December 1, 2020 Sophie Mullins
We believe in making a difference
Our founder and CEO, Nick Proctor, explains why we have become one of the first energy consultancies in the UK to become a Certified B Corp – and what it means for our commitments to our people and the planet.
What motivated us to become a B Corp?
A few years ago, I had no idea what being a B Corp was all about. But when I went onto their website and read that they were a new kind of organisation who believed in balancing purpose and profit, something clicked.
I’d always felt like that. For me, I want my work to have a purpose; I’m a firm believer that, in life, you’re meant to balance your earnings and what you do with those earnings.
There’s always been that sense of responsibility to society and the planet – and the B Corp community is made up of businesses who share that belief.
Being certified shows our commitment to doing things right. It also allows us to see where we are in comparison to other B Corps who are outperforming us at the moment.
There’s no doubt we have a lot to do, but our goal is to become a leader in this space. We can do that by taking inspiration from our fellow B Corps.
What makes it such a significant step for us?
By being one of the few energy consultancies within the community, we are proving to people that you can be in our sector and still care about something other than profit.
What’s more, we are showing others in our sector that there is an alternative way of doing business. It’s our way of saying: “Join us, there’s plenty of room in this great community.”
We’re not just paying lip service to this issue. We genuinely believe that sustainability is key.
What is our ambition now that we’re certified?
We’re pretty happy with our starting point, but now the hard work really starts. Our goal is to represent the highest standards of social and environmental performance; to become leaders in the sustainability space; and to influence other businesses to take their B Corp commitments to the next level.
For example, it would be great to see businesses bringing their Net Zero deadlines forward by five years to 2025.
What commitments are we setting ourselves?
We’re not the biggest energy user out there. We have an office footprint, but we’re looking more and more at our employees’ home usage. What we want is a measure of our holistic footprint.
The goal internally is to reduce the amount of carbon we use as a business four times over – and we intend to achieve this through a number of different ways.
For a start, we have planted around 15,000 trees through Ecologi and invested in a wind farm in India; and, much closer to home, we are helping our employees to understand their personal energy consumption through virtual walkthroughs.
By understanding how much they use, our employees are in a much better position to reduce their own carbon emissions. We want to take responsibility for our existing footprint – reducing it wherever and however we can.
