At Powell Gilbert, our culture underpins all of our activities and decisions. We believe that mutual respect and trust is essential in everything we do, including within the firm, to our clients and to society. We encourage all our partners and employees to dedicate time to supporting their communities and the environment in any ways that interest them, including charity events, promoting and implementing environmental initiatives, and undertaking pro-bono work.
We strive to be good citizens in our local community. To this end, we offer work experience placements to pupils at a local secondary school and support our local food bank.
We take steps to minimise energy consumption. We have movement-activated lighting in our office space, the air- conditioning and heating works on a timer system and our large printers/copiers feature automatic switch-off. We encourage the use of electronic notebooks to minimise printing.
The international nature of our business does require us to travel but where possible we use remote meeting technologies to limit travel and use lower carbon transport such as trains and public transport.
We encourage recycling wherever possible in our business. There are central recycling points in our kitchens and copy points, we use 100% recycled copy paper and we also recycle whatever we can.
Our redundant IT equipment is recycled, following complete and permanent data destruction.
We have introduced the UK government-backed cycle to work scheme through Cycle Solutions, offering all staff the opportunity to buy a bike tax- free through the scheme, encouraging a healthier journey to work and to help reduce pollution.
Powell Gilbert works in partnership with Queens Park Community School and Careers Academies UK to provide mentoring to students aged 16 to 19 years. Powell Gilbert staff volunteer to work with students over an 18-month period to provide personal and professional support to help the students achieve their academic and career aspirations. Students on the programme are offered the opportunity to experience one to one tailored mentoring sessions, role play and mock interviews and CV and application form development.
We have a thriving pro bono practice, offering support to non-profits such as The Ocean Cleanup.
We’re always keen to get involved and raise money for a variety of causes, whether by dressing up, baking cakes or putting our running shoes on. In recent years these have included: