Corporate Social Responsibility

Sherlock Communications > Corporate Social Responsibility

A Responsible Business

We at Sherlock Communications aim to be leaders among Latin American PR agencies when it comes to operating as a responsible business. Our policies are based on responsibly managing our impacts in every endeavor. Aligned with that, we always look forward to maintaining a mutual, respectful and inclusive relationship with locals, customers, vulnerable communities, minorities and the environment.

Within our ways of working, we strongly believe that successful campaigns go way further than generating leads and profit – our success is measured by the positive impacts we are able to achieve together with our clients throughout Latin America.

Our CSR beliefs and commitments

Our vision is to be recognised as the best public relations agency for international companies wanting to engage consumers in Latin America. We passionately believe that conducting our business in a responsible way is fundamental to achieving this goal.

  • We believe that as a responsible business we must not only treat our clients with respect but also our colleagues, the environment and the communities we work in/with. We want to promote a positive and beneficial environment for all as much as we can.
  • We believe that a healthy corporate environment which engages, encourages and listens to every member of our team allows us to be more effective on behalf of our clients as well;
  • We are committed to going beyond prejudice and genuinely listening to what minority groups have to say, and understanding their particular realities and needs, because we strongly believe that stereotypes present an incomplete and detrimental vision of a wider and more complex reality;
  • We believe in taking part in activities which can be beneficial for Latin America’s multiple realities, such as supporting our team members to volunteer with community organisations, offering pro bono consultancy and direct financial support to charities in the areas of social development, education, environment and homelessness.
  • Together, we look forward to integrating and respecting people’s differences, in order to make our teams more pluralistic and culturally rich, formed by people with many different backgrounds, contributing together towards a wider view that an homogeneous team would never have.
  • In every country we work in, we aim to create the least environmental impact possible. Currently we are a carbon negative company certified by Iniciativa Verde.
  • Our offices use environmentally friendly LED lamps. We also take time to support NGOs that look ahead to take care of the environment.

Our daily efforts to increase diversity and inclusion

Ensuring diversity and integration amid the diverse realities we work with is part of our daily efforts:

  • Ongoing efforts to hire, include and support black, LGBTQIA+, indigenous, physically disabled and intellectually disabled consultants from different socio-economic realities;
  • Improving internal conversations concerning diversity and inclusion among our consultants;
  • Broadening the social projects Sherlock Communications supports to make sure we contribute to as many diverse projects as possible;
  • Articulating our team’s commitment to promoting human rights, respect and integration for everyone in the business environment and in society;
  • Inviting projects and people from minority groups to share their life experiences with our consultants;
  • Adding inclusive resources such as image descriptions (Alt-Tags on the website and #ImageDescription on social media) in our communications channels. We’re working to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Projects that have been inspiring us in this journey

We are not alone in improving our actions in Latin America to contribute to a better, more inclusive reality. The many projects below have been offering us the opportunity to listen and learn through their inspiring workshops and consultancies for our team:

EmpregueAfro

EmpregueAfro is a Brazilian HR consultancy focused on ethnic-racial diversity. The company was founded in 2014 with the goal of empowering young black people for selection processes and, in time, started to offer training courses and workshops within this area of focus, as well as consultancies in recruitment and selection.

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ADIL & Afroféminas

ADIL (Diversidad e Inclusión Laboral) is a company based in Mexico which offers consultancy services that promote inclusion and respect towards LGBT people in the work environment. ADIL’s partner Afroféminas is a digital magazine that highlights black women through their professional ambitions in areas such as research, culture and opinion. It is a project created and driven by two black women.

Coletiva Luana Barbosa

The Coletiva Luana Barbosa was founded in 2016, after the brutal assault and murder of Luana Barbosa dos Reis – a black, lesbian, non-feminine mother from the slums – by a policeman in the Brazilian city of Ribeirão Preto. Made up of lesbian women, the Coletiva works to develop initiatives for lesbian and bisexual black women related to maternity, violence against women, domestic violence, damage reduction, self-care, mental and sexual health.

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Lucía Riojas Martínez, Casa Frida

Living in Mexico, Lucía Riojas Martínez is a lesbian ativist for women’s rights and for sexual diversity. She is a secretary of the Committee of Youth and Sexual Diversity, a member of the Human Rights Committee and a member of the Gender Equality Committee. Lucía has a non-profit organisation named Casa Frida, which helps members from the LGBTQ+ community who have lost their jobs or are passing through tough situations.

Ponte Acessibilidade

Ponte Acessibilidade is a company that offers interpretation in LIBRAS (Brazilian sign language) for artistic and cultural events, as well as other services that promote accessibility, translating what speakers are saying so that the deaf can understand, and vice versa. Ponte Acessibilidade also defends the right of deaf people to be the protagonists of their own stories, rather than having someone else tell their stories for them.

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ASOMAS

ASOMAS (Mexican Association Anne Sullivan IAP) was founded in Mexico City in 2001. It is the first Mexican institution with a specific model to empower and rehabilitate people with multiple disabilities, including blindness and deafness.

Life-changing Latin American initiatives which we support

Un Respiro - ARGENTINA

Un Respiro is a joint project by Investu and the National University of Rosario. Together, they aim to develop a low-cost device for respiratory emergencies which would be easy and quick to manufacture, and could help people with severe symptoms of Covid-19.

The project was approved by medical and government authorities. All the plans to build this low-cost device are available for free so companies and entrepreneurs from all over the world can manufacture the respirator in their countries for Non-Commercial use, and donate them to health centers to meet demand.

If companies and entrepreneurs want to build a respirator for commercial use they must pay a fee, but the Un Respiro project founders believe this is not in their best interest, and prefer to see solidarity in action.

Salvemos las Pymes (SMEs) - ARGENTINA

The idea of this project arose from the urge to increase sales during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a platform aimed at stimulating Pymes (or SMEs) to generate resources, two friends named Juan and Oliver began to offer vouchers to be used once quarantine measures were relaxed. Being able to purchase vouchers, albeit ones which can’t be used straight away, has helped to increase sales and stop many Argentinian businesses from going bankrupt.

Since the sole motivation is to give a space and voice to SMEs, all money generated by vouchers purchased through this platform goes directly to the SMEs which offer them.

Abraço Cultural - BRAZIL

Abraço Cultural is an initiative by the Atados social platform which, after holding the first Refugee World Cup, launched a more long-term project to contribute to the integration of these refugees in Brazil. With a presence in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the NGO and language and culture school exclusively employs refugees, enabling them to teach and thus promoting a rich exchange of experiences, with the intention of breaking down cultural barriers.

Abraço Cultural now includes more than 3,400 students, 90 trained teachers and 2.5 million reais in income generated for refugees. As part of our commitment to international cultures coming to Brazil, Sherlock Communications runs a pro bono, integrated campaign for the NGO. Our work includes creating and pitching press releases and features to national, regional and trade journalists, across print, broadcast and online, as well as supporting Abraço’s volunteers in interviews, event planning and social media and website management.

Novos Líderes Empreendedores - BRAZIL

For more than 5 years, the Novos Líderes Empreendedores NGO (which translates to ‘New Entrepreneurial Leaders’) aims to promote entrepreneurial education as a possible vector for social change, empowering leaders and their communities.

The NGO hosts a 40-hour business-related course, where students learn about subjects related to self-knowledge and purpose, as well as digital marketing and finance. The course also includes the support required to create a business plan, to be presented to a board of investors during the final event of the course. In the last few years, NLE’s program has been completed by more than 150 students from different communities in Rio de Janeiro.

Sherlock Communications has supported Novos Líderes Emprendedores since the NGO’s inception, from rebranding to financially supporting the project and even providing free communication courses to students for improving their businesses.

Projeto Guri - BRAZIL

Projeto Guri is a project based in the state of São Paulo which offers all kinds of free music classes for young people aged between 6 and 18. Most of its students are economically vulnerable and find hope for a better future in their music. This project also plays a significant role in keeping many young people away from crime and drugs in disadvantaged communities.

Santa Marcelina Cultura - BRAZIL

Founded in 2008, Santa Marcelina Cultura offers musical training for young people, with the goal of turning them into great, talented artists. Its classes also aim to foster social intervention. One of their internally managed projects is connected to Projeto Guri, mentioned above.

Cataki - BRAZIL AND COLOMBIA

Pimp My Carroça aims to raise awareness of “catadores” (recycling collectors) both locally and internationally, making their work safer and more visible. In Brazil, for example, these workers are collectively responsible for 90% of local recycling, making a huge difference in the local recycling flow, which merely hints at their overall importance.

Pimp My Carroça created the Cataki app, which brings together these collectors and people with recyclable materials they wish to dispose of. This provides a means of increasing the catadores’ earnings and providing greater visibility for their community. Sherlock Communications runs pro bono campaigns for both the app and the movement in Brazil and Colombia. Our work includes creating and pitching press releases and features to national, regional and trade journalists, across print, broadcast and online, presenting to influencers to help spread the project, as well as supporting Pimp My Carroça’s spokespeople and waste collectors in interviews and events.

Fundación Colombia Comparte - COLOMBIA

According to figures from the National Planning Department (DANE) around 32,5 million Colombians, equivalent to 68% of the population, belong to the country’s middle-class. Among this demographic, hundreds of entrepreneurship ideas never come to light due to an initial lack of support, as well as hundreds of ventures which went bankrupt and were unable to restart without the backing of a bank.

Colombia Comparte supports people from the middle-class who have fallen into dire economic straits, through business development and employability programs which aim to reactivate the country’s economy by using its members’ academic experience and training.

Fundación Planet - COLOMBIA

According to Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment, the country’s recycling rate for 2019 was only 19.5%, from more than 15 tons of solid waste produced annually – despite efforts and regulations advanced by the National Government. By comparison, developed countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden manage to recycle more than 90% of the garbage they produce.

For this reason, the Fundación Planet is promoting a responsible recycling program for companies, including a fact-finding visit, free delivery of knowledge and tools for the proper management of recycling processes, collection of recycling material and implementation of environmental sustainability, in accordance with the current demand from global authorities.

Corporation for Sustainable Forest Management - ECUADOR

In Ecuador we have joined the Corporation for Sustainable Forest Management – COMAFORS – whose “Plant a Tree for your Future” project aims to plant 1 million trees in Ecuador, making it a greener and healthier country.

Another objective is to raise awareness towards the local environment and highlight its potential. The project owners and members also dream of creating a Forest Country with a newly-forested area, while maintaining the current forests through reforestation efforts.

Tree-Nation - LATAM

Tree-Nation, the worldwide tree-planting platform, has partnered with Sherlock Communications as part of the Brands2Life Global Network, to promote its projects in Latin America and raise awareness of the threat of deforestation to our planet.

Along with our agency, 14 independent agencies from the Brands2Life Global Network, from markets including Australia, the USA, Israel, and South Africa, are providing support for this platform on a pro bono basis.

Tree-Nation is aiming to position itself as the largest tree-planting platform worldwide, and the results of this global campaign promise to raise brand awareness and ultimately begin to reverse the devastating effects of deforestation.

CURITA - MEXICO

Compañía Urbana Itinerante de Tango (Urban Itinerant Tango Company) is an association that takes care of delivering clothes, personal hygiene products, food and other essential products to people in need. In addition, they deliver culture and entertainment. At the end of donation events, CURITA puts on a Tango show in which those who received donations are invited to take a free class or dance Tango, Swing and Danzón.

CURITA is mainly active in nursing homes, but has also visited orphanages and women’s prisons. In addition to donating items that may be beneficial to these groups, the association aims to cheer them up through dance, claiming that there is no better “CURITA” (Band-aid) for the soul than music and dance. That makes people happy.

Asociación de Emprendedores de Mexico - MEXICO

Mexico has the second-highest number of startups of any country in Latin America, and is the regional leader in fintech. Thanks to the attention placed by investors on new businesses and startups, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Mexico has gained strength. ASEM (Asociación de Emprendedores de Mexico) is a non-profit civil association whose work aims to make Mexico the best place to start a business.

The group promotes and advocates for entrepreneurship through a work model that represents the main needs of entrepreneurs, whether in early or consolidation stages. Its initiatives include access to information, linking of networks, training, defense, public policies and commercial benefits. The group belongs to the Latin American Entrepreneurs Association (ASELA), the largest network of entrepreneurs in the region with a presence in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Guatemala.

Samsara - MEXICO

Samsara is an initiative by experts in psychology and psychiatry, and a long-term project which contributes to education around the prevention of sexual violence in Mexico. Headquartered in Mexico City, the collective uses seminars, webinars and forums to increase understanding around the need for a society educated in human rights and respect.

Samsara also offers psychological therapy and the support of a team specialized in the healing of gender violence and sexual harassment. Sherlock Communications’ local team supports the organisation in producing content and running communication strategies to raise awareness, as well as helping organising workshops to educate people on the prevention of gender violence.