Why SDGs?
The SDG'a are still highly relevant, but only if we make them part of the strategy and culture of our business.
Measuring our impact through the B Corp framework has meant aligning our work to the UN Sustainability Goals. Because we work with clients across diverse sectors, our indirect impact supports virtually all of the seventeen goals, however recent analysis showed that the three goals we align with most closely are SDG’s 8, 15 and 17.
As today is SDG flag day, we thought it a perfect opportunity to reflect on how our work supports our aligned SDG goals...
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Key Aspects of Goal 8:
- Economic Growth and Productivity
- Decent Work
- Fair Labour Practices
- Sustainable Practices
As an employer, we ensure all our employees have decent work opportunities with fair pay and conditions, above the national minimum and living wage.
We offer opportunity and investment in training and upskilling, encourage career growth and internal promotion.
Within our organisation, and in our role as an executive search provider, we promote economic inclusion, Sherrington Associates believe the executive search profession has a responsibility to make the world a fairer place by recruiting in a way that gives marginalised and under-represented groups the same chance as everyone else to apply for our client’s positions and using techniques that remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment process.
As such, we have scrutinised our recruitment practices and made a number of strategic enhancements to support DEI, including investment in search technology that uses algorithms specifically designed to remove bias, using nameless CVs where required and promoting certain roles within groups and networks where minority candidates are more likely to apply.
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Key Aspects of Goal 15:
- Conserve ecosystems
- Sustainable forest management
- Combat land degradation
- Protect biodiversity
On behalf of all our team members, we subscribe to Ecologi, a fellow B Corp whose vision is to cultivate an Earth where people and planet thrive. With over 24,000 businesses and more than 300 B Corps, the Ecologi community has funded the planting of 89 million trees, the avoidance or removal of 3.4 million tonnes of CO2and the restoration of over 31,000m2 of wildlife habitats in the UK.
Our subscription has also contributed to many Ecologi projects around the world including conservation of areas of the Amazon rainforest, the restoration and conservation of peatlands in Indonesia, protecting biodiversity reserves in Peru and protecting deforestation in Democratic Republic of Congo.
We have had a long working partnership with Chester Zoo, supporting them with recruitment, executive coaching and also fundraising. The concept of the Zoo’s “Race for the Rainforest” campaign was the idea of our MD Rob, with the aim to plant and maintain a wildlife corridor in Borneo to protest the rainforest habitat of orangutans and other wildlife.
We have been proud to support many clients whose values match our own, such as Chester Zoo, whose conservation work is recognised worldwide, The Land Trust, whose vision is to improve the social and economic quality of peoples lives by creating sustainable, high-quality greenspaces, and Green Earth Developments, who specialise in the regenerative redevelopment of brownfield sites, creating habitats for biodiversity, or installing solar farms.
Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals
Key Aspects of Goal 17:
- Enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships
- Effective and targeted capacity building
- Sharing knowledge, expertise and innovation
- Mobilising and sharing financial resources, knowledge etc
The very essence of Sherrington’s approach to bringing long-term value to our client’s organisations is developing deep and meaningful partnerships. This means going way beyond the typical transactional relationships between recruiter and employer. Instead, we help our clients to develop cultures of sustainable leadership by recruiting and developing exceptional leaders with the hallmarks of sustainable leadership. The use of our 4A Model of Sustainable Leadership and Barrett Values tools, in the recruitment process, as well as leadership coaching, supports our clients to enact long-term sustainable change.
Through the commission of academic work to develop our 4A Model of Sustainable Leadership framework, whitepapers, participation in workshops, panels and events, we strive to help spread an understanding of what sustainable leadership means and support our clients in embedding it within their own organisations.
We are always happy to share our time, expertise and resources to support charities and under-served communities. We have carried out pro-bono recruitment for charities such as Cheshire Connect, we give our time to serve as trustees of charities like Cheshire Connect and Active Cheshire, support local charity initiatives such as Cheshire Community Foundations Cheshire 100, all of which we hope benefits such charities, enabling them to build capacity when they may be limited in resources.
