Responsible Business

Being a responsible business has been one of Ardevora’s core principles since the firm was founded in 2010.  The concept of enduring common goods – something that everybody benefits from, but no-one is individually responsible for – helps us apply the principles of responsibility. There are many possible common goods, but the two we place the highest priority on are a fair society and the environment.

We look to make a difference as a responsible business in three ways:

  1. Externally: by committing time, effort and money to help repair existing damage, irrespective of who caused it.
  2. Internally: by treating our people fairly and conducting our business relationships in an open and collaborative way.
  3. How we invest: responsibility is embedded in our investment philosophy. We have extended our work on CEO behaviour to consider explicitly whether a business is taking irresponsible, impactful risks which could be affecting wider society.

The Ardevora Charitable Trust

In February 2021, Ardevora established the Ardevora Charitable Trust to provide support to a group of charities and social enterprises, each of which works in different ways to address and mitigate damage in areas that are important to us.

The Ardevora Charitable Trust is a named fund held within The Master Charitable Trust (MCT). The MCT is a donor-advised fund managed by C. Hoare & Co. Bank and is a registered charity (number 1139904). Donations made from the Ardevora Charitable Trust are directed by the Ardevora Partners and verified by Messrs. Hoare Trustees.

The Ardevora Charitable Trust currently supports six charitable organisations focused on issues we care about – a fair society and the environment. Two of these organisations, KidsOR and International Humanitarian Relief, were chosen by the people of Ardevora as our Charities of the Year for 2023-24.

 

Organisation Description
KidsOR 1.75 billion children around the world have no access to safe surgery should they need it. Kids Operating Room (KidsOR) are the only organisation bridging this gap to bring surgical care closer for children in low- and middle-income countries.  KidsOR work with local experts to transform operating theatres into state-of-the-art paediatric spaces. They’ve installed over 70 theatres in 20 countries and created capacity for over 100,000 life-changing operations.
KidsOR are dedicated to empowering countries to build their own sustainable health systems. Local teams receive the infrastructure, resources & training needed to give children world-class care.
Key Fund Key Fund is an anti-poverty and empowerment organisation, focused on enabling people to create opportunities and stimulate economic activity in disadvantaged communities. It invests in small community and social enterprises in areas of acute deprivation to enable them to establish, develop and grow. All the enterprises it supports have been unable to source funding from traditional lenders. Ardevora’s donation is helping Key Fund to enhance pre- and post-investment support for social enterprises, develop a green fund to support disadvantaged communities and establish a training programme to bring diverse talent into the social investment sector.
International Humanitarian Relief Established and run by Syrians, International Humanitarian Relief provides aid to Syrians deprived of basic living standards and living as refugees in Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. The charity provides both humanitarian aid and development assistance to communities living long-term in very difficult situations. Their work includes food assistance, housing, provision of clean water and sewerage, education and employment and skills training.
Global Canopy Global Canopy is a data-driven environmental organisation that targets the market forces destroying nature. Since 2001, Global Canopy has been testing new open-access, data-driven approaches to tackling deforestation, and guiding companies, investors and governments worldwide to think differently about our planet’s forests. Global Canopy aims to improve the data, metrics and rules needed for global markets to reduce nature-related impacts and to maximise opportunities for positive action. Ardevora’s donation is providing core funding to expand and sustain its range of programmes including the launch of the Deforestation Action Tracker and new initiatives in education and training.
Blue Marine The Blue Marine Foundation exists to combat overfishing and the destruction of biodiversity through the creation of large-scale marine reserves and by delivering new models of sustainable fishing. Ardevora’s donation is supporting Blue Marine’s work addressing the decline of tuna populations in the Indian Ocean.  This includes investigating and highlighting unauthorised fishing, non-compliance with regulations and management of valuable stocks. Long-term, the objective is to improve management of fish stocks for the benefit of the marine environment and the coastal communities that depend on them for food security and livelihoods.
University of Oxford HESTIA project How we produce and consume food has a huge bearing on multiple environmental problems, including biodiversity loss, deforestation, climate change, water scarcity and water pollution. The HESTIA project is developing an innovative data platform which collates standardised data from researchers, farmers, food processors and other actors in the agri-food system on the sustainability of different products and production practices. These data are validated, stored in a consistent format, and are open access. HESTIA also provides harmonised and transparent models to calculate multiple environmental impact indicators and enable benchmarking against similar farms.  This allows platform users to discern sustainable producers, products, and practices, and deliver science- and data-driven improvements in sustainability. Ardevora’s donation is supporting the HESTIA team to partner with Stockholm University to expand the volume of both aquaculture and pesticide toxicity data on the platform.

The Ardevora Charitable Trust does not accept applications for funding.

The Master Charitable Trust

Charity registration number 1139904

37 Fleet Street

London EC4P 4DQ

Key Fund Logo
Global Company logo
Blue Marine Foundation Logo
University of Oxford Logo
KidsOR
IHR logo

Responsible Sourcing Code of Conduct

Ardevora seeks to conduct business with organisations which share our values, respect our principles, and help support our commitments to operate in an ethically, socially and environmentally responsible manner.  Ardevora is committed to sustainable business practices across its operations and supply chain. We recognise that the actions of our suppliers, and our interactions with them, support Ardevora in its efforts to drive positive social, environmental and economic outcomes.

Responsible Sourcing Code of Conduct (the Code) is relevant to businesses that provide products and/or services to Ardevora. Our expectation is that our suppliers will apply the standards that we adhere to within their own supply chain and procurement processes.

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