We are a responsible business that safely and securely connects people with their assets
Our Sustainability and CSR strategy aims to support Link Group’s purpose of connecting people with their assets by doing so safely and securely as a responsible business. Link Group’s Sustainability and CSR strategy has continued to evolve since our first report in FY2016. As we increasingly become an integrated global organisation, we have enhanced our strategy by taking a more consistent and focused approach across our businesses and the jurisdictions in which we operate.
Our Sustainability Commitment
We strive to act responsibly, support our clients, contribute to employee well-being, diversity and inclusion and deliver mutual business and social benefits in the communities we operate in.
About this section
This section is published on 25 September 2020 as part of Link Group’s Annual Report. This section covers the sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Link Group across all its controlled entities during the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. Where appropriate, this section references events that have occurred since the end of the financial reporting period, but prior to publication.
This report covers more than 40 operations (offices) in the 18 jurisdictions in which we operated during the year unless otherwise stated. Please refer to the Annual Report for all major changes that occurred during the year.
Reporting
Link Group’s FY2020 sustainability and CSR disclosures have been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards: Core option. We have selected our disclosures related to those that are the most material to our business and/or of the greatest importance and relevance to our stakeholders. For a full list of disclosures referenced in this report, please refer to the GRI Content Index available at www.linkgroup.com/sustainability.
Link Group has an internal sustainability data verification process to verify the integrity of any disclosures of this section. The information is validated by the responsible executives and our CSR and Sustainability Manager. As per our policy no external assurance was sought for our sustainability disclosures within this report.
This year we have adopted the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard 1 to manage our GHG risks and our emissions disclosures ensuring consistency and the use of standardised approaches and principles.
Aligning to the united nations sustainable development goals
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to address the world’s most significant development challenges. The SDGs are a set of 17 goals that are based on human rights and define global sustainable development priorities and aspirations for 2030.
Materiality and stakeholder engagement
Material Topics
Link Group’s approach is structured around areas considered to be material to our business. In particular, we place a strong focus on risk management and sustainable business practices. This means that we aim to make integrity, information and data security, privacy and compliance part of everything we do.
In FY2020 we further considered materiality in the context of emerging global trends, the SDGs, current and emerging risks, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Sustainability and CSR strategy continues to reflect Link Group’s significant or material economic, environmental and social impacts, and those that are most likely to influence the assessments and decisions of our stakeholders, including investors.
Material Topics 1
Market transformation, digital disruption, privacy, data safety & cyber security, energy consumption, responsible supply chain management, our people’s health & safety, employee development & wellbeing, diversity, inclusion and gender equity, human rights, conduct & ethics, community relations.
Stakeholder engagement
Link Group engages with a broad range of stakeholders and works collaboratively to manage business risks and opportunities.
Link Group’s stakeholders include shareholders, clients and their customers, our people, suppliers, community partners, regulators and various governments. We are committed to engaging openly, honestly and at regular intervals with our stakeholders to understand their expectations and concerns. We aim to be transparent, responsive and accountable to our stakeholder groups.
Method of stakeholder engagement
We utilise a blend of indirect and direct engagement for our internal and external stakeholders.
We engage with our people through surveys to understand how we can become a better place to work and to assist us in attracting and retaining talent. Dedicated email boxes are also available for our people to provide feedback on any number of topics at any time.
We engage with our external stakeholders in a number of ways, including and not limited to:
- interactions with key regulatory, government and industry bodies, such as ASIC, ASX and APRA in Australia, TISA and TA Forum in the UK, and other organisations including IA, ICSA, Deutsche Investor Relations Verband (DIRK), Irish Funds Industry Association, Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), and Middle East IR Association (MEIRA)
- regular participation in key industry meetings, conferences and forums
- regular client meetings to review our performance and identify issues and future needs; and
- direct communication from fund members, shareholders and investors.
Read the full Sustainability Report within this year’s Annual Report.
1 In accordance with the GRI reporting standards the internal boundary for all material topics is Link Group, which includes all its controlled entities. The external boundary for all material topics includes our external impacts particularly the needs of our external stakeholders.