CSR Charter A responsible and committed Group
PRESENTATION
PRESENTATION
The CRYSTAL group is one of the French market leaders when it comes to independent private management. The group has 1 000 employees and 50 agencies, with a clientele of over 100 000 families in France and across the globe, these operations are divided amongst four main company names:
- LAPLACE: for private clients
- MAISON LAPLACE: The Group’s Multi Family Office
- ZENITH Investment Solutions: for investment and institutional professionals
- KWARXIO: the Group’s fintech
With this CSR charter we aim to present the essential ESG values and commitments of our Group and set out our vision and ambitions for our clients, employees, partners and shareholders. This text follows the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) such that, for our part, we can participate in the major social and sustainability changes that businesses of today must make:
We have a two-fold ambition:
- Allow all of the Group’s stakeholders and employees to contribute to coherent progress in line with the Group’s founding values and independent to the specifics of its various subsidiaries;
- Make CRYSTAL one of the benchmark responsible operators in the French and international Private Management sector. Therefore acting as a source of knowledge, know-how and behaviour in order to:
SUSTAINABLY ENRICH, RESOLUTELY PRESERVE AND EDUCATE WITH PASSION.
Discover the daily actions of our staff here. These actions contribute to a continuous progress approach and we intend to broaden them over time.
SUSTAINABLY ENRICH
Virtuous investment in sustainable finances implies the capacity to propose clients with a range of SRI products that will have a positive impact on the environment, and encourage awareness of them and their associated risks. This is how CRYSTAL intends to add meaning to its operations, by positioning itself as a responsible financial educator encouraging its clients to invest both sustainably and responsibly.
Financial education
Financial education
CRYSTAL’s current efforts to improve the awareness of its clients takes the form of its “Parlons Patrimoine” monthly newsletter, themed webinars hosted by specialist experts and television spots on the major news channels, all of which are then relayed via the professional social media networks.
Sustainable finance offer
Sustainable finance offer
In order to propose a responsible and sustainable product offer as well as ethical and ecological investments, CRYSTAL currently has a large range of indirect financial and real-estate funds with extra-financial characteristics, as set out in the SFDR. For the moment this offer does not advise our clients as regards negative sustainability impacts due to a lack of regulatory and supplier information.We commit:
- To continue our best efforts to ensure that we are able to provide the correct quality of advice in this area as soon as possible;
- To broaden our range and offer to include respectful products that are compatible with the ecological and social challenges appropriate for committed operators, with the aim that 90% of the funds suggested by our Allocation committee have the SRI label or article 8 or 9 SFDR classification by 2025.
RESOLUTELY PRESERVING
CRYSTAL also commits to act internally as a responsible employer by raising employee awareness and commitment to day-to-day CSR practices through the application of a responsible management approach integrating social, environmental and economic issues into its decision-making and management.
Waste management, energy consumption and transport
Waste management, energy consumption and transport
CRYSTAL encourages its employees to minimise their environmental impact wherever possible through responsible concrete day-to-day actions (no more single use plastic, recycling, bulk purchases, etc.) by progressively adopting new ways of working (work-from-home charter, video conferences) and more environmentally beneficial technologies (hybrid vehicle fleet) across all of the group’s agencies.
Various improvement works have reduced energy consumption at our 3 main sites in Montpellier, Lyon and Paris (air conditioning/heating system replacement, lighting systems with motion-sensors and day/night detection, etc.). We are now contributing to preserving the local economies of our sites by implementing a purchasing policy that favours local producers wherever possible.
Social / Human Resources
Social / Human Resources
The CRYSTAL business culture is built around 3 main values: benevolence, high standards and loyalty. These values are the very basis of the managerial ethics and responsibility at the heart of our HR policy. We are committed to making every effort possible to make further progress in these domains.
Crystal is now strongly committed to promoting employee health and quality of working life as well as fighting against all forms of discrimination in its HR processes. The group is currently working on training and promotion prospects for all of its staff through a sustainable employability and shared performance logic. As a committed contributor to these HR processes, each manager will be supported by a trained and committed diversity and anti-discrimination team.
CRYSTAL is committed to supporting its management in dealing with new issues by implementing responsible management training programs allowing them to integrate sustainable development and social responsibility into their operations.
Beyond the standard work health and safety obligations, CRYSTAL is committed to developing employee first-aid training programs, deploying preventive measures regarding MSD and PSH and proposing a responsible and effective social security foundation for all of its employees and their children both in France and abroad.
Finally, CRYSTAL is committed to encouraging social dialogue and evaluating the social climate by deploying a vertical feedback approach and implementing a social barometer, the results of which will be made available to all employees.
EDUCATE WITH PASSION
Making learning easier, passing on knowledge, expertise and skills; helping employees and clients to understand the stakes involved in asset and finance management, and on a broader level supporting associations or foundations through skills and financial support.
Training / Integration / Tutoring
Training / Integration / Tutoring
CRYSTAL is committed to helping young graduates to enter the workplace through apprenticeships and internships. A partnership with the SKEMA BUSINESS SCHOOL means that it contributes annually to training more than fifteen trainees in the demanding practices of our sector. Each trainee has their own exclusive specially trained tutor.
The training obligations of our sector and the CIF (Financial Advisor) status of Asset Management Consultants ensure regular confrontations with the ethical approaches inherent to consulting. CRYSTAL is committed to allowing all of its employees to receive training and develop their skills in keeping with developments to the sector and the tools they use.
Financial mentoring / Philanthropy
Financial mentoring / Philanthropy
CRYSTAL operates as a financial mentor in education and hopes to develop this commitment to support the commitment of its employees through time and skill mentoring support.
CRYSTAL is committed to proposing clients with investments in philanthropic and socially oriented funds with strong commitments to charities.
Memoria Familiae and Family Office Academy
Memoria Familiae and Family Office Academy
Finally, CRYSTAL is deeply attached to Memoria Familiae and therefore contributes to the transmission of the values and commitments of its client families on to their younger generations. CRYSTAL is thoroughly convinced of the need to pass on heritage knowledge across generations and therefore provides training to the younger generations of family office clients to help them to develop their knowledge of financial, legal and tax issues.