Being a good corporate citizen and socially responsible are intrinsic to who we are, both for the JFSC as an organisation and for the people we employ. We are conscious of the impact we make environmentally and socially, and we champion making positive contributions to our local community and the wider environment.
Becoming a more sustainable organisation
Reducing the JFSC's environmental impact
We are committed to becoming a more sustainable organisation and minimising our environmental impact. The pandemic has accelerated this in many respects, but we recognise that some of our impacts have shifted from the office to people’s homes, for example energy and waste.
In 2020, we reduced our carbon footprint by operating a zero printing policy while working from home and, of course, we completely stopped business travel. When we do print, 10p from every ream used goes to support Jersey Zoo and, in future, we will continue to hold and attend virtual meetings where appropriate instead of travelling, so we keep reducing our emissions.
For many years, the JFSC has made environmental issues a priority. We have made small but important changes in the office, such as switching to light-saving LED bulbs, ensuring lights and equipment are turned off at the end of the day, and using recycled paper for printing and recycling bins for waste.
After more than a year of remote working, we are looking to change our office environment so that staff have more flexibility. Sustainability and energy efficiency will be central to our plans for this refurbishment work.
Encouraging our people to live sustainably
Even though we were not working together in the office during 2020, colleagues still kept green initiatives high on their agenda. Despite activities being limited due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we arranged socially distanced beach cleans and held a vegetable growing competition to encourage staff to live more sustainably.
We continue to give every member of staff a refillable water bottle to cut back on plastic use and we have introduced a Bicycle Employee Benefit Scheme to support and encourage staff to buy a bike, so they travel by two wheels rather than four.
Promoting diversity and inclusion
We approach recruitment through a diverse lens. Our aim is to create an environment for our people that is fair and free from discrimination. We demonstrate this through various staff activities, forums and proactive policies, and by supporting initiatives such as Government’s Back to Work and Advance Plus schemes, which help people with different employment needs to find work.
In 2020, with the appointment of Diane Maxwell as Director of Policy, we are proud that the female-tomale ratio of our Executive team reached 50:50. 57% of our workforce and 30% of our non-executive Commission Board is female. During the year, our female leaders gave talks and shared blogs with our staff, made editorial contributions for local publications, and took part in public speaking engagements to open debate about diversity and inclusion (D&I) in financial services.
In September, we organised our first dedicated month of activities to celebrate D&I at the JFSC. Events included live webinars with high-profile local journalist and D&I campaigner Gary Burgess and JFSC Commissioner Tracy Garrad, who is an active D&I sponsor in her role as CEO of AXA Health.
Educating young islanders about financial literacy
An often unsung area of our work is our education programme. Our Policy team has devised and delivers annually courses in financial literacy to meet the Jersey PSHE Curriculum for students aged between 11 and 18 years across the majority of local secondary schools.
In 2020, as we were not able to go into schools, we adapted the programme and provided digital content to teachers so they can deliver classes at their convenience.
Making a difference
2020 was an incredibly difficult year for so many. Irrespective of their own challenges, our staff made it a priority to continue to support local charities and initiatives. While fundraising efforts were definitely not straightforward, we still managed to raise much-needed funds for the four local causes we chose to help in 2020. Through online giving, colleagues donated in excess of £8,000 to Jersey Alzheimer’s Association, Jersey Hospice Care, Jersey Zoo and Macmillan Jersey.
Thanks to our corporate social responsibility policy, staff can dedicate up to two days every year to volunteer for their chosen charitable causes or environmental projects.
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