Chewing the Cud

Has your sustainability reporting become a burden rather than a tool for change?

1 Jul 2022
​'If you don't measure you can't manage' - a quote we have all heard, and a sentiment that has led to a drastic increase in the number of organisations formally reporting on their sustainability. According to a recent Harvard Business Review paper those organisations reporting in line with GRI, the most comprehensive reporting standards available, has grown a hundredfold in the past two decades. I've seen it myself, with reports moving from a brief summary about intent, to mammoth documents tracking every facet of sustainability.

Full Story

The importance of creativity in sustainability

12 Mar 2018
In an avalanche it's the saltation layer that determines the reach and impact the avalanche will have. It could be said that creativity is the saltation layer of the sustainability avalanche.

Full Story

Could The Apprentice inspire a new view of business?

18 Nov 2015
​I'll admit it; I'm an avid viewer of The Apprentice. I've watched every BBC series and I've even been found perusing Ireland's version and Trump's version (it isn't quite the same without Prokofiev's stirring Romeo and Juliet). But the thing I've realised is that I always watch it with a hope they’ll change the format because actually I'm not really a 'fan' of its fundamentals. Now I know it sounds a bit deep for a one-hour show, but The Apprentice, rightly or wrongly, portrays a view of ‘business’ and how it should be to an audience of millions. Yet rarely does it raise the question of how a product is sourced; what materials it’s made of; what impact it has environmentally or socially.

Full Story

Creating fans of brand 'sustainability'

15 Oct 2015
It's not always about shouting louder, or the number of people with whom you raise awareness of a message, for behaviour change it's about the number of people with whom you make a connection and how empowered they feel to go on and make that connection with someone else. For years, community sponsorship or investment has favoured the bottom of the engagement triangle - awareness raising, and for some brands that works because knowing their name is the object of the game. But for those brands that require an emotional connection, for example, the 'brand' of sustainability, we need to be focused on the top - creating fans of our 'brand'. It may take longer and feel slower, but in reality these people can stay with you forever once there and the impact will be both deeper and longer lasting.

Full Story

Key Components of Creating Change

13 Oct 2015
There is no easy way to drive change, but there are some core components that we think are essential to designing and delivering a change programme, whether you are promoting more sustainable behaviours in the community, or developing a new organisational culture.

Full Story