Corporate social responsibility

RPC is committed to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We have a dedicated steering group of lawyers and support staff working to promote the importance of CSR and the firm's values both internally and externally. We are continually seeking to develop and improve our standards and the steering group drives our strategy forward, educating, informing and engaging our stakeholders in a focused way, ensuring consistency in the firm's goal of delivering "remarkable experiences, brilliant outcomes", for our clients, our people and our community.

Our current CSR priorities lie within the following areas:

Community:

"RPC believes in contributing positively to society and is committed to improving the quality of life for its community, locally and worldwide"

We currently undertake a variety of activities within our community: supporting local schools through the Lloyd's Community Reading Programme; providing career guidance to local students, in a programme initiated and run by an employee within the firm; and offering internships to those from ethnic and under-represented groups. We regularly take part in the Times Leadership Challenge, which involves employees participating in team building and fundraising exercises aimed at developing leadership skills in young professionals by focusing on mental and emotional responses rather than physical ability.

Each year we partner with a charity, who are not only the focus of our fundraising activities for that year, but with whom we work closely to find other ways in which we can contribute, such as pro bono work or awareness raising. This year our Charity of the Year is Mencap.

Workplace:

"RPC considers that its people are its greatest asset and is committed to treating them fairly and with respect and assisting them to become the best that they can be"

People are at the heart of our strategy. We focus on recruiting and retaining outstanding individuals at all levels, actively managing our human resources by applying a consistent approach throughout the firm. We have a robust equality policy and are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) legal network Interlaw as well as of Stonewall, a diversity programme promoting gay and lesbian equality in the workplace. We undertake a number of activities to promote diversity and opportunity and employee choice, and provide a forum to undertake non-work related activity with others in the firm, such as the RPC Choir, RPC netball team and various social events.

Environment:

"RPC is dedicated to reducing the impact of its business operations on the environment by maximising energy efficiency and reducing its carbon footprint."

We are committed to minimising our negative impact upon the environment as far as is practically possible. In 2006 we moved to Tower Bridge House (TBH), a state of the art building designed by Richard Rogers with the environment and sustainability in mind. At the time of our move, we planted a forest of 10,735 trees in Leicestershire to offset the environmental impact of our relocation and future CO2 emissions. We have also implemented the Government's Ride2Work scheme, which enables employees who cycle to work to purchase a bicycle tax-free.

We are members of the Legal Sector Alliance. The LSA is a movement of law firms and organisations committed to working collaboratively to take action on climate change by reducing their carbon footprint and adopting environmentally sustainable practices. We use the LSA protocols to measure our carbon footprint, which is 1.63 tonnes per person per annum. Based on the LSA tables, this is one of the lowest carbon footprints of all UK law firms.

RPC is the Legal Advisor for Climate Week

Marketplace:

"RPC is committed to conducting business in a responsible manner to protect the interests of its clients and suppliers by being open, honest and ethical in all of its relationships."

Many of our CSR goals are in clear alignment with those of our Marketplace and we are currently working on ways to build on that alignment. Several of our "Community" activities already impact on our Marketplace, such as our involvement with the Lloyd's Community Programme. Many of our fundraising activities - both those related to our Charity of the Year and those we are involved with externally - involve interaction with our clients and suppliers.

For more information on our CSR programme contact Kerstin Selander (kerstin.selander@rpc.co.uk).