members networking event 2021

This online event was hosted by Business Declares on Thursday 20th May. The purpose of

the event was to; explore what actions our members have taken since declaring a climate

and ecological emergency; understand what the key challenges are which members are

facing and listen to views on how Business Declares could support members going forward

and how members could support each other going forward. The event was faciitated by

Lucy Hawthorne and led by Samantha Cooper.

introduction

The event opened with Lucy summarising that the purpose of the meeting as described

above as well as emphasising the theme of connection and support; for members to

reacquaint with each other and with Business Declares in order to listen and learning about

actions, challenges and good practice and understand how the wider membership can

support each other going forward on their climate action journey.

Introduction Samantha Cooper

Samantha then provided further background to the event, explaining that the mission

statement of Business Declares had rapidly evolved from 2019 – moving from a focus on

raising awareness of the climate and ecological breakdown to one of the imperative for

business to act. Samantha described how Business Declares’ work was now additive to other

climate initiatives whilst also having an impact by helping businesses take authentic action.

The members then took part in a live Menti survey led by Lucy wherein they were able to

reflect on their business’ climate journey. The survey showed that most of the organisations

were now familiar with climate action and were satisfied that they were making progress in

their journey but nonetheless recognised further progress was still to be made. The

members largely felt that had clarity on their action plan to reach net zero by 2030.

survey findings summary, Ben Tolhurst.

Ben began by summarising the progresses the survey findings from the membership

community. In terms of actions that members had made since declaring, these centred on

three main categories; rising awareness; corporate approval/changes and measuring

impact. For most members, the levels of awareness of the climate issue had intensified

since declaring both internally and with clients. By speaking with clients, the conversation

around climate change moved deeper into the value chain and created the foundation for

change. Many had also reported a culture of formalising action with published targets, plans

and ethos’ of viewing business decisions through the climate lens, which built on awareness

and cemented the intention of the organisations to take the issue seriously. Finally, there

had also been a large amount of activity around mapping and measuring, with increasing

requests for carbon footprint tools as organisations attempted to get to first base with their

net zero target. This would establish a baseline to measuring future progress for the

organisation. Ben summarised that the actions so far had been indicative of early-stage

changes with some specific actions entwined.

He then moved on the biggest challenges that there had been for members since declaring,

which were; challenges with organising actions, and time, focus and clarity. Action was

made difficult due to being overwhelmed, corporate inertia, and the difficulty small

businesses faced with tracking and recording changes. The difficulty regarding time was due

to time poverty and furlough, finding time to make real changes on the ground, and it was

also highlighted that there is confusion around what ‘net zero’ did and didn’t include. Ben

highlighted that the emotion of being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start was a

common, and this can sometimes lead to paralysis in taking actions. Members recognised

that whilst the successes in terms of verbal declarations and written plans were a good step

forward, they have to be followed up by specific action or people’s plans would start to lack

credibility.

Ben noted that feedback from the members suggested Business Declares was supporting

them week in three main areas; by helping raise awareness and driving companies to

declare a climate and ecological emergency; by providing materials and tools; and giving a

space to network and ways for members to connect through Business Declares led events.

Feedback also showed that the biggest thing that Business Declares could do to support its

members better would be to help them connect with each other so that they could share

knowledge and better understand what other members are doing. Resource provision was

also brought up as something that could help, as well as providing more information about

regulatory action in general (examples include areas such as the CEE bill and Better Business

Act.)

group discussion #1

The members were then posed a question about how the survey findings resonated with

their businesses and their journeys since declaring a climate emergency. The majority of the

members confirmed that they felt overwhelmed, both with the many initiatives that were

around and that tended to overlap in their function, and with which resources to place their

confidence in. The members also reported that now they had declared and were confident

in their statements, they were now starting to take action. Clients and customers were also

said to have started putting pressure on their businesses to act. An important part of

making change was finding areas that the companies could make a valuable difference that

was relevant to their businesses. The survey brought up that a standardised approach for

reaching net zero may be helpful, as well as a way of measuring employees and operational

practices. A new way of disseminating and accessing the wealth of new data regarding

sustainability was also something that could help businesses, with the information being

divided by sectors so that there were specialised targets for different groups and the

process to getting to net zero could be made clearer.

Louisa and Seb then presented on the action they had taken since declaring and what had

been, and still was, the largest challenge that they faced in implementing their climate

emergency plan.

Louisa Ziane, Toast Ale

As one of the original signatories for Business Declares, the first action Toast Ale took was to

measure their baseline footprint, which was published in 2019 in order to document the

effect that the changes they were making. Louisa had found that the majority of her

emission were related to barley but had now made reductions by taking action and putting

in place measures which would reduce the footprint. In order to have a lower footprint as

the business grows, Toast Ale decided not to export beer or transport heavy liquid around

the world and instead work in collaboration with existed breweries to produce their beer.

The team did have to travel due to this, but due to current circumstances this had been

mostly eliminated. They had also started working with pedal-bike couriers to deliver in

London, which had the highest concentration of Toast Ale customers. Work had also been

done to increase the amount of surplus bread, which would otherwise have gone in landfill

and use this in the brewing process to reduce the amount of barley used. They were now

working with their supply chain to look at tackling Scope 3 emissions by influencing their

customer’s behaviours by getting them to recycle the aluminium cans through consumer

campaigns. Louisa had also looked at the whole team and made sure they had renewable

energy by examining their pensions, bank accounts and how to shift their behaviours in

their personal lives. Toast Ale decided not to offset residual emission but were instead

working with organisations to invest in regenerative agriculture and understanding how soil

systems worked and how to improve their health.

Seb Beloe, WHEB

WHEB are an asset management company whose investment strategy is focussed on

sustainability. Having pledged to be net zero by 2025, the main area they are focussing on

are scope 3 emissions and their supply chain. To this end, they have contacted 32 of their

largest suppliers, that represent around 90% of their spend in the supply chain and asked

them to add an addendum to their contracts which requires them to report their emission

and ideally set themselves a net zero target. Around a quarter of the conversations so far

have been with companies who had already made a commitment and were on their way to

achieve their targets, and a further 40% will be making the commitment within the next 12

months once they have measured their emissions. WHEB were also working with those who

were uninterested in climate change by figuring out a way to exert pressure to encourage

change within those groups. WHEB were currently looking into reducing their suppliers and

employees’ emissions. WHEB have provided their employees with additional days of

holiday if they travel by train rather than fly and are setting up a company car fleet which

will only be filled with battery electric vehicles.

group discussion #2

For the last group discussion, the members were asked to think of one way that Business

Declares could help them develop and implement their action plan, and one way that the

members could help each other. The members came to the overwhelming consensus that

having a forum for them to be able to communicate with other members and the Business

Declares team would be extremely helpful. By having a platform like this, they would be

able to network with each other, generate business form each other and share and gain

information about the journey to net zero. Generalised sector-based support was also

something that would be helpful for the members according to the feedback as was having

regular events which would help the members learn how to reach out to their customers,

stakeholders and bigger companies.