Our joined up approach to Corporate Responsibility & highlights of the year

At Deloitte we fully appreciate that our everyday business activities affect not only our own organisation but society more widely, both through our actions and through the actions of those we do business with. We also recognise that preserving the trust and confidence of our clients and the public is critical to our sustained success. That is why we have created a culture that is underpinned by our commitment to doing the right thing. This commitment is key to our business operations and has driven our firm's development of an approach to Corporate Responsibility (CR) that is fully integrated with our business strategy.

Our CR wheel above demonstrates how we see the relationship between our business and our corporate responsibilities. It demonstrates how we put CR right at the heart of how we operate. The work we have done, our achievements to date and our commitment to future plans, will ensure that Deloitte:

• is a sustainable and responsible business;
• meets the expectations of our people;
• serves clients better; and
• makes a real contribution to economic development and thriving local communities.

Deloitte's CR programme comprises four agendas: Talent, Community, Green and Marketplace.

Our Talent agenda helps our firm to attract, retain and develop the very best people. We are focused on making Deloitte a great place to work by: creating opportunities for people to develop their skills and further their careers; promoting diversity and flexible working options; focusing on the well-being of our people; and by mentoring and inspiring our people, developing the next generation of leaders.

The purpose of our Community agenda is to make a valuable and sustainable impact on the communities where we live and operate. We do this by giving our people the opportunity to make a contribution and to get involved - benefiting both the community organisations which they support and their own skills and development.

Deloitte's Green agenda focuses on minimising the impact of our business on the environment. We are doing this by working towards ISO14001 accreditation, managing our carbon footprint, reviewing improvements to our environmental systems, increasing recycling and reducing our use of natural resources.

Our Marketplace agenda focuses on the quality of work we deliver for our clients, managing risk, contributing actively to the regulators and professional agenda and managing the impact of our operations right through the supply chain. As a leading business advisory firm, Deloitte is very well placed to make a considerable contribution to responsible business in the marketplace.

We have established a network of champions who take responsibility for all four of our agenda areas across the firm.

• 60 new partners appointed
• Partner and staff numbers grew 6% to 12,029
• Listed in the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For 2008, for the third consecutive year
• Named as the No.1 graduate employer in finance and professional services in the National Graduate Recruitment Awards - and 1,400 graduates have joined the firm this year
• Listed in the 2008 Sunday Times 50 Best Green Companies
• Awarded an overall 'Gold' rating in the Business in the Community 2007 Corporate Responsibility Index. Our performance in the overall index increased 8.5 percentage points to 93.5% from 85% and a 'Silver' rating last year
• One of only 21 UK-based companies to be awarded the CommunityMark by Business in the Community, recognising excellence in community investment
• Over 2,900 people participated in our community investment programme
• Deloitte is the exclusive provider of professional services to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)
• 33 Deloitte funded Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) athletes qualified to represent Great Britain at this year's Paralympic Games in Beijing, three of whom were Paralympic medallists:
  • Eleanor Simmons - winner of two gold medals in the 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle, 400m Freestyle World Record and youngest ever Paralympic athlete to qualify for an Olympiad at age of 13
  • Matt Skelhon - winner of gold medal for shooting
  • Felicity Coulthard - winner of silver medal in grade II freestyle equestrian
• Named one of the Top 50 places Where Women Most Want To Work, by The Times
• Deloitte has been recognised for its excellence in Corporate Community Involvement by winning the Social Inclusion category of the prestigious Lord Mayor's Dragon Awards for our Disability Sport programme