13 June 2022

To our stakeholders

We are pleased to confirm that SYSTEMIQ Ltd reaffirms its support for the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

As a company founded to further the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, our annual Communication on Progress describes our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations.

Sincerely yours,
Taraneh Azad & Guido Schmidt-Traub
Managing Partners, SYSTEMIQ Ltd

SYSTEMIQ is a system change company, founded in 2016 to help all sectors deliver the ambitions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the aims of the Paris Agreement. We achieve our mission through the provision of research, data, strategy development and advisory services to pioneering companies, governments and philanthropies; building influential coalitions of key stakeholders to forge transition in Energy, Nature, Finance and Materials/Circular Economy, alongside work that defines investable pathways for system change and shifts major finance. Much of our work is undertaken through partnerships with aligned stakeholders and designed to influence entire sectors of the global economy. We are firmly committed to ensuring the intersection between human rights and environmental rights informs and influences all of the work we undertake for our clients and with our partners, for which the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights forms the foundation.

One of the key human rights focus areas that SYSTEMIQ is committed to is supporting gender equity in our workplaces across our office locations. We have focused on this over the past year, to ensure that all staff have the same opportunities, rights and respect, regardless of their gender. We strive to ensure fairness, incorporating strategies that compensate for women’s historical and social disadvantages to ensure that women and men are on an equal footing. Gender equity leads to gender equality, where there are equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for women and men. Our gender policy is integrated within all related policies, notably our Ethics Policy, Equal Opportunities policy, Harassment & Bullying policy, Family Leave Policies, Flexible Working Policy, Whistleblowing Policy and our Systems Change Leadership framework.

Our gender policy is regularly reviewed and is published on our corporate intranet. All staff members are made aware of and have access to our policies and practices. We make clear the individual responsibilities of our management team and staff for ensuring our gender policies are fulfilled. We regularly report to our ExCo and Board on all aspects of gender equity achievement in our operating procedures, including striving for an equal balance of males and females, as well as closely monitoring employee satisfaction and corporate culture considerations expressed by our female and male employees and leadership teams in our regular 'pulse check' surveys.

SYSTEMIQ’s management and Human Resources personnel are acquainted with and subscribe to the key principles of the ILO conventions. In practical terms we operate under a number of policies that protect our staff from all forms of inequity and inequality, as listed below. Additionally, each of our offices abides by the laws of the countries of operation, and as our headquarters is in London, United Kingdom, we apply UK labour laws in the development of our specific labour policies.

SYSTEMIQ has a clear Equal Opportunities Policy, published on our intranet and made available to all staff in all of our office and operational locations. Our Equal Opportunities Policy spans all aspects of employment, aiming to ensure that all job applicants and employees receive fair treatment regardless of sex, sexual orientation, marital status and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, gender identity, gender expression, trans-gender status, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, disability, age, employment status or membership/non-membership of a trade union or other organisations.

SYSTEMIQ has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery within its business and supply chains. Our policy applies to all persons: (a) working for the Company, or on our behalf, in any capacity, including employees at all levels, partners, agency workers, secondees and interns; and (b) our contractors, senior advisors, affiliate partners, agencies, third-party representatives, external consultants and business partners (suppliers). SYSTEMIQ is committed to:
Acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships
Implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our business or in any of our supply chains
Ensuring there is transparency in our approach to tackling modern slavery in our business and in our supply chains consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

We expect the same high standards applied to our own company from all of our Suppliers. As part of our contracting process, we include specific prohibitions against modern slavery, and we expect that our Suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards.

In April 2022 SYSTEMIQ launched its first Global Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Strategy and Action Plan. It was developed by SYSTEMIQ associates and partners across our offices over more than a year, and in collaboration with Included, a diversity and inclusion consultancy. It focuses on embedding diversity and inclusion into company DNA, both through our internal culture, behaviours, and systems, as well as our outward-facing vision and the work we do. It reflects our fundamental belief that diversity and inclusion is an essential driver of systems change and underscores our ambition to create a working culture that enables everyone to thrive and bring their authentic selves to work. The strategy will be periodically update it, as we learn how to better promote diversity and inclusion across SYSTEMIQ.

SYSTEMIQ applies great effort to staff satisfaction and attaining a sense of respect at work. We have clear, published policies related to Anti-Bullying, Whistleblowing (including options for contacting either internal HR leaders or a Whistleblowing service for those who prefer to keep reporting anonymous) and Gender Equity. We undertake monthly staff surveys, known as Pulse Check, which is transparently reported on both in writing and verbally to all staff, and is a key metric presented to our quarterly Board meetings.

Our D& I Strategy & Action Plan includes six commitments aimed at building a strong foundation from which we can plan and achieve increasingly higher ambitions over time. These are:

1. Company Gender and Racial Representation:

Gender: We aspire to reach a 50/50 gender split at all staff and management levels in all offices.
Ethnicity & race: Each office aims to set leadership and staff diversity targets reflective of national conditions by end Q2 2022, using national census or other benchmarking criteria.

2. Remuneration Review

We will publish a remuneration review on gender pay gaps in Q2/2022 with annual progress reports thereafter.
We aim to publish remuneration data by other characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, socio-economic background) from 2023.

3. Data Collection and Monitoring

We will strengthen data systems to gather more robust data on applicant, candidate and staff demographics and to better understand progress on diversity (our workforce) and inclusion (our workplace culture). This will include:
Introduction of a new HR data system (HRIS) to cover broad diversity data, including gender, ethnicity, professional background (proxy for cognitive diversity), sexual orientation (TBC).
Rolling out an annual diversity & inclusion survey, the results of which will be transparently reported company-wide.
Ensure metrics on inclusion are included in our monthly staff ‘Pulse Check’ surveys.

4. Governance and Reporting

We commit to continuous monitoring and evaluation of progress to ensure transparency, accountability and effectiveness. This includes:

Appointing a D&I Lead to coordinate action, support country working groups, track commitments and manage delivery.
Including D&I as a standing agenda item at monthly Executive Committee meetings, to ensure senior leadership remain focused on D&I progress

Publishing an annual internal report outlining progress on commitments and key metrics (remuneration, gender/race aspiration, key initiatives), with transparent reporting to the company
Providing regular updates in key global and regional meetings – including our quarterly townhalls, local leadership meetings and annual company in person retreats.

5. Recruitment and Talent Development

Data capture to improve diversity in our recruitment processes and among talent pools, broadening attraction channels relevant to local contexts, de-biasing interview and onboarding process, mainstreaming effective language for attracting diverse talent.

Creating inclusive pathways and expanding our recruitment pipeline by:
Rolling out a Sponsorship programme: pairing partners with junior associates from under-represented groups to mentor and champion progression.
Scaling apprenticeship programme: focused on advancing socio-economic diversity (pilots in London and Brazil).
Embedding D&I into SYSTEMIQ leadership framework & criteria.
Conducting exit interviews to assess inclusion experiences and perspectives.
Collect and review talent data to understand any potential gender/racial bias in progression.

6. Creating an Inclusive Culture

Embed D&I across SYSTEMIQ Academy trainings, developing trainings that support cultural and socioeconomic differences and those that help individuals to flourish (such as self-esteem trainings).
Support initiatives to create a truly inclusive culture, for example, by ensuring psychological safety.
Support networking initiatives such as LGBTQ+ network, new parents and other groups to create a sense of community and drive action.

SYSTEMIQ’s primary business operations are conducted from offices in London, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Sao Paolo, Jakarta and other locations in Indonesia. Our operational environmental footprint is relatively small via the running of our offices and travel. We do our utmost to minimise travel where possible, enabling remote working for staff with clear guidelines. Our internal and external communications systems are of the highest standard, well maintained and very well used, assuring that travel is undertaken and only when necessary.

As a young organisation with less than 7 years of operation, many of our offices are relatively new and therefore our environmental footprinting processes are nascent. We implement our environmental commitments and principles through our operations today and have the following in progress to further our environmental aims:

SYSTEMIQ is a certified B Corp and therefore regularly updates data requirements to retain this status.

We will be reviewing our direct environmental impacts over the course of 2022-2023 with a view to developing a common policy across our global office locations.

We are finalizing a net-zero policy covering Scopes 1-3 emissions.

Our core lines of business are entirely directed toward forging systemic changes that reduce the environmental harm of economic activity across industries and sectors in the first instance and aim to promote the rapid adoption of alternative low-impact economic models and technologies as the primary aim.

Our staff is comprised of experts in the fields of sustainability, climate change and associated finance fields. We combine cutting-edge research with practical advice, policy insights and high-impact, on-the-ground innovations. Over this reporting period SYSTEMIQ’s work with partners around the world has advanced considerably. A few highlights of recent work in 2022 are detailed below.

Influencing System Change through Frontline Action in Indonesia: Tackling Plastic Waste
Our PROJECT STOP initiative has tackled effective waste management and plastic recycling in three cities in Bali and Java, Indonesia, positively impacting the lives and livelihoods of nearly a quarter of a million people and significantly enhancing water, ocean and land-based ecosystem health. We are now scaling frontline work in various parts of Indonesia through partnerships with Borealis, P4G, ministries and others to positively impact 2.6 million people through the provision of effective waste management and plastics recovery and recycling.

Circular Economy
ReShaping Plastics is a new European Roadmap developed by SYSTEMIQ under the guidance of an independent expert advisory panel. It identifies pathways for a circular, net zero emissions plastics industry across Europe and with implications for global companies’ activities in many other geographic areas.
Plastic IQ is an open-source digital tool to help companies develop ambitious circular packaging strategies. ​
We are working with a number of high-profile corporate brands in the fashion and apparel industry to revamp supply chains and apply the necessary financial tools to build a net zero, circular system for the industry, including improving the ease with which responsible sourcing can be implemented.

Sustainable Finance
We are working with a number of large-scale investors across the private sector to accelerate investments in net zero pathways and capture value from the new climate economy. Our stakeholders, include individual institutions, major investment managers and coalitions of financial institutions.
We are assisting the governments of South Africa, Namibia and Indonesia on just transition, energy transition and financing strategies.
We host the Blended Finance Taskforce, which holds lead roles in the High-Level Advisory Group on Country Platforms & Private Finance, the Coalition for Finance Ministers and the G7 Impact Investing Taskforce. The BFT will be supporting concerted activity on scaling investment for climate at COP27.
We are undertaking considerable work across our Sustainable Finance and Natural Solutions platforms to assist ambitious financial institutions to structure funds and financial products for nature-based asset classes.

Natural Solutions
The NatureMetrics initiative SYSTEMIQ leads is currently developing a digital platform for nature data and intelligence​
The P4F initiative SYSTEMIQ leads has thus far resulted in 2.9 mHa of land under improved management and has mobilised £416 million (USD 522 million)​

Energy Transition
SYSTEMIQ hosts the Energy Transitions Commission, whose influential analysis and reports has significantly impacted energy strategies in Europe and the UK, where transition commitments need to align with ambitious policy during the 2020s.
In April 2022 the ETC’s ‘Mind the Gap’ report set out policy levers and actions for Carbon Dioxide Removals, positioning these as necessary additional measures to be taken alongside deep decarbonisation efforts.
The Mission Possible Partnership co-led by SYSTEMIQ with the World Economic Forum, We Mean Business and RMI, will be launching sector transition strategies for 5 critical harder-to-abate sectors over the summer of 2022​.

It is SYSTEMIQ’s policy to conduct all of its business in an honest and ethical manner. We take a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and are committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships, wherever we operate, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems to counter bribery.

We have a clear, written policy on Anti-Corruption and Bribery, openly available at all times on our intranet. This policy is reviewed annually.

Our corporate behaviours uphold all laws relevant to countering bribery and corruption in all the jurisdictions in which we operate. As our global headquarters is in the UK, we remain bound by the laws of the UK, including the Bribery Act 2010, in respect of our conduct both at home and abroad.

We provide our staff and stakeholders with access to our Anti-Corruption and Bribery policy, which sets out our responsibilities, and the responsibilities of those working for us, in observing and upholding our position on bribery and corruption. Our staff induction process includes training on this policy.

Our policy documentation for staff includes information and guidance on how to recognise and deal with bribery and corruption issues, should they arise.

Adherence to our Anti-Corruption and Bribery policy is included in contracts with our suppliers, agencies or other stakeholders. Our rigorous due diligence processes, completed prior to undertaking client assignments and engaging in partnerships, include careful scrutiny of Anti-Corruption and Bribery policies by our Legal department, and an independent review of their legal and reputational status via the third-party WorldCheck tool.

Employees are invited to notify our Human Resources colleagues, or an independent whistleblowing helpline we subscribe to, SafeCall, as soon as possible if they are offered a bribe by a third party, are asked to make one, suspect that this may happen in the future, or if they believe they are a victim of another form of unlawful activity. Employees are assured queries will be treated in confidence and that employees will be protected from negative repercussions.

We are pleased to report no incidents in this reporting period.