Our CSR
We are responsible
And we care about our community
Our Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility is embedded into our business strategy and built into our vision, mission, values, practices and culture.
A Carbon Neutral Business
As a part of this commitment, we have started our journey to becoming a carbon neutral company by partnering with Ecologi. Ecologi is a social enterprise that helps businesses to become a Climate Positive Workforce.
This means we will now:
Offset the entire carbon footprint of all our employees, including emissions from our homes, personal travel, holidays, food, and hobbies.
Offset all business travel undertaken across our business.
Plant groves of trees in the SP Forest and finance carbon reduction projects around the world.
Continued climate focus
Did you know that SP audit and mitigate our carbon footprint through our partnership with Ecologi, a social enterprise that help businesses to become a Climate Positive Workforce. Over the last 24 months we have funded the planting of 556 trees in ten countries and funded 19 projects across the globe including forestry, renewables and community projects. To date we have offset 17 certified tonnes of C02e.
Environment Policy
In 2010 we committed to:
Continuously improve our environmental performance and integrate recognised environmental management best practice into our business operations.
Reduce our consumption of resources and improve the efficient use of those resources.
Take action to reduce the carbon footprint of our business activities.
Manage waste generated from our business operations according to the principles of reduction, re-use and recycling.
Ensure environmental, including climate change, criteria are taken into account in the procurement of goods and services.
Comply as a minimum with all relevant environmental legislation.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We encourage equity, diversity and inclusion right across our team. This includes religion, race, ethnic origin, language, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, age and any other potential factor of difference. Our Board is responsible for recruitment and adheres to our policies when attracting and selecting candidates.
We’re certified as Disability Confident Committed Level 1 in the UK
Corporate Social Responsibility & Social Value
Community support
We sponsor a local soccer team in the UK and our team members volunteer time for local community activities including coaching local sports teams.
Our suppliers
When choosing suppliers, we consider diversity as part of our selection process. Agreement with any supply chain partners include adherence to our DE&I policies.
Our workforce
We actively help support skills development, such as subsidizing places on public courses for attendees who are not currently in employment. Our Rising Stars program in the UK takes around 25 young people who are new to the proposal profession through four days of training, learning and one-to-one coaching at no cost to them or their organization. A large number of each of the groups have learned new skills and built confidence to seek out promotions/new opportunities in our profession.
We also support the development of our profession and led the creation of a new global APMP writing certification at no cost to the APMP or the proposal industry.
Mental health and wellbeing in the proposal and bid community
We support the mental health of our team and the wider proposal and bid community by providing white papers and presentations on mental health and wellbeing. One of our team members was vice-chair of the newly formed APMP Mental Health Affinity Group which brings real value into the wellbeing discussions in our team and profession.
Mairi Morrison CPP APMP
We have a development fund set aside for our own team for training courses, subscriptions and books to invest in their wellbeing. We hold 'School of Life' sessions focused on work/life balance which is open to our team, our SP Alumni (people who have joined our Alumni for free as a result of attending one of our training courses) and the SP Rising Stars.
Human rights & equity
We ensure our business operates in an entirely non-discriminatory way.
Though we’re not a reporting entity, due to our company size, we follow the principles of the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act.
Charitable support
Both the company and individual team members regularly participate in charitable events and fundraising activities. At our internal events we run competitions, with the prize being a donation to a charity of choice. We also provide pro-bono support and advice on bid and proposal issues for organizations. Our team also support many individual charities such as RNIB in the UK. During the holidays we donate to charities chosen by our team.
Net Zero commitment
Our policies are designed to minimize our impact on the environment, including reducing our carbon footprint. Our standard terms and conditions of business reference that the cost of carbon reduction of air travel will either be client-chargeable for client work or payable by Strategic Proposals.
We use FSC-compliant materials (sustainable sources) wherever practical for all sales proposal documentation and training course materials.
We advocate duplex (double-sided) printing for all sales proposal print and production activity including training course workbooks and materials.