Our Sustainability Policy

It’s acknowledged by many that we have more power through our pensions and financial decisions than we do through our vote. Our financial footprint is with Triodos bank, although we have a Natwest business account to act as a clearing account for international payments. It’s a long story of waylaid payments and a lot of digging around in holding accounts. We used to bank with HSBC, we left there a few years ago and informed them why we were leaving. It didn’t make a difference to their balance sheet, it made a difference to us and to those who we invest in now through Triodos. It’s important to tell people why you are moving as it helps them raise their awareness too and see how important this is for people. Our pensions are managed in ethical investment funds by The Path, We used to work with a different Financial Advisor who we’d worked with for years. When I enquired about divesting our small portfolio from fossil fuels, he dropped us as quickly as he could.

Influencing our suppliers

We use local and UK based suppliers where possible for our work. We don’t use a lot of supplies, but where we do, they are sustainably sourced, made from recycled materials or, in the case of books, secondhand where possible. We recycle our technology and have moved to using Macbooks as they are more robust and last a longer time. We repair everything until it is no longer repairable and recycle after that. Our purchases, where possible are upcycled, reconditioned and low impact.

We now have a commitment to ask all our suppliers for details of their sustainability policy, and we ask what their goals are around being carbon negative.

Our energy

We’ve been on greener energy suppliers for year. However, we have just switched our energy supplier to Green energy UK the UK’s only supplier of 100% green gas as well as 100% renewable electricity. It’s more expensive than our previous supplier, but there are no shortcuts. We have solar thermal panels which we have had for 15 years and a well established green roof. We minimise our energy use.

Our Food

We don’t do a lot of catering in our work, however food is one of the things you can change that has the big impact on carbon foot prints as well as the regeneration of our planet. We have a mixed bag of diets in our household, Vegan, Vegetarian and flexitarian. We source local and organic as much as we possibly can. If we can’t get organic, we source local at least. Alison attempts to produce food from the garden. It’s always an experiment with mixed results. We are exploring creating a forest garden in our suburban patch.

Our Travel

Alison has pledged not to fly since 2019. She doesn’t know whether she will ever fly again, but it’s less likely as each year passes. We bought our company car (a PHEV) in 2014 which is electric for all journeys with a 20mile radius. If we buy another car, it will be fully electric. We cycle more now.

Influencing our associates

We work with a number of associates around the globe, and, given our support of and work with the Climate Coaching Alliance, we invite our associates to join,  and encourage them to consider their own impact.

Influencing our clients

Our price points reflect a focus on driving low impact choices for our clients. Charging more for in-person events, we use the additional fees to pay for regenerative investments. We off set by re-investing the cost of a ton of Carbon for every ton of Carbon spent based on current cost calculations. We ask our clients about their sustainability policies and their commitment to a carbon negative future. We offer workshops to support our clients to raise awareness of our climate and ecological crisis and how they effectively respond. We offer probono services to specific groups working with social justice issues, and our rates for individual clients vary based on the principle of fair exchange.

Influencing our profession

We work closely with the Climate Coaching Alliance and learn through the community whilst supporting the growth of that community. Alison Whybrow is one of the three co-founders of the community together with Eve Turner and Josie McLean.

The climate coaching alliance is focused on accelerating our capacity to learn and act in the face of our unfolding climate and ecological crisis.

Business Impact Assessment

We are in the process of completing our Business Impact Assessment to become a registered B corporation.

We will continue to push the boundaries both within our company and through every relationship and business that we connect with as well as across our professions.