Our commitment to living responsibly is a huge part of what makes PRIMIS unique. Our numerous ESG-driven initiatives and opportunities for communal goodwill, spearheaded by our dedicated Communities Forum members ensure that we always do our best to give back to the community and to those who need that extra bit of support. Every year as part of the LSL Group we encourage our colleagues and our network of advisers to do their part in helping us achieve our Living Responsibly objectives, which are outlined in our annual Living Responsibly report.
With seemingly every corner of the industry moving towards this more socially conscious and greener way of thinking, as seen with the advent of services such as green mortgages and green lenders, if you haven’t already begun to consider how you can live and work more responsibly then this article is for you. Here we will examine some of our achievements over recent years employing our ESG strategy, while also looking forward to some of the upcoming initiatives with which you are more than welcome to get involved as a member of PRIMIS Mortgage Network.
PRIMIS’ upcoming ESG initiatives
From Monday 18th to Sunday 24th March, PRIMIS and LSL employees took part in our annual Spring Clean event which has directly contributed to our achievement of our numerous ESG objectives since its inception. The Spring Clean event is one of four group-wide community-focused initiatives we roll out across the year and involves two distinct schemes.
- Clear up – The first scheme involves encouraging our colleagues, as well as their friends and families, to get involved in litter picking around their local communities. To assist with this, LSL has provided all new litter-picking equipment such as hi-vis vests, waste rings and litter grabbers.
- Clear out – The second initiative involves the donation of household items such as clothes, bedding, toys, games, kitchenware and much more. Any items not taken in our colleague swap shop are then donated to a number of our local charity partners.
Living responsibly with PRIMIS
In addition to our Spring Clean event, we have enjoyed a number of initiatives over recent years to help make a difference in our local communities. Just reviewing 2023 alone we have seen success throughout a number of business areas. We’ll list just some of the highlights of 2023’s ESG efforts below, but if you want to really learn more about our organisation’s commitment to living responsibly then we encourage you to head over to LSL’s communities forum page, which you can access by clicking here.
- Four group-wide community-focused initiatives reflective of each season – Spring Clean (March), Act of Kindness Week (June), Let’s Eat Together (September) and 31 Days of Goodwill (December)
- Launched the Every Mile Counts initiative which raised funds for bed poverty charity, Zarach. Communities Forum members were encouraged to cover a total of 1390 miles by means of cycling, walking, running and swimming, equalling the cumulative distance between the head offices of the Group.
- Partnered with the British Heart Foundation to create a Group-specific pathway to ensure as many colleagues as possible are CPR-certified using their Revivr module.
- Expanded our match funding initiative across the Group, inviting colleagues who are doing independent fundraising to seek matched funding for the causes that matter to hem. In total, the Group matched £11,684 of colleague fundraising.
- Created a new Summer Foodbank Campaign to provide support during the busiest period of foodbanks across the UK during the school summer holidays. Our Let’s Eat Together campaign was also expanded to include donation points at all e.surv winter area meetings.
- Appointed six new Communities Forum members to improve coverage in areas of the Group that were previously underrepresented.
How you can get involved with your community
Here at PRIMIS, we want to continue sharing our commitment to supporting local communities within our network, which is why we haven’t just sat back and let our recent ESG successes cause us to stagnate. Instead, we have already begun to kick off our 2024 initiatives with great success and our recent Spring Clean event is a clear example of exactly that. Our fundraising and volunteer opportunities are plentiful and we want you to get involved. Here are just a few more examples of what we’ve got in store for 2024 to give you an idea of where our priorities lie. While some of these initiatives are group-specific, there are a few schemes listed below where you might be able to get involved, or might give you inspiration for use in your own firms:
- Salary round-down option for colleagues has been created and will soon be rolled out, so excess pennies on their salary can be donated to charities and community projects.
- 31 Days of Goodwill scheme has been expanded to create additional donation points for winter clothing.
- Moved Let’s Eat Together to the summer to support the school holiday peak and create more donation points at Group-wide colleague conferences and large-scale meetings.
- Reusable IT equipment can now be donated to local community projects, or refurbished and used as an opportunity to teach education on how to get the most out of tech devices so that we can cut down on waste
As an LSL Communities Forum member, I am really proud of the incredible work that has gone in to creating vital campaigns and initiatives which have had a hugely positive impact in our local communities. The forum understands the important role we play within the groups overall ESG responsibilities and will continue to strive to improve colleague opportunities to volunteer, educate and raise awareness in those areas that matter most.
Michael Hole, Chair of Communities Forum
Become part of a mortgage network that strives to contribute positively to their community. So, if you’re an adviser that shares our living responsibly values click the link below to begin your journey with PRIMIS.
Begin Your Journey with PRIMIS
