There's a new chapter on the horizon for Following the Footprints.
It's been a brilliant 4 years, now we're looking for new ownership.
Since the start, Following the Footprints has been an independent, volunteer-led team building with a core goal - to build a platform that helps people working on sustainability in consumer brands as much as we possibly can.
Why? Because the work is hard, but very necessary, and significantly accelerated when sustainability knowledge between brands is open-sourced. I felt this acutely in 2019 as the first Sustainability Lead at a growing UK drinks brand, and many of the Following the Footprints team have too. It’s why, every week for 4 years, we have poured thousands of hours of our spare time into publishing newsletters, sharing Good News, tracking partnerships, and generally building whatever might help.
Now - we’re launching an ‘open call for submissions’ for someone else to step in, take ownership and build Following the Footprints from here.
Inspired by TED’s recent open call, we’d love to hear from anyone - independent or part of an organisation - who has; excitement for where Following the Footprints can go next, the energy to drive it there and (importantly) the passion to keep working towards our core mission of helping consumer brands improve their environmental impact. Our mission has never been more important.
Why an open call?
Our goal now is to pass Following the Footprints to whoever has the best vision for its next era, and whoever we believe will have the biggest impact. We have acquisition offers and a few proposals on the table, but we want to hear from you too.
Our motto is ‘by sustainability professionals, for sustainability professionals’, and as the only independent and volunteer-led platform in this space, it feels right to open up the chance to take ownership to our community (that’s you). It’s how we’ve always done things, and it will give us the best chance of finding the most exciting set of hands to pass it to next.
The right person or organisation will…
The right partners will get excited about the potential for community. The wrong partners will be focused on clicks and subscriber metrics.
We’ve seen time and time again that the businesses who genuinely build trust, build community. We think that this is the perfect opportunity for a person or organisation who is looking to build deep, trusted roots within the consumer goods and climate space.
Could it be an independent consultant who has always dreamed of setting up training courses? A carbon accounting company keen to build deep and authentic relationships with brands? A journalist looking to go independent and hone their voice in this space? A collection of FMCG professionals looking to scratch a sustainability itch with this new side project? An established publication looking to expand? An event series with content aspirations and a desire to jumpstart their plans?
Here’s what our community think of us:
What’s on the table?
A 4 year content archive - we’ve hit publish 256 times and have 2400+ subscribers - most of whom work in or with consumer brands, or are passionate consumers themselves. 40% are in the UK, 26% are in the US, and our writing has been read over 300k+ times.
5 databases - 2 released, 3 unreleased. We’ve tracked measurement and mitigation partners, then open-sourced that information and even developed cool search tools. We also have less-complete databases for ‘management’ and ‘communication’ partners. They all connect to ~700 brands we’ve tracked.
The website!
Our LinkedIn - 5k followers on the page, and 1k subscribers to our new newsletter there.
The brand - including the name and logo.
Events playbook - we’ve run some really exciting Open Mic events, and would support you if you wanted to continue them.
Our support - as much as you’d want it, you’d have the support and consultation of the current team and leadership (myself and Laura) as you get set up.
What’s the cost of taking ownership?
It’s never been about ownership, or money, and it won’t be now.
Advice has been to quietly sell Following the Footprints to an organisation with deep pockets, drive demand by keeping the process secretive, aim to roll away with a significant amount of cash in our pockets and retain some level of ownership. I don’t want to do that. It’s never been about that. Acquisition cost is just one factor we’ll take into account - we want to hear inspiring proposals, regardless of how well funded they are.
Truthfully, Following the Footprints has already made me richer than I could’ve imagined. The past 4 years have given me lifelong friends, buckets of inspiration, the confidence to write, a vehicle to help people I respect use their voice, and a deep sense of purpose. It’s also given us space as a team to influence brands, get creative with our careers and platform the people working really really hard with often little recognition. If we’d wanted to make money we’d have spent 4 years very differently.
Here’s what we’d love to hear from you:
Email me - leone@followingthefootprints.com - before Thursday 10th April sharing:
Your vision
Your rough plan to achieve this vision - a starting point for a discussion, not an exact step by step (unless you have one already!). Give me something to chew on.
Your reason - why you? Why now?
Your pledge - how will you continue to make sure that Following the Footprints helps folks doing hard sustainability work within brands? What kind of energy can you put behind it?
Your price - are you able to pay for it? If so, how much would you? As we mentioned - we want to hear from everyone, don’t let this question stop you from reaching out.
Running costs currently total ~£400 / year, and include website hosting, our g-suite, notion and Airtable. A few of our volunteer team can freelance, however, in your proposal please don’t assume their participation.
Here’s what won’t happen:
We won’t sell the platform for it to become a ruthless top of funnel for a large business.
We won’t pass the platform onto someone who doesn’t have a deep understanding of the core audience - the people working on sustainability within consumer brands. This has been consistent for 4 years, and we don’t plan for it to change.
We won’t pick a route just because we feel we have to continue Following the Footprints. If there are no suitable next steps, we’ll stop. There’s no merit in continuing forever - we’re buoyed by the impact we’ve had so far, and we’ll be picky about who continues to drive it.
We’ve spent 4 years building up the trust of our readers, and that’s not something we take lightly.
👋 SO - If you have ideas, please reach out, I’d love to discuss them with you!
If you don’t have ideas, please spread the word to people who might. It’s been an incredible 4 years, and there’s never been a better time for Following the Footprints to have a fresh set of hands at the helm.
In the meantime, hang tight. Our calendar doesn’t stop - we’ll continue to feature exciting people and brands, and share inspiration to your inbox each week.
Thank you for your support so far. We’re excited for this next step!
