š± āEat better, do betterā: Serving up The Collective UKās first impact report, and where to start with your own.
Featuring The Collective UK, Sipsmith, Lucy & Yak and more...
Happy Monday!
This week we cover:
āEat better, do betterā: Serving up The Collective UKās first impact report.
Impact Reports: Where, and why, to start?
In case you missed it:Ā š„ #8 - Meet the Brands: How Sipsmith's 5-part plan includes a 46% emissions reduction target, featuring Ellie Stirk, Sustainability Lead.
> Good News Last Week
šÆ Finisterre unveiled their new mailer bag, using 70% less paper than previous versions. Using their water-soluble Leave No Trace material, and through collaborating with Aquapak and EP Group, their new mailbags have a 50% reduced weight but have increased in strength by 44%.Ā
šÆ Lucy & Yak have partnered with Beyond Retro, aiming to keep āYaksā in circulation and increase circularity of all of their products.Ā
šÆ Willicroft has become the first plant based cheese brand in Europe to achieve B Corp certification.Ā
āļø Accolade Wine announced theyāre partnering with ecoSPIRITS on the launch of ecoSPIRITSā new glass-based, globally-scalable circular wine solution. Offering full lifecycle wine preservation from winery to point of service, the aim is a closed loop network.Ā
āļø Holland & Barrett banned the sale of sunscreen containing Oxybenzone and Octinoxate, linked to habitat and reef destruction. The first major retailer in the UK to do so, they will only be offering 100% mineral formulas going forward.Ā
āļø Wipak UK announced the launch of their new recyclable paper butter wrap, that can be recycled kerbside.Ā
āļø Microsoft announced theyāve reduced emissions by 6% in their first year -Ā roughly 730,000Ā metric tons. Theyāve also expanded their internal carbon tax to include Scope 3 emissions.Ā
ā”ļø A white paper by Eco-Age revealed fashionās incorrect environmental assessments, challenging the industry to do better. Read the report here.
> Click on each link to read more.
> Brand Spotlight
āEat better, do betterā: Serving up The Collective UKās first impact report.
Started in New Zealand in 2009, within 10 months of its creation The Collective was New Zealandās best selling gourmet yoghurt. Soon, the now 10 year old brand would make its way to the UK - and across to Asia. Passion for the role that business plays in creating a sustainable future is something we have in common with the team at The Collective UK. Which is why, on the first page of their impact report, they wrote thatĀ āCollectively businesses can have a big impact on the world around us.ā
The good people at B Corp UK realised that we enjoy reading the achievements in business beyond the boardroom over our morning yoghurt, so they made it a key requirement to write an impact report. It also keeps businesses accountable and transparent for their impact (read more in our Quick Take) - itās a win win!Ā
The Collective UKās impact report covers People, Planet and their Products. Today, weāre unpacking their planet-focused plansā¦
Planet: Collective Responsibility
The Collective UK have pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2025. With many brands making these claims, The Collective UK have proven that they mean āNo Bullā with the UKās first ever carbon neutral dairy yoghurt. Theyāve worked with ClimatePartner to do this.Ā
Their plant range tubs are made from 100% rPET infinitely recyclable plastics, their kefir bottles have 35% Prevented Ocean Plastic and their pouches are recyclable through their postage partnership with Enval. Importantly, 97% of their packaging is fully recyclable.Ā
Keen to improve the infrastructure around flexible plastic recycling, theyāre also signatories to the āFlexible Plastic Fundā - a Ā£1m cross industry fund enabling all flexible plastic to be recycled at the front of store in supermarkets.
Aiming to reduce emissions, theyāve made the jump to 100% UK manufacturing, also allowing them to use 100% British milk. For their plant based range, theyāre committed to sourcing (you guessed it) 100% British oats. In doing so, The Collective UK have set out their vision for responsible sourcing which will no doubt double down their impact.
A key theme of The Collective UK is that they are open to learning. In 2018 they were a pioneer for creating their lids out of black plastic, which contains a detectable dye making it easier for infrared detectors to sort. However, after feedback that the lids were being wrongly rejected by council collectors, their iconic black lids have been retired for clear plastic - which has a higher kerbside recycling success rate.
They focus just as much on people as they do on planet. From cash health plans, enhanced support for parents, early finishes and employee handbooks - The Collective UKās offices sound too good to be true. They also focus on work outside of the office just as much as in, with 2 paid volunteering days for each employee and partnerships with charities aligned to their values viaā¦Ā
Volunteering with Bookmark to help develop childrenās reading skills.
Mentoring with The Princeās Trust to give young people support and encouragement.Ā
A partnership with GROW, a london-based charity which teaches children all about growing, farming and nutritious food. So far theyāve donated Ā£10,000 too.
The Collective UK state that āCulture canāt be imposed, we create itā, and it is not hard to see why they gained their highest B Corp score in their āworkersā pillar. With big plans and goals for the future, it looks like The Collective UK are well on the path to keep increasing their overall B Corp score significantly. In fact, they might already have done so. According to their report, theyāve āunofficiallyā increased their score from 80.3 to 87.2 by investing even more in charity commitments and supporting their team and UK suppliers more. Itās yet to be certified as such, but itās a great sign if so!Ā
Read more about The Collective UKās products:
> Quick Take
Impact Reports: Where, and why, to start?
Itās 2022. You work for a start up or SME and you want to grow. You want to show your customers, investors, even your own colleagues that you really are better than the huge multinationals. And in fact, maybe you just want to be able to put down the fact that youāve done a lot of work behind the scenes in the last 12/24/36 months. How do you do that in the most effective way? Impact reporting!
Impact reporting, simply put, is communicating the difference you made in a period of time to the people you are trying to help, or to the issue you are trying to improve. It is a space where you can reflect on challenges, targets, progress and successes, in a way that lets everyone see how youāre doing. Impact reporting really is a win-win, even if itās incredibly daunting to start with. Impact reports force you to be transparent and accountable to your goals and targets, they build brand confidence and trust and they can motivate your staff and your colleagues. They can also help with funding and investment opportunities and most importantly (we think anyway) they can provide invaluable time and space to reflect and gather learning opportunities.Ā
Whilst the concept of sustainability reporting has been documented since before the 1990s, the rate of which these reports are being published is rising at an exponential rate - from less than 18% of the N100 companies reporting in 2002, to over 80% going into the 2020ās, and it shows no signs of slowing down just yet.
There are many reasons for this. As more and more brands become B Corp, releasing an Impact Report moves from nice-to-have to necessary at some point in the two year certification cycle. Additionally, ESG reporting is fast becoming a requirement for many SMEs. EU legislation in 2018 made it mandatory for 500+ employee companies to report on their ESG measures, but that quickly dropped to 200+ employees - and a number thatās set to get smaller and smaller. Sustainable Financial Disclosure Requirements (SFDRs) are also requiring investors and lenders to report, affecting businesses in their chains. Even last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission released a climate disclosure proposal for public companies (read Sweepās overview here).Ā
There are also more and more reporting frameworks and initiatives emerging. From the Global Reporting Initiativeās framework, to reporting required under the Science Based Targets initiative, to the Future-Fit Business Benchmark - itās easy to get overwhelmed. Our advice? Start simple. Big or small, if youāre doing the work anyway, why not roll it into a single source of sustainability truth for your customers via an Impact Report?
NPCās top tips:
Start planning earlyĀ
Engage all of your staff
Learn from others
Be creative!
Here at Following the Footprints, and outside of this platform too, we love to read these kinds of reports. They give us hope, drive us to do better and inspire us for future change. Companies like The Collective UK are showing us how beneficial these reports can be, and how each company can make them unique.
In fact, we know how beneficial these reports are - the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Sourcing and Consumption) target 12.6 specifically encourages "companies to adopt sustainable practices and sustainability reportingā. The more companies report and truly own their impact, the greater the positive impact that will follow.Ā
Feeling motivated to start your company on their sustainability reporting journey? Hereās some helpful readings and links to get you started:
NPCās comprehensive guide on how to write an effective impact report.Ā
Check out B Corp UKās āWriting an Annual Impact Reportā guide.Ā
Take a look at HM Treasuryās 2021-22 Sustainability Reporting Guidance
Understanding that itās not just about reporting without change, this article can show the reality of words without action.
Here are some companies latest impact reports for a bit of inspiration (note how different every single one is):
> In case you missed it
š„ #8 - Meet the Brands: How Sipsmith's 5-part plan includes a 46% emissions reduction target.
Featuring Ellie Stirk, Sustainability Lead at Sipsmith.
> Follow up withā¦
Article: Materiality assessment: A starting point for strategy, performance and reporting
Article:Ā Profiting off panic: new green regulation creates a wild west
Podcast:Ā Join The Dots: SMEs daunted in face of ESG demands