Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. They are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.  

‍In Action: Radiant is a certified B Corp™. To achieve this certification, we went through a rigorous audit process that reviewed sustainability and diversity factors across how we support our customers, the environment, our team and our community, and how we are governed. We have locked into our articles our commitment to building a more inclusive and sustainable economy, requiring directors to consider such factors alongside profitability in our decision making. At the time we were one of only 3,000 companies that had achieved certification worldwide (as of mid 2022 there were around 5,000) and we were just the second law firm in the UK to become certified.

Our recertification takes place in 2023 and we are aiming to improve our B Corp score, with a particular focus on the ways we support our team.

We are committed to making Radiant Law a great place to work and an employer of choice. We actively promote positive working practices, fairness and equality of opportunity from career development to investing in our staff’s expertise and helping them to fulfil their ambitions and a positive work/life balance.

In Action: We have adopted, and are a signatory of, the Mindful Business Charter. The Charter is an initiative created by Barclays and two of their panel law firms, aimed at removing unnecessary stress and enabling people to work more effectively and efficiently, as well as be happier and healthier.

We have also invested in building out our skills and learning opportunities, including creating new ways for people to map and understand where they are in the development of skills relevant to their roles, and their growth and development pathways.

We run working group across a variety of business challenges like performance management, remote working and our new joiner onboarding experience, to get the team engaged with how we can be a better organisation and to take ownership for improving the experience for everyone.

We have a long tradition of supporting our local communities. We also encourage team members to look for ways to make contributions, using our individual and collective time, skills or expertise to make a difference to a variety of charitable and community organisations. We particularly encourage the support of access to justice and social inclusion programmes.

‍In Action:
We've outlined just some of our recent community initiatives:

SkillWise: An organisation providing IT training centres in low-resource environments to deliver training for unemployed young people in rural South Africa. Radiant is directly partnering with SkillWise to provide financial assistance for students and training delivery centres, as well as structural guidance and hands-on support. In 2022/3 we are funding the cost of the SkillWise component of training costs for 1,000 students per year, all of whom are currently unemployed or in low-wage employment.

Cape Town University and University of the Western Cape: We are pleased to have created law student crisis funds to assist with emergency financial needs and costs to ensure students are able to graduate. The funds support student council missions of practically contributing to the development of confident, competent and socially-aware law graduates.

U-Turn: We partner with U-Turn, a non-profit programme aimed at tackling homelessness and addiction in the Western Cape through a structured programme of support. Along with financial donations to assist U-turn's work and, in late 2022 their purchase of a new house for programme participants, we also deliver hands-on support working with their teams, and have created a fully-funded package of mental health, financial and legal assistance for both participants and staff at U-turn through our Employee Assistance Programme provider, Life EHS.

UNICEF and the Prytula Foundation: Working to keep vulnerable children and families safe during the war in Ukraine. This includes providing humanitarian aid and supplies for families forced to flee the Russian invasion, child protection services and access to safe spaces with clean water, food, sanitation and more. Radiant's financial contributions are in support and on behalf of our Ukrainian development team colleagues.

Lifeline TT: Mental health and suicide support services are severely undersupported in Trinidad & Tobago, where our North American hours team is based. We contribute to Lifeline TT, a charity providing vital support and resources to save lives and educate the community.

Support Through Court: Radiant is a partner to this charity providing free, independent access-to-justice assistance to people in the UK facing proceedings without representation.
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LawTech Community: We created a discussion and networking group for the under-represented legal community to come together quarterly to look at how the LawTech landscape is addressing the challenges of today's businesses. This now extends to a wide range of knowledge sharing through events in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Trinidad & Tobago.

Radiant Law strongly believes in protecting the environment. The nature of our business means that we have a relatively low environmental impact as a firm. Everyone is encouraged to respect the environment as they go about their work by considering efficiencies, and endeavouring to continually reduce the impact of our business.

In Action:
‍With effect from the beginning of 2019 we became carbon neutral. We calculate our carbon footprint based on flights, energy usage, travel and public transport using the calculator on Carbon Footprint and offset by buying credits through Carbon Footprint, supporting community projects in Africa and India focused on reducing cooking with wood and boreholes. These projects have additional community benefits and are certified by the Gold Standard verified emission reductions.

For every matter we handle on behalf of our clients we plant a tree in partnership with a non-profit environmental charity focused on global reforestation, One Tree Planted. Their aim is to make it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, fight climate change, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world. We have planted many thousands of trees in Africa (currently Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya).

Radiant is a certified B Corp™. While we have minimal external suppliers, our objective is to make continuous improvements to the sustainability outcomes of any procurement activity. Where we do purchase services and goods we endeavour to take a sustainable procurement approach, reviewing suppliers' commitment to environmentally certified products, recycling and waste reduction and ethical business practices. We expect our suppliers to share our commitment to integrity and to confirm that they expect these requirements of their own supply chain.

Our supplier code of conduct is available to download.

We have amended our articles to extend the objects of the company to include having a material positive impact on society and the environment and to require our directors to consider in making decisions: (a) the likely consequences of any decision of the Directors in the long term and the impact any such decision may have on any affected stakeholders, (b) the interests of the Company's employees, (c) the need to foster the Company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others, (d) the impact of the Company's operations on the community and the environment and on affected stakeholders, (e) the desirability of the Company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct and the impact this has on affected stakeholders, and (f) the need to act fairly as between members of the Company.

We have a number of targets for ESG that are tracked:

Charitable donations: 10% of operating profits annually
Printing paper: <1,000 pages a year
Net promoter score: above 50 and improving
Internal Engagement survey: minimum 80% satisfaction
Carbon neutrality
Reviewing our B Corp assessment and identifying improvements quarterly