ESG in Practice at Arlingclose Stuart Jones sjones@arlingclose.com

As ESG becomes more and more engrained in the investment process, and pervasive in the wider world, Arlingclose aims to do its bit. Sourcing borrowing can also benefit from various ESG metrics. As these features become more prevalent in all areas of treasury management, Arlingclose’ policies aim to encourage and bring these to the fore.

Arlingclose maintains an environmental policy which embeds some of our core values within our practices. As a services-oriented business, our operations cause minimal direct environmental impact. However, where possible we try to take into account the direct and indirect environmental impact of our activities.

The major sources of our greenhouse gasses arise from our office and our travel commitments from employees, both of which have declined through the pandemic. To reduce our impact here we use public transport where possible as well as encouraging employees to consider the environmental impact of their actions and adopt green practices where possible.

Within the office, lighting and air-conditioning systems are run on motion sensors and time systems respectively which aims to minimise energy wastage. We also enact a strict paper recycling policy among other recyclables, as well as reduce the amount of paper usage for client meetings. Arlingclose clients will likely know our usage of iPads at meetings for the past several years has significantly reduced our paper usage.

What we cannot reduce, we offset. Arlingclose has been Carbon Neutral since the end of 2019. The Verified Carbon Schemes have offset our carbon emissions by planting trees across regions in the UK. This has been through tree-planting in various locations such as schools. For historical emissions, Arlingclose has offset through Verified Carbon Schemes across the world, including various offsetting projects in Africa, building towards a carbon positive Arlingclose.