We value and support diversity and inclusion within the Arendt group.

We value difference in our workforce, whether of age, race, culture, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability or medical condition, socioeconomic background, education or any other characteristic that makes a person unique.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion extends to all practice areas and business services, and pervades our decision-making in recruitment, training, placement, mobility, advancement, compensation, benefits and termination, social events and other areas.

We have established a number of strategic objectives putting these values into practice, to:

• apply the principle of equal opportunity at all levels, and integrate people by driving talent acquisition and management practices to support this aim;
• create an inclusive work environment that fosters creativity and innovation and promotes colleague engagement through awareness, inclusive leadership training, and flexible work-life balance arrangements;
• ensure that diversity and inclusion initiatives, actions and results are transparent and engaging to different groups across our staff, clients, suppliers and subcontractors;
• hold leadership accountable for diversity and inclusion goals and objectives, and encourage all staff, suppliers and subcontractors to promote non-discrimination.

To ensure the achievement of these goals at all levels, Arendt has implemented a range of specific governance mechanisms.

The Diversity and Inclusion Network at Arendt (DNA Committee) includes employees from all departments. Its role is to source and share initiatives and best practices related to gender equality and non-discrimination, cultural diversity and the inclusion of individual differences among staff. The DNA Committee’s goal is to help build a diversified talent base within the firm. This committee is one of our initiatives in the Positive Actions programme led by the Ministry of Equal Opportunities (MEGA), whose action focuses on the concept of “talent” and the promotion of diversity internally.

Among many other projects, the DNA committee organises the annual Arendt Speech Contest. This contest is an opportunity for employees to express themselves freely on a variety of topical subjects, leading to exchanges and revealing new oratory talents. Each participant is coached in public speaking prior to the contest. A dozen teams and individual speakers then take to the stage in an oratorical competition, delivering in the language of their choice (English, French, German, etc.). All employees and a jury cast votes to select a winner, which takes home a grand prize. The prize is always linked to one of Arendt’s donee organisations (a trip to Cambodia to visit schools we finance, to Madagascar to see nurseries we support, etc.). During the pandemic, the contest format was changed from live to digital so that it could still be held in spite of the restrictions. It remained a resounding success, and an event highly appreciated by all Arendters.

In 2019, the Arendt Speech Contest was recognised by the Diversity Awards Lëtzebuerg as an initiative raising awareness about unconscious bias and promoting talent. 

In this area, Arendt has also appointed a Diversity and Inclusion Officer (DIO) and a Recruitment and Integration Officer, who perform coordination work essential to the success of the firm's many projects launched to develop and maintain its inclusive culture.

In December 2020, Arendt received the “Actions Positives” Label for 2020. This award was conferred in recognition of a positive action plan programmed by Arendt, which followed up on an in-depth study of the well-being of our staff, funded by the Ministry for Equality.

Arendt is also signatory of the Diversity Charter Lëtzebuerg, demonstrating our commitment to the promotion and management of diversity through concrete actions that go beyond legal obligations.

Finally, Arendt is a member of IMS Luxembourg (short for “Inspiring More Sustainability”) – the leading network of Luxembourg companies involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Innovation has always been a key driver of Arendt’s culture. We like to think outside the box, and to anticipate rather than follow along. Being at the forefront of change and at the cutting edge of technology means investing in innovative solutions, tools and ideas.

This mindset is disseminated through all our projects carried out internally, and projected to our clients.

Arendt has a broad array of technological tools integrated into its service offering and is continuously investing in development for better customisation and efficiency. One corollary to this is a particular focus on continuing professional training for all of our teams, to ensure that they can use these resources to the fullest.

Like innovation, education lies at the heart of Arendt’s strategy. By the very nature of our professions, we strongly promote knowledge sharing, training and learning among our staff, to our clients and through our support of NGOs.

For Arendt, education means exchange: passing on knowledge and growing everyone’s resources in the process. For this reason Arendt founded its own educational establishment, Arendt Institute, created to help our clients develop their skills through training on the legal, regulatory and operational issues they deal with each day.
The experts at Arendt Institute aim to ensure that each course participant receives the highest level of training and customer care. All courses are specifically designed to enrich and enhance professional performance. Arendt Institute also focuses on internal training for our staff, enabling employees to develop both their hard and their soft skills. At Arendt, internal training is baked into employee development: as soon as a person joins the company, they are integrated into their role and familiarised with the corporate culture through a comprehensive on-boarding course. As their careers progress, employees also receive continuing training, particularly in management methods.

Arendt has created a separate Learning department to support this continuous approach to development and training. The Arendt Learning team sets up talent development programmes that take into account the specific needs and features of each individual throughout their career, whether in terms of hard skills or soft skills. Entire programmes have been designed especially for our teams, with the content adapted for participants’ level of seniority.

Arendt strives to cultivate a workplace that fosters the talents of each staff member as a unique individual. As part of this, Arendt believes in encouraging the acquisition of soft skills, by including them as early on as possible in training programmes and individual employee development plans.

Arendt is also convinced that talent must be nourished from an early age, and therefore supports several charitable organisations that work on a daily basis to educate children – both in Luxembourg (where much inequality yet persists) and abroad, in countries in which poverty makes access to education more difficult.

• UP _FOUNDATION is an educational foundation committed to the success and well-being of children, young people and other learners in Luxembourg, and to equal opportunity in education. The organisation initiates and coordinates educational projects, federates and supports existing initiatives and actions, animates debates around education, and brings together the nation’s active forces for the educational cause.

• Pour un Sourire d'Enfant helps Cambodian children escape destitution, ultimately leading them to decent, skilled and well-paid jobs through programmes that deliver food security, healthcare, protection, education and schooling, vocational training and help for families. Thanks to our support, Pour un Sourire d’Enfant was able to build new classrooms in the PSE centre in Phnom Penh between November 2020 and January 2021. The children are now attending classes in the new buildings and have a suitable environment in which to study.

• Toutes à l’école supports underprivileged girls in Cambodia, providing education, food and medical monitoring (general medicine, vaccinations, dental and eye care) along with support for their families, until the girls enter the workforce. We support Toutes à l’Ecole financially, in particular by subsidising the organisation's programme for postgraduate students: The Mentoring Program – Chandara Student Home. This mentoring programme allows students to be supported by professionals as they make career choices, collecting advice, defining clear strategies and creating networks in Cambodia and abroad. A mentor assists each student for a full year, with in-person meetings each month to develop her career plan and aspirations.

• Friendship Luxembourg is a support organisation for Friendship Bangladesh that provides it with human resources, research and development and fundraising. As part of its support, Arendt funds Friendship’s Inclusive Citizenship programme.
  This programme aims to help the marginalised communities who live along the river Brahmaputra in Bangladesh by educating them on their rights. The cornerstone of the programme are the Friendship Community Paralegals (currently 75, the majority of whom are women) – experts on the frontlines who work to promote and protect the human rights of those living in the area. They receive ongoing training from Friendship.

In supporting these organisations, Arendt helps promote education from the earliest age. Naturally, however, we know that education is fundamental to broadening one’s horizons at every stage of life.

That is why Arendt is also proud to support the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, which works to imbue student orchestra musicians with highly specialised know-how and skills.

This relatively recent programme fosters the education of talented young musicians from all over the world. Participants have the chance to perform with outstanding conductors and work with brilliant musicians through an extensive programme of coaching, chamber music projects and workshops.

Arendt sees education as a means of opening up to the world and to others – of developing one’s views by confronting oneself with new things. This approach is also reflected in our commitment to art through our partnership with MUDAM, whose initiatives have exchange and knowledge sharing at their core.

Art forces us to expand our minds: it challenges, generates friction, and proves that the world around us must be taken in with an inquiring and critical mind. These principles are naturally also fundamental to our professions.

Our support for MUDAM dates back to 2010, and forms part of a global approach that centres on sharing this passion for questioning – whether internally through exhibition tours and artist meetings with our staff, or towards our clients, and even the public.
For a number of years now, the firm has shown its commitment to the art of photography by exhibiting artists from all over the world at its Kirchberg premises, and inviting local art lovers to appreciate their work at weekends and in private groups.

Carbon footprint reduction and waste management

At Arendt we are dedicated to offsetting our CO₂ emissions and reducing our overall carbon footprint to make a positive contribution to climate change. To achieve this, a number of measures are in place.

Our buildings have been designed with the environment in mind: heat insulation through automatic blinds, reusing rain water, natural building materials, smart lighting and recycling stations.
Our newest building, Arendt 9, is certified BREEAM Very Good. Finally, the whole Arendt group is certified SuperDrecksKescht® (a Luxembourg certification for environmentally friendly waste management).

We also support IMS Luxembourg’s initiative to fight single-use plastic pollution. As a signatory to the “Zero Single-Use Plastic” manifesto, the firm had phased out office products covered by the manifesto by the end of 2020, opting for sustainable replacements.

Biodiversity

We promote biodiversity to preserve local ecosystems and maintain healthy conditions for life through the following initiatives:

• Beehives with 150,000 bees installed on the rooftop terrace of Arendt House to support pollination in our neighbourhood
• Corporate gardens around the buildings and green facades
• Planting more flowers in the green areas and on the rooftop terrace to support our bee population
• Launch of urban farming project for staff on the rooftop terrace
• Rainwater collection from buildings to water green facades and corporate gardens

Since the construction of Arendt House in 2015, Arendt has supported Graine de Vie to help offset its carbon emissions. This non-profit organisation supports reforestation projects in Madagascar, Togo, Benin, Cameroon and Ghana. Their local tree plantations create job opportunities, improve local living conditions, and raise awareness about environmental protection.

In its work with Graine de Vie to prevent deforestation, Arendt financed an entire project to restore the surroundings of Nosy Hara National Park in Madagascar.

Mobility

Luxembourg is the first country in the world to provide free public transport. We encourage our staff to use public transport to come to work, and have implemented other mobility measures in recent years that have proven to have a positive impact:

• Collaboration with LuxMobility to map out important specifics of staff travel
• Selection of office locations with good public transport options: tram, bus and train connections even faster than driving to work
• E-mobility fleet for professional and private use, with e-cars, e-bikes and e-scooters
• E-charging bays for staff who own electric and hybrid cars