Our CSR commitment

As well as encouraging our stakeholders to adopt responsible business practices, we try to ‘walk the talk’ ourselves in the following ways:

Voluntary Work

The team contributed 115 hours of their time to good causes in 2009.
One member of the team is a governor of a secondary school with more than 1,500 students.

Charitable Giving

Team members have raised a total of £3,665 for a variety of charitable causes in the past year.
Heart of the City's Director took part in a charity boxing contest, helping to raise over £3,400 to help keep the Maison de l'Enfance (House of Childhood) centre in Benin, Africa open.
One team member gives regularly through the City of London's Payroll Giving scheme, helping charities to recieve gifts tax-free.
Via an office dress down day, one team member raised £102.71 which was split between the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Kith and Kids.

Environment

HotC team members attended 472 meetings in 2009. For the vast majority of these; the team either walked or held a telecon. For all other meetings, they used public transport and only used taxis sparingly.
To reduce paper consumption, the team take notes on a laptop. They also laminate copies of key marketing materials to show at meetings rather than handing out paper copies. PDF’s of these materials are emailed to clients after the meetings.
All HotC materials are downloadable from the members-area of our website, further reducing paper use. In addition, the HotC flyer was printed on 100% chlorine free bleach paper and we use an FSC accredited printer for all stationery.
One team member belongs to The City of London Corporation’s “Green Team.” The Green Team has helped replace the office kettle with an energy efficient hydrotap. They also reward staff who turn off their PC’s at night.
Heart of the City's Director cycles to work, helping to decrease pollution and avoid congestion on public transport.
As employees of the City of London, the team work in an office promoting environmentally friendly practices. Individual desk bins have been removed and there are a number of recycling bins in the office. HotC always print two pages to every sheet of paper and select double sided printing options.
The two Project Managers are members of the City Environmental Form where they share best practice with other CSR practitioners. They are also members of the City of London’s internal Sustainability Group to ensure green practices are promoted throughout the City of London.

Responsible Procurement

We thank our Contributors for their significant pro-bono support for our workshops by giving them Fairtrade gifts.
HotC use local suppliers wherever possible. For instance, at a recent event, local suppliers were used to deliver catering, furniture hire and audio-visual equipment.

Targets

This is the first year that the team has measured engagement and is using these figures to establish targets for the coming year.
In 2010, we aim that all team members will use their two days for volunteering as part of the City of London’s Volunteering Time Off Policy.
A target has been set for the coming year that team members should either walk or use public transport for a minimum of 97.5% of meetings.
The team aim to reduce its paper consumption by eliminating ALL paper copies of meeting briefing notes.
All workshop thank you gifts given to Contributors in 2010 will be Fairtrade products.