At Monks, we shift industries forward and pave the path towards ambitious outcomes so our clients and our people can realize their full potential for growth. Our mission is to harness technology and creativity as forces for good to make a positive material impact on people, the planet and society as a whole. 

For us, like many others, 2023 was a time of reset – a year of cultivating Culture and Governance. Globally, there was growing recognition of the impact of environmental, social and governance factors on business models, and increased efforts to steer economic activities towards sustainability. Developments in disclosure regulation and sustainability reporting highlight the importance of transparency and quantifiable outcomes, eliciting the need for quality data, as well as both internal and external data gathering.

In 2023 we focused on streamlining our activities, processes and governance to bring us closer to our goal of achieving net zero by 2040 – for example, aligning with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to set formal science-based targets and creating our transitioning plan.

The year was a challenging one across our industry as global macroeconomic conditions put pressure on many of our clients, particularly in the technology sector. But while others are talking about the future, we believe the future is too late. The world around us is happening now. Culture is happening now. Climate change is happening now. And we are committed to taking action – now.

True to their spirit, our talented people responded positively to both the challenging conditions and our drive for efficiency, so creating agile practices, policies and programmes that met the needs of and fostered our diverse workforce was a top priority for us in 2023. We also continued to focus on closing the representation gap for talent in our industry by providing training and fellowships.

We commit to fight climate change. We aim to be net zero by 2040. 

We reaffirmed our commitment to SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard while advancing the quality of our data via a new software system for GHG emissions calculation. Thanks to an improved data collection process, increased accuracy of our energy consumption data and less reliance on extrapolation, we were able to more accurately calculate emissions from our own operations this year. We plan to formulate a transition plan which should allow for significant progress in achieving our emission reduction targets.

We commit to increase impactful work. We aim to deliver 20% of total revenue on For Good projects by 2040.

We increased the number of Purpose-driven clients and continued to assist our clients in accentuating purposeful messaging to create environmental and social impact through our work. Our work embodies our ESG strategy. We identify the daily impact of – and in – our work to better ourselves, our methods and our outcomes.

We commit to building a diverse culture and increase diverse representation.

We saw relative consistency in our representation numbers, despite the addition of a technology-based practice. We attribute this to the power of our programs – like the Diverse Slate Approach to hiring – and our commitment to empowering women in the workforce and leadership. We also reinforced our commitment to purposefully discover diverse talent and offer training for underrepresented groups, helping our people develop skills, connections and careers.