Environmental, social and governance considerations influence everything we do at Myerson.
We have always firmly believed that we have a responsibility to support our people and the community in which we operate.
We know that to be truly successful, our firm needs to be a sustainable business, which minimises our impact on the environment.
Environmental
We know that we must continuously invest in and commit to reducing our environmental impact.
That’s why we have committed to reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 34% by 2027 from a baseline year of 2022.
We also commit to using 100% renewable energy by 2025 and to becoming a carbon neutral business by 2030.
We are working to reduce our energy usage as far as possible, and we are working with our suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint across our supply chain.
Although we are very aware of trying to be as sustainable as possible, we recognise that there is always more we can do to improve our environmental impact.
Here are some of the things we are currently doing:
- We have a paperless policy across the firm, and we are working to reduce our paper usage as much as possible.
- All electricity consumed by the firm comes from renewable sources.
- Our smart working policy has reduced travel throughout the firm.
- We recycle the majority of our office waste, including creating our own compost from our food waste. We monitor how much waste we produce and work with our waste disposal partners to ensure our waste is recycled or disposed of appropriately.
- We have LED bulbs in our office and intelligent light sensors to reduce unnecessary wastage of electricity.
- We donate our old IT equipment to local schools and recycle our old office furniture.
- We have banned single use plastics in our meeting rooms, and we provide all of our people with personalised reusable water bottles.
- We recently installed 4 EV charging points in our car park.
- Our people can take advantage of our cycle to work scheme, which has recently been increased to include electric bikes.
- We encourage the use of e-signatures to reduce paper.
- We use local suppliers for all our office needs, where possible.
Social
Our people are our most important asset, and we will always protect and promote the health and wellbeing of our staff.
To support employee wellbeing, we created the Myerson 'Bee' Well campaign - our internal support structure that provides practical tips and reminders to improve employee mental health and wellbeing. The campaign includes free seminars on mental health support, podcasts, relaxation techniques, PT and Yoga classes as well as links to support sites.
We also offer assistance with financial wellbeing including offering one to one sessions for all employees with a qualified financial adviser.
We are very serious about learning and development at Myerson and we offer a comprehensive programme of training for everyone in our business, tailored to fit their role and objectives. We want all of our people to have a fulfilling and interesting career with us and to reach their true potential.
We want to recruit the best people, regardless of their background, but we understand that it can be very difficult to break into the world of law. That’s why we launched our solicitor apprenticeship programme in 2022 and we were delighted to welcome our first two apprentices in September.
We commit to being an active participant in our local community and to engaging with local businesses and suppliers as much as possible. We believe that we have a clear obligation and responsibility to serve the wider community's needs and we have a proud history of involvement in our local community.
Our people provide a range of support to local charities, not-for-profit organisations and schools including pro-bono legal work, education and training, fundraising and community projects. We believe it is important to give not only financial support but also our time and expertise. We offer all members of staff a paid volunteering day to use in supporting a charity or community project of their choice.
The majority of our suppliers are local and it means a lot to us to work with and support other businesses in our community, as well as being important from a sustainability perspective.
Governance
We live by our core values and our Promise, which are central to everything we do, from how we recruit and promote, to how we deal with our clients and suppliers and how we interact with our community.
We believe that everyone in our business should feel that their contribution is welcomed and valued. That’s why we undertake an employee engagement survey each year to gather feedback and suggestions from our staff.
We also have a virtual suggestion box on our intranet where employees are encouraged to make suggestions about all sorts of things relating to life at Myerson.
We have made real changes because of these initiatives in areas as diverse as investing in an app which allows us to share parking spaces in our car park with all staff, to changing the brand of tea bags in our kitchens!
Our people are updated on the progress of the business and the vision and plans for the future at briefings from our CEO and COO twice a year.
Diversity and inclusion are very important to us. We are extremely proud to announce that in 2023, Myerson will reach gender parity in the partnership.