Corporate Social Responsibility

Corven supports and is actively involved in Vital Spark Forum (VSF), an independent professional skill broker for not-for-profit projects, and one of the UK’s leading venture philanthropy organisations. The result of work started by Corven and a group of professionals in 1999, VSF is now a strong network of over 150 professionals that give time to NGOs through a series of meetings each year.

Initially named the Corven Forum, the network was established with the objective of pooling and using the collective knowledge, experience, wisdom, insight and resource of its members to create significant and sustainable sources of wealth for the not-for-profit arena. It was also intended to offer professionals the chance to share experiences, learn from others, develop new ideas and act on their interests.

Building on the Forum’s foundations, VSF was launched in 2003 as a registered charity. Now run by its members, Corven employees are still actively involved in donating their time and energy to the Bank of Talent and the management of VSF. Corven was VSF’s first corporate sponsor.

For more information on Vital Spark Forum and how you can contribute, visit the VSF website.

Corven staff are also actively supporting:

• Hunger Project – Kevan Jones is a global investor in the Hunger Project and the past Chair of the Board of Trustees in the UK. The Hunger Project is a strategic organisation and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger
• Turners Court Trust – James Basden is actively involved in TCT a UK based charity that helps children, young people and families reach their full potential
• Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund, The Consumers’ Association and The American School in London have all benefited from Richard Young's skills as a financial advisor to their charities and societies

We've made our company climate neutral

Corven is committed to working with respect for the environment in which we live and work. We are aware of the impact that we have on the environment. We continually monitor this and are looking at ways in which we can minimise our environmental impact.

To this end we have set-up a range of activities to analyse what our impact is, and encourage accountability and responsible thinking about our environmental impact. These include:

• Tracking our energy usage
• Recycling paper, toner, batteries and other office equipment
• Calculating our carbon foot-print and off-setting this output (including all business travel)

We have several initiatives underway within the organisation to reduce our environmental footprint. As with all businesses, this is an area of continual improvement.

To off-set our carbon emissions we have partnered with Climate Care. Climate Care is an organisation that reduces greenhouse gas emissions on behalf of companies and individuals by running projects across the world. As well as cutting greenhouse gases, the projects help to improve people's standards of living and protect wildlife habitats. They review our carbon emissions on an annual basis and calculate our off-set accordingly.

To find out more about Climate Care and its projects, see www.climatecare.org.