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The ESG journey: setting goals and breaking barriers

With businesses increasingly judged on their values and actions, Pete Fendall, Chief Operations Officer, shares insights into the development of DSW’s Environmental, Sustainability, and Governance (ESG) framework.

DSW and ESG

How did you develop the ESG Framework?

Over the past five years, ESG has gained significant prominence as people have become more familiar with the term and recognised that it touches all aspects of how we operate as responsible businesses and professionals. We know prospective teams and recruits are placing more emphasis on joining a company with clear ESG policies and goals when making career decisions.

DSW’s ESG framework is built on four cornerstones, which are;

  • Social & Environmental Impact
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Empowering our People
  • Responsible Business Practices.

These cornerstones were developed by listening to our stakeholders, who increasingly value companies with strong ESG principles at their core. We are committed to building a sustainable future and will continue to work towards achieving our ESG goals.

How has DSW empowered its people to deliver on the ESG goals?

We are proud to have established our ESG committee, which I chair, to spearhead positive organisational changes as we strive to become ‘best-in-class’.

This committee meet quarterly to review progress and explore new initiatives, ensuring accountability and continual advancement towards our ESG goals. The ESG committee outcomes are shared across DSW and the committee members act as ambassadors within the organisation, providing a channel for others to feedback their ideas and priorities.

Take us through the achievements of DSW’s ESG Strategy

We keep future sustainability trends firmly on our radar and align them with DSW’s organisational goals. Highlights from this year’s ESG Strategy include:

  • Reducing Scope 1 Emissions by 53.4%, Scope 1&2 Emissions by 31% and producing a streamlined Energy and Carbon Report
  • Supporting charities that matter most to our people, welcoming and encouraging charity nominations, and placing more focus on individuals’ charity endeavours
  • Developing a charity-matched funding scheme and a volunteering initiative
  • Conducting a comprehensive employee engagement survey and integrating the findings into our business
  • Continuing to advance a ‘Best-in-class’ ESG strategy with a bespoke framework for monitoring progress, which is published in DSW’s ESG Reports
  • Rolling out Diversity & Inclusion training, including unconscious bias, ESG and healthy working across the network, maintained our network of mental health first aiders and continued with well-being and social events
  • Delivering a hugely successful and insightful International Women’s Day event on Breaking Barriers
  • Providing young talent with an alternative route into roles, welcoming three apprentices, internships and graduates
  • Delivering the second cohort of the DSW Future Leaders Programme.
  • Relaunching the group mentoring programme with 13 partners volunteering as mentors
  • Developing and delivering the first group-wide conference

As a 107-strong organisation, we strive to live by our ESG values and aim to be carbon neutral by 2025 and carbon net zero by 2030.

What is DSW’s giving back ethos?

DSW has always maintained a strong charitable focus. With our new ESG agenda, we plan to enhance impact through significant charity events and increased employee involvement.

We are exploring matched funding and partnerships with charities that align with our mission and values. Our team can submit nominations, and we review these charities case-by-case. There’s always a back story about why people champion and want to support specific charities. We are also promoting skilled volunteering opportunities for the team.

What are the Diversity & Inclusion initiatives?

DSW is rolling out comprehensive Diversity & Inclusion training, including Awareness Days, unconscious bias, and ESG and maintained our network of social events and inclusive language and communication initiatives.

Collaborating with local colleges, we aim to diversify entry points into the accountancy and corporate finance sector, complemented by apprenticeships, debt-free study options and mentoring for young people.

As part of our Future Leaders leadership and development programme we are acutely aware of training our leaders on how to involve diverse perspectives in decision-making processes whilst providing mentoring and support within DSW.

What are you looking forward to in 2024?

I’m enthusiastic about working closely with the ESG committee planning social and wellbeing events to enrich DSW’s culture. I value the opportunity to engage with team members’ experiences and challenges, contributing to a supportive and inclusive workplace environment.