Sustainability

IHP Group Sustainability Update – Jan 2024

Climate change

We are supportive of the UK government’s overall ambition to reach a net zero position by 2050 and continue to be committed to meeting or exceeding this goal.

We have made positive strides during the year in understanding and defining the next steps of our climate change journey. Key highlights include the following:

• Appointing a dedicated resource covering our Group sustainability agenda.
• Engaging a third-party sustainability consultancy to review our approach to collecting and reporting carbon emissions and to recommend carbon reduction strategies.
• Committing to a carbon reduction target of 60% of direct operational Scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of financial year 2033 from a 2022 base year.
• Conducting scenario analysis to enhance our assessment and understanding of the impacts, risks, and opportunities climate change presents for our business.

We recognise that despite the progress made this year, we still have a lot of work to do. Understanding and managing climate change impacts from, and on, the business is an iterative process and we are planning to address the following aspects next year and in the longer term:

• Producing carbon emission reduction plans that align with science-based target best practice.
• Committing to a climate transition plan to outline how we will become carbon net zero by 2050 or before.
• Establishing a sustainability forum comprised of members of the senior management team who will drive forward the agreed environmental strategy at an operational level.
• Encouraging employee engagement through training, workshops, and employee forums.
• Establishing a climate-related risk on the corporate risk register.
• Understanding and embracing the reporting and other requirements under Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and standards developed, but yet to be adopted by the UK, on sustainability reporting by the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
• Looking at the emissions generated in our supply chain and drafting a Sustainable Supply Chain Charter.
• Keeping abreast of the quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics for assets held on the Transact platform to potentially enable clients and financial advisers to make more informed investment decisions.

For more detailed information, please see the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures section in the annual report and accounts (pages 23-44).

 

Our people

We know that our employees are fundamental to our success and we have continued to evolve our collaborative and supportive culture through our people strategy, aiming to recognise, motivate and develop our talent by:

• Reinforcing our purpose, strategy and values.
• Enabling our employees to develop and grow through training, development and career opportunities.
• Enhancing our engagement activities.
• Ensuring our practices support inclusivity and employee wellbeing.

Our highlights from financial year 2023 are:

• Obtained London Living Wage accreditation for the Group.
• Carried out our second Group engagement survey.
• Embedded our new performance management framework to underpin our performance-related variable pay structure.
• Built a well-being suite at our London office.
• Created a feedback loop between the board and employees through the introduction of employee forums.
• Enrolled all managers in mental health training.
• Enhanced our occupational maternity and paternity pay schemes.
• Signed up to the “Women in Finance” charter.

Looking forward, we are committed to maintaining a culture which ensures employees are motivated, committed to their role and supporting the Group in achieving its goals. We are proud of the culture we have created which we will continue to strengthen so as to retain and attract the best talent to drive further success.

Our priorities for the coming year are:

• Continuing to enhance employee engagement and motivation.
• Progressing our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
• Implementing a mentoring programme.
• Embedding our Training and Development strategy.

For more detailed information, please see the Responsible Business section in the annual report and accounts (pages 45-52).

 

Community

Each year we pro-actively source opportunities to support charitable causes our employees care about and look at how we can support our local community.

In financial year 2023:

• We provided employees with the opportunity to partake in charitable appeals with the company matching employee donations.
• We sponsored a ‘Rock for Ukraine’ event to raise money for refugees from the war in Ukraine.
• We partnered with Kingston University to provide some of their finance students from underprivileged backgrounds with the opportunity to complete work experience at our London office.

In financial year 2024, we will continue to explore ways in which we can enhance our community support and the evolution of our social strategy. Our planned actions so far include:

• Partner with 10,000 Black Interns initiative
• Partner with universities to provide social education to students from underprivileged backgrounds.

For more detailed information, please see the Responsible Business section in the annual report and accounts (pages 45-52).