Giles Gibbons

Good Business - Sustainability | Strategy | Impact

March 10, 2023

1. B the change

If you have even the slightest interest in purpose or sustainability, you’ll know about the B Corp movement. And you’ll be aware that this month is B Corp month.  

A quick refresher for the uninitiated: certified B Corporations (or B Corps) are companies that have been verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. To achieve and maintain certification, a company needs to complete the B Impact assessment and score at least 80 points, meet the B Corp UK legal requirement to embed a commitment into its Articles of Association or the equivalent to consider the impact of decisions on all stakeholders, and sign the B Corp Agreement.

With over 6,000 B Corps worldwide in 89 countries, you may find the B Corp logo on your coffee or beer, your mattress or on the website of your financial services provider. We’re taking the opportunity to highlight some of our favourite B Corps in this month’s Friday 5s, as well as showcasing more over on our LinkedIn page.

And, of course, you’ll find the B Corp logo on the website of your favourite sustainability consultancy (that’s us, to be clear). And like other B Corps, as part of our commitment, we publish an annual impact report that shows the role we play in creating a better society and to enable conversations internally and with external audiences about the impacts they have had.

We’re pleased to be publishing our impact report this week, which covers our financial year ending in July 2022. It shows the impact we’ve had across three key areas – the work we’ve done with and for our clients, our team and our environmental impact, as well as our plans for the current year. Like most of what we do, it’s been a team effort, and we’ve included stories from team members about their experiences of the past year and the changes they’ve implemented as a result. We hope this gives people an insight into the work we do, and the way we do it. You can read the report here. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch!

2. SKY Social Marketing Handbook

How do you stop a teenager from taking up smoking?

Back in 2014 we launched SKY Girls, a multimedia tobacco prevention campaign for adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa, in response to this question. SKY was designed to strip the aspirational value out of smoking, using a host of channels including a print magazine, radio, TV, social media and on-ground activities to reach and influence young women.

Over the past ten years, the questions we’ve asked ourselves have broadened and evolved. How do you help an adolescent girl in Botswana to live life on her own terms, rather than following the crowd? How do you show a Nigerian teen that financial services are for her – not just for other people? How do you support a Kenyan 15-year-old to resist the pressure to have sex until she feels ready?

Sitting above all these questions is one, even bigger, question: how do you support people to adopt attitudes and behaviours that will help them thrive?

The SKY Social Marketing Handbook is our answer. Launched in partnership with our SKY teams across sub-Saharan Africa, the Handbook is a user’s guide to designing and launching a programme that changes behaviour for good. It covers everything from the basics of social marketing theory, to identifying and researching your target audience, to engaging stakeholders and partners, launching your campaign across multiple online and offline channels, and measuring your impact. It's designed to be simple, practical and tangible, and incorporates some of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from running SKY over the past (almost) ten years.

Whether you’re a sustainability manager trying to help your customers adopt more eco-friendly behaviours, or an NGO hoping to encourage uptake of health services, there is something in the Handbook for you. We hope you enjoy reading it – and do let us know what you think.

3. Snow joke

You’ve likely read the news about record low snowfalls across European ski resorts this winter. This week, two of the Good Business team have experienced the snow shortage ourselves, having relocated to Switzerland for a few days on the slopes. Climate change isn’t your typical chairlift chat, but it’s hard not to reflect on how bizarre the situation is.

We don’t mean the lack of snow – which anyone could have foreseen in a warming world – but rather the collective willingness to turn a blind eye to the barren slopes we’re staring down at and skiing past. The mountain feels like a microcosm of the climate crisis: everyone happy to ignore a problem provided we can continue to do the things we like to do, albeit a bit less comfortably.

We recognise of course that a shortage of snow for skiing (which we are privileged to be able to do in the first place) is nothing in comparison to the devastating loss of life and livelihood that climate change has wrought around the world. But what’s troubling is that it seems that neither that death and destruction, nor the impacts felt closer to home, (think heatwaves and drought across Europe last summer) are enough to wake us up to the need for urgent action.

So, what will? If we knew, we’d be shouting it from the rooftops. But, for now, keeping the conversation going is a good starting point. Some ski resorts are doing a good job of this, encouraging climate education and being honest about the challenges faced by the industry. As skiers, the responsibility also falls to us to take climate change seriously and, crucially, act on it. (We did, in fact, slow travel from London to Switzerland thanks to Good Business’ slow travel policy, although one of us will be flying back).

We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to enjoy our time in the mountains this week, and it’s been a powerful experience seeing the slopes in their current state. While we don’t have the answers on how to solve the climate crisis, we do know that it won’t be done by burying our heads in the slush. 

4. A pat on the back for the UK

In the UK (and elsewhere!) good news can feel like a scarce commodity at times. And while there’s lots in the news this week to feel disheartened by, we wanted to call attention to two more positive stories. The first is that we’ve managed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions faster than the global average last year, and the second is that we’ve been recognised as one of the most socially liberal countries in the world.

Over the past year, greenhouse gas emissions in Britain fell by more than 3%, compared to a 0.9% increase in global energy-related emissions. Despite the UK’s economy growing by 4%, holes in the government’s climate plans and the slow implementation of insulated homes and behaviour change, the UK is halfway to its net zero goal by 2050. A combination of increased wind supply and decreased demand for heating due to the summer heatwave meant that carbon emissions from coal and gas fell. If the UK manages to maintain this overall reduction annually in the decades ahead, it will be on track to meet its net zero target. This is obviously a challenge- but not an insurmountable one – and really would be an achievement to shout to the rooftops about.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted across 24 countries has shown that the UK is one of the most liberal nations in its attitudes to divorce, abortion, euthanasia, suicide and casual sex. It’s also shown a dramatic increase in acceptance of homosexuality, casual sex and prostitution. The shift is largely generational, as the views of younger people, who tend to be more progressive, start to become more prominent. That said, over 50% of the pre-war generation now say they accept divorce (up from just 20% in 2009), so change is happening at all ends of the age group.

It’s important to recognise when we’ve done something right, and that positive change is well within reach if we keep on at it and don’t become complacent. But for now, the UK deserves a small pat on the back.

The Goods: Good night, sleep tight

"Invest in your shoes and your sheets because if you’re not in one, you’re in the other" as the saying goes. And we’d say by ‘invest’ that means making choices that are not just kind to you, but are kind to the planet too!

When it comes to the sheets (and mattresses and beds), enter Naturalmat. Based in the banks of the River Exe, in Devon, this company is producing handcraft organic bedding for adults and kids. What they use: natural, organic and renewable fibres. What they don’t use: any artificial chemicals or synthetics.

And because it’s B Corps month, we should point out that they are a B Corp. They obtained an overall score of 96.3 in their B Corp certification because their whole business is run with a particular focus on sustainability. This includes actions like sourcing organic wool directly from local farmers, installing solar panels on the roof of their workshop or moving to 100% renewable energy, and developing innovative plastic-free packaging. All of which are contributing to a winning combo for both comfortable and sustainable sleeping devices.

And if you’re in the market for a new mattress, this could make a difference: our friends at Naturalmat are offering Friday 5 readers a 15% discount with the code GOODBUSINESS15, valid until 31st May. Yes, reading your Friday 5 up right to the end was even more worth it today than usual. Look no further for the most feel good of sleeps.