Our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.

PEM CSR

As a firm we know and love Cambridge, the place we’re proud to call home. We’re in a fortunate position to be able to make a positive impact on not only our staff, but the local community and beyond.

We’re publicly committing to delivering on four key areas:

Charitable giving – The PEM Charitable Trust

As a Cambridge firm, we wanted to be able to support local Cambridge charities, no matter how big or small.

In 2018 we proudly launched the PEM Charitable Trust, which enables us to be more agile and to support smaller, local charities.

Our staff continue to fundraise as enthusiastically as ever, but now the funds go into one pot. Our committee then considers applications from local charities and causes, and if successful, one-off donations to these charities are awarded. This allows us to help more people a year, and keeps us aware of Cambridge’s most pressing needs.

For more information or to apply for support from our Trust, please email our Corporate Social Responsibility & Community Lead, Amy at csr@pem.co.uk.

You can download the application form below.

(Registered Charity Number 1181792).

Download application form

Community

We aim to build a culture which actively encourages and empowers staff to get involved in the local community and are proud to have an employer supported volunteering scheme.

This allows staff to use a proportion of their working hours to support our community whether that be as a volunteer, trustee or by providing pro bono work or mentoring. We arrange volunteer days which allow staff to give back to the local community, as well as sponsor a huge variety of sports clubs, local theatre productions, and community events.

We also frequently have PEM teams enter for Chariots of Fire, Cambridge Half Marathon and Power2Inspire PowerHouse Games as well as many other events across Cambridgeshire.

Our current sponsorships

Environment

We value our environment and know that our work will inevitably have an impact on it. Wherever possible we try to manage that impact;

In 2021 we signed up to work with xtonnes to track, monitor and reduce our carbon usage. We are working on a firmwide strategy to implement initiatives that will help to make our firm greener, so stay tuned.

Below are just some recent changes we have made to become a more environmentally friendly firm, we have:

  • Installed collection points for crisp packets to be recycled, as well as having general recycling bins across all our offices
  • Removed all disposable cups and have provided staff with reusable cups and bottles to reduce single-use consumption
  • Installed boiling water taps
  • Replaced our coffee machines to create minimal waste, with recyclable pods
  • Replaced our soap dispensers to be refillable, to reduce our single use plastic
  • Implemented a cycle to work scheme
  • Implemented an electric car scheme
  • Installed an electric vehicle charging point at our Station Road office
  • Incentivised our staff to car share with an additional mileage rate
  • Arranged fortnightly paper collection, to be shredded and recycled
  • Replaced all lights with LED bulbs
  • Set our office heating on timers
  • Replaced our on-site servers to cloud-based servers.
  • Implemented eco-friendly brand TOTM sanitary towels and tampons boxes in our offices, free of charge
  • Selected office space within walking distance from train stations and bus stops
  • Arranged green space volunteer days
  • Made a conscious effort to choose small, local suppliers where possible

Employee wellbeing and development

At PEM we understand that life is more than 9-5 and are proud to have implemented an agile working policy;

This allows our staff to work from home, remotely, or in either of our offices. We offer flexible working hours, a dress for your diary policy, a day off on your birthday, a holiday purchase scheme and most importantly we encourage a healthy work/life balance.

We are committed to supporting our employees throughout their professional training courses. From our junior trainees to more senior members of staff, we offer in-house as well as funded external training. We have a mentoring scheme which helps our newer members of staff settle in and gives them support throughout their progression with us.

We wouldn’t be PEM without our staff, and have developed a package of staff benefits as a thank you for all their hard work, including massages from a licensed sports massage therapist and office fruit boxes from Kale & Damson.