Background

We started A-Team Group back in 2001 to build a channel for the insight we were used to gathering through our network of contacts as former journalists who’d covered financial technology across London and New York for a number of years. It turned into something much bigger than either of us anticipated.

We are fuelled by our enthusiasm and passion for the business of financial technology and backed by a great team of people who work incredibly hard to make sure everything we do is done with quality and integrity.  As part of our greater sustainability purpose we have launched a series of ESG events and make freely available our comprehensive ESG Data Handbook and actively promote Environmental, Societal and Governance principles.

In terms of our overall approach to sustainability, we think of this in relation to the double materiality concept in relation to the Environment and carefully consider the impact we have on Society. The double-materiality lens enables us to think of the impact of A-Team on the Environment, and on the flip side, the impact of the Environment on the A-Team., its employees and its business.

Governance

As an independent and private company, the A-Team does not have a board and is governed by the CEO and the co-founder.  The ultimate responsibility for sustainability sitting with the top level of management, while the passion of sustainability permeates across the organisation.

Impact of the Environment on A-Team Group:

The environment is changing, and although we have no physical assets, the decline in climate and biodiversity impact all of our daily lives.  We are very conscious of this and ensure our staff well-being through our management rigour.

Impact of A-Team Group on the Environment

As a digital business with remote employee working, our own environmental footprint is very small.  Nevertheless, we encourage our staff to think and behave sustainably and provide information on how to do this to help promote a better environment for us all.  After careful evaluation, we have determined that the most significant impact on the climate is through the use of venues that we utilise for in-person events.  As a consequence, we have introduced a set of criteria which we use to select the most appropriate venues for our in person conferences, ensuring that the venues we choose are considering sustainability as part of their own business and footprint.  Although there are no fixed assessment criteria or KPIs, we use our judgement to ensure we select the most appropriate venue from a viable short-list.  In order to ensure we minimise negative consequences, we do consider venues who may be lower on the sustainability score-card, but who demonstrate a real commitment to invest in sustainability. We believe that this approach maximises the value of our spend with these venues, as opposed to only utilising venues that are already at the high end of the sustainability spectrum.

Impact of the A-Team Group on Society

As a responsible employer, A-Team Group values its staff and invests in their training and well-being.  We truly value our people which is evident from our exceptional Median tenure KPI which is 13.5 years as at July 2022 (source: LinkedIn).   To promote talent, we frequently provide work experience and internships and hire from the broad spectrum of diversity.