retirement Solutions is proud to be a subscriber of the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce, embedding the Charter into our Vulnerable Persons Policy. 

 

Investment & Retirement Solutions is proud to be recognised as a Purple Tuesday supporting firm, making our annual pledge to do something different to improve the accessibility of our services to the disabled community.

 

 

Investment & Retirement Solutions is proud to have been one of the founding firms of the Emergency Financial Advice initiative, providing pro-bono guidance to members of the public worried about their personal financial planning during the Coronavirus pandemic

 

 

Investment & Retirement Solutions is proud to be a member of the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network, striving to foster multicultural inclusion and progression within the insurance sector

 

Pledging our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant was our first and easiest conscious corporate and social responsibility action.

See below how this has developed:

We’re delighted to be able to offer support to forces personnel and veterans who are members of the On Course Foundation, Blesma (the Limbless Veterans charity) or the Forces Pension Society and to all veterans who come to us via the Veterans Gateway. The Forces MoneyPlan is an initiative offering free, confidential financial guidance to all Armed Forces personnel and Veterans.

We’re proud to have been awarded a Bronze Award by the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme  for our contribution to supporting veterans, service personnel and their families in our work

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Investment & Retirement Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Registered in England & Wales (6884783) at Ransom Hall, Ransom Wood, Nottinghamshire, NG21 0HJ

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