Being a Responsible Business

At BFS we thrive off the chance, no matter how big or small, to make a world of difference to our colleagues, clients, communities and the environment in which we live and work.

As a business, we recognise the opportunity to have a broader purpose. We want to nurture a culture which is respectful, open to feedback, inclusive, transparent, continually learning and accountable.

We expect all our people to act ethically and responsibly. And our scale and our colleagues across multiple countries mean that together we can have a positive effect on the people and world around us.

Our Responsible Business strategy

Our Bibby values are to be better, work together, be innovative, do the right thing and trust each other. All of these values together under-pin our vision and passion for being a Responsible Business.

In developing our Responsible Business strategy we look inwards at our Values and outwards at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are globally recognised as commitments to turn our world into a better place socially, economically and environmentally. They set aggressive targets for change by 2030 and provide a guide for BFS in setting our Responsible Business targets and direction.

We have five areas of focus; Environmental Sustainability, Inclusion & Diversity, Health & Wellbeing, Giving Something Back and Human Rights & Modern Slavery – each with their own strategy and roadmaps, overseen by our Responsible Business strategy team, made up of a diverse range of people from across our global business.

Environmental Sustainability

We are committed to being a sustainable financial services business, minimising our impact on the environment and influencing positive change. We achieve this through three areas:

Being Responsible – measuring and setting targets to reduce our business impact on the environment, taking practical steps and influencing colleagues to have a more sustainable work and home-life
Being Responsive – looking outwards to our suppliers and clients, to encourage sustainable behaviours and business practices and reduce the risk of environmental damage
Being Strategic – leveraging opportunities and increasingly investing in sustainable solutions

In the past two years we have moved four of our offices to renewable energy, reduced our carbon footprint significantly, introduced global Sustainability Champions across the business, introduced recycling in all offices and a fully recycled stationary product list.

We have also engaged with Green Element, an environmental management consultancy, who are working with us to ensure our Carbon Footprint is measured correctly and to develop targets and strategy for our business to reduce our environmental impact over the next few years.

Environmental Sustainability Report

Inclusion & Diversity

We are absolutely committed to being a truly inclusive place to work, where everyone has equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

It is really important that people joining our business and staying with us feel welcomed and included, they experience the right behaviours from their colleagues and get their opportunity to develop and achieve their potential. But this does not happen by accident, we all have to make that environment a reality. We achieve this by identifying and removing barriers, creating opportunities for people to progress and winning hearts and minds across our business.

Last year we transformed our UK recruitment practices to attract a more diverse range of candidates and to select in an inclusive, fair and objective way. And this year we plan to deliver Inclusive Culture training across the business, as well as introduce an Inclusion & Diversity community group.

Have a look at our Inclusion & Diversity reports for more information.

I&D report 2021

I&D report 2022

Health and Wellbeing

We aim to provide a happy, healthy and productive working environment to support our colleagues’ wellbeing, by offering a range of benefits to support them, such as our Wellbeing Centre, confidential counselling and legal services and private medical care.

We promote what is available to colleagues with what is relevant to them, we help to prevent ill health by raising awareness of a healthy lifestyle and we have people, such as mental health first aiders, and resources, such as BUPA, available to support colleagues if they are ill.

In the past 12 months we have run campaigns to improve overall health, including Stress Awareness Month, Movember and Random Acts of Kindness.

Giving Something Back

At BFS we have a long tradition of supporting our local communities and we are proud to have so many colleagues who are passionate about charities and volunteering or fundraising for them.

We can give back through fund matched payroll giving, centrally organised events and up to £1000 a year fund matching for money colleagues raise themselves. Many teams also spend time together volunteering at local charities.

In 2019 we ran our second Strictly Come Bibby dance competition, hosted a Christmas dinner for Age UK and BFS colleagues joined others across the Bibby Line Group in an Icelandic trek, where they raised £25,000 and had the experience of a life-time. Another group of people conquered Mount Snowdon, at night time, raising £9000.

Human Rights and Modern Slavery

Slavery is not just something you read about in the history books, it remains a tragic reality of the world we live in, and at BFS we have absolute zero tolerance of it within our business, our supply chain and the companies we fund. We expect all of our colleagues to be aware of the signs of modern slavery and bring it to our attention immediately if they spot something which feels wrong.

To make sure we have the right structures in place to spot and stop modern slavery and protect human rights we have multiple policies which cover our approach, elearning and virtual training to spot signs, and checks built into our processes.

Read our Modern Slavery Act statement for 2023