Our mission
Our success as a business depends on us building solid, long-lasting relationships with our clients, suppliers and employees, based on trust, respect and shared interests.
When we work in advertising what are we really doing? We’re helping our clients create valuable relationships with their audiences. These relationships are between companies and consumers, between organizations and the general public, between organizations and their members, between companies and other companies.
But as a business, we also create relationships in a much wider sense. We affect the world we live in and we acknowledge the impact we have on certain aspects of that world.
Our mission is to work ethically to move our business forward for the benefit of shareholders, employees, clients and suppliers, while improving our impact on people and planet by applying the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles outlined here.
Our mission
Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)
ESG is all about improving the relationships we have with the planet, our communities, and our colleagues. Those relationships can always be healthier, and Camden’s ESG initiative aims to identify what we’re doing right and what we can do better.
Our policy is to refuse work that promotes harm to people or the planet. That’s talking the talk, but do we walk the walk? Yes. We have refused to work for several clients for ethical reasons.
But we have to remain realistic. An advertising agency is a service business, and we cannot limit our clientele to organizations that provide proof of being carbon-neutral. What we can do is actively seek clients and supply chain partners who are in sync with our mission.
Camden is also proud to donate time and expertise to pro bono causes. We typically produce at least one major campaign for a non-profit organization each year and work with our media partners to ensure that it receives visibility in mainstream channels.
Education is also important for our communities and our industry. So in 2022 Camden made a five-year commitment to pledge a significant annual monetary donation to Toronto Metropolitan University to fund the Camden Advertising Award for French-language Marketing at The Creative School.
Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)
Environmental issues
Sustainable sourcing
As a service company, the vast majority of our work involves digital communication and production. This means that we are electricity-intensive, and paper-light. The good news is that almost 100% of the electricity used in our Canadian offices is produced from zero-carbon emitting sources, while our offices in France use a green electricity supplier. For paper and other non-reusable supplies, we make an effort to source from suppliers with RSE policies.
Recycling
We recycle all non-reusable materials such as paper, cardboard, metal and plastic using local municipal systems.
Cars, remote work and public transport
Emissions from traditional auto engines are a source of greenhouse gasses, so when we open a new office we ensure that it is situated close to public transport systems. Camden has also adopted a hybrid remote working model where employees can work from home for a maximum of three days a week in order to enhance the work-life balance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our Lyon employees are 100% reimbursed when they commute using public transport, with similar policies planned for other offices.
Air travel
Camden is an international network and it is therefore sometimes necessary for executives to travel between our offices by air. When possible, we purchase carbon offsets from reputed sources that are equivalent to the environmental impact of these flights.
Roof garden
We are participating in a rooftop garden initiative for our Montreal office in collaboration with the building owner and one of our clients, Microhabitat. The goal of this garden is to create an additional urban green space while providing a hyper-local weekly source of fresh produce for our employees and the local community.
Culture, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Cultural differences
Camden is a global network. This means that our offices do business within different cultural realities. There are also significant differences in ethnic diversity, cultural norms and corporate legislation in the communities and territories where we work. Valuing these differences isn’t only respectful, it actually helps us do our jobs better, because it means that we’re helping our clients connect more effectively to a diverse range of people.
Inclusion is a process
We are aware that inclusion is an ongoing process that entails both an attitude of openness and concrete actions. So how do we approach the different realities faced by our offices on three continents?
Zero discrimination
Not only is discrimination wrong, advertising agencies run on talent. If we focus on anything other than the ability to do a good job, we are depriving ourselves of access to talent. Camden will not tolerate any discrimination among our staff, including but not limited to, discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, cultural background, handicap, physical appearance, religion and creed, values, age, education, language, and sexual orientation.
Equity of opportunity
We understand that people from marginalized groups may not have equal access to employment at Camden due to a variety of historical and social factors in the communities where we work. Although Camden as a company does not bear direct responsibility for these wider factors, we are committed to ensuring that marginalized groups in the communities where we work have equal access to employment at Camden, and that each Camden office makes a conscious effort to reflect the diversity of its community when hiring new staff, including favouring a candidate from an under-represented group where equivalent professional competence exists between candidates.
Territorial acknowledgement
Camden’s Canadian offices benefit from a history of colonization and are located on unceded Indigenous lands. We make this acknowledgement in the spirit of inclusion and as a recognition of both a historical legacy and the role that Indigenous peoples play in our communities today.
Corporate governance
Ethics
Camden’s Montreal office is a member of Quebec’s advertising industry association, the A2C. We comply with the A2C’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Quality, and use it to guide our daily professional actions in each of our offices worldwide.
Transparency
Camden has a transparent ownership structure and shares an overview of financial results with all employees. Any employee may request further details from management regarding the company’s financial situation.
Equity of treatment
Camden employees of all backgrounds and physical abilities must be treated equitably and feel welcomed in our workplaces. We do not tolerate any kind of discrimination.
Gender balance and equal pay
We make a conscious effort to achieve gender balance among leadership and non-leadership positions and are proud to say that 50% of our executives are women. Our Montreal office also applies the Quebec government’s CNESST formula that guarantees equal pay for equivalent positions.
Flexible scheduling
As noted above, Camden has flexible scheduling and remote work options for employees that vary by office, but which are intended to optimize the work-life balance of our employees while lowering the environmental impact of commuting.
Time sheets and overtime
We believe that the value of an employee’s work is not linked to a specific number of hours spent on a project. Camden therefore doesn’t require staff to keep time sheets. Instead, we manage projects through a combination of honest, transparent communication and collaborative software. We also actively discourage overtime. Yes, you read that right: we are an advertising agency that tries real hard not to overwork its people.
Professional improvement
Camden pays up to 50% of the tuition fees for courses that employees take to improve relevant professional skills.
Profit sharing
Camden shares a significant percentage of corporate profits with employees on a pro rata basis according to equitably applied criteria. This redistribution of profits encourages team spirit, rewards effort, and distributes responsibility. Our profit sharing initiative is highly unusual in our industry, and is our way of showing concretely how much we value our people.