Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance

Community

We are delighted to be a part of the vibrant Whitechapel community and have recently partnered with the Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership (THEBP). THEBP provides volunteer-based programmes and workshops aimed at raising the aspirations of young people through developing employability skills and an understanding of the world of work. To get the ball rolling, members of our HR team conducted mock interviews and feedback sessions with students from the Morpeth Secondary School and were very impressed by their mature, “can do” attitude. We regularly invite staff to get involved with similar initiatives and tend to run a number of schemes each year. We also support the various Whitechapel homeless charities like the “Whitechapel Mission” along with a number of causes of special importance to members of staff.

Environment

We are enjoying working with a large number of innovators in the fields of green energy and renewable materials and heartened by the advances they are making. In the office, we are always looking for ways to save energy and reduce waste. To this end, we have installed sensor lights and added multiple recycling points in our offices, radically reduced our use of paper and offer incentive schemes to encourage staff to cycle to work. We also have a very active Sustainability Group who are continually investigating ways in which the firm and individuals can do more to protect the environment.

Wellbeing

We live in stressful times and run initiatives to help staff to protect their mental health. These include Mindfulness sessions and access to BUPA’s Healthy Minds service. We have also run campaigns for Mental Health Awareness and the charity Jonathan’s Voice and signpost various tools for staff via our internal website.

We are keen to provide an inclusive environment and are running a number of initiatives to increase the diversity of our team. We are members of IP Inclusive and have been actively involved in Women in IP, IP & ME, IP Out and IP Ability.

Eco & Sustainability Insights

• Queen’s Speech outlines new Energy Bill for the UK

  The pursuit of cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy has been put at the heart of the governments plans for the year ahead, with the unveiling of a...

• International Women’s Day  – Thinking Outside the (Pizza) Box

  To celebrate International Women’s Day I wanted to tell the curious, lesser-known story of one-time inventor and patentee, Carmela Vitale.  Ch...

• (Plastic) Free Refills! – The Future of Shopping?

  Mrs Kelvey and I recently visited our local refill store for the first time. We’ve known about it for a while but had never had the time to make th...

• COP26: innovation remain central to achieving a clean energy future

  COP26 in Glasgow was long heralded as the last chance for the world to come together with a plan to preserve the climate, and the world as we know it...

• There’s nothing new under the sun – a brief look at historical climate change patents – Part 6: Catalytic Converters

  Catalytic converters are good for the environment. Catalytic converters are also bad for the environment; it depends what criteria you choose to asse...

• There’s nothing new under the sun – a brief look at historical climate change patents – Part 5: Biofuels

  Reducing humanity’s reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol...