Archives for April 2025

Business NOT as Usual

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Business Not as Usual How to Future-Proof Your Business by Focusing on What Really Matters

What does it really take to lead a business in today’s world?

We’re living through an era of polycrisis: climate and nature emergency, rising inequality, shifting expectations, and economic uncertainty. According to recent research, almost half of business leaders doubt whether their organisations will still be viable in a decade. That’s a sobering thought.

But it’s also a powerful call to lead differently.

Because business as usual isn’t working. For people. For planet. Or for the long-term success of most companies.

On this Earth Day 2025, there’s no better time to pause, reflect, and begin. We believe the future belongs to those willing to step into Business Not as Usual – leading with courage, compassion, and clarity, and shaping businesses that genuinely serve future generations.

💡 So, where do you start?

When everything feels urgent, it’s tempting to try to fix everything. But that often leads to overwhelm, greenwashing, or wasted time and effort.

Instead, we encourage leaders to start by getting clear on what really matters – to their stakeholders, their strategy, and the world around them.

That’s where a materiality assessment comes in.

📍 What is a Materiality Assessment?

A materiality assessment is probably the most helpful tool you may never have used. Done well, it helps you identify which environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are most relevant to your business, and most important to your stakeholders.

It gives you clarity. It helps you focus. And it ensures your impact efforts are grounded in what truly matters.

It’s also now essential for SMEs working towards B Corp certification.

🧭 Purpose and Stakeholder Governance: A New Standard for Leadership

The updated B Corp standards place a much stronger emphasis on Purpose and Stakeholder Governance, and rightly so.

These changes reflect a growing recognition that business has a critical role to play in addressing today’s most pressing challenges. As B Lab puts it:

“A central requirement for companies is to consider their impacts on stakeholders when making decisions.”

This goes far beyond performative purpose statements. The new standards introduce practical, measurable requirements that aim to hardwire purpose into the way all businesses are led. They have been designed to ensure that businesses are ‘walking the talk’ – this is not a tick box exercise.

🔎 Key updates include:

✅ Materiality Assessments

Companies are now expected to regularly engage stakeholders in a materiality assessment process. If a business identifies issues beyond those already covered by the B Corp standards, it must define specific goals to address them.

This aligns with global frameworks such as:

✅ Responsible Marketing and Communication

With sustainability now a must, the risk of greenwashing is real. The new standards require businesses to develop a responsible marketing and communications policy, and a system to implement it.

This existing and upcoming changes such as:

✅ Purpose-Aligned Financial Decisions

The standards now also highlight the need for financial decisions like dividends or stock buybacks to reflect your commitments to people and planet.

This principle is reflected in PAS 808:2022, the British Standards Institution guide for purpose-driven organisations.

🌱 Why This Matters Now

The time for incremental change has past. We don’t have time for token gestures. The climate crisis is accelerating. Inequality is growing. Trust in business is fragile.

And businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, have a real opportunity to be part of the solution. To listen. To lead. And to shape a future that’s fairer, greener, and more resilient.

The leaders we love working with are already asking: 

“What legacy will we leave? What kind of ancestors are we becoming?”

📘 A Practical Guide to Get Started

If you’re ready to lead with more focus and impact, our new guide can help.

It’s written specifically for SMEs and walks you through how to conduct a meaningful materiality assessment – one that supports strategy, strengthens relationships, and aims to help future-proof your business.

👉 Download your free copy here

Let’s move beyond business as usual.
Let’s build businesses that matter.

Statistics, Solutions and Serenity

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A personal apology – let me explain.

Over the past five years I have learned a lot, and changed a lot.

Not fundamentally as a person; I still hold the same things dear. I’ve changed how I see the world and my place in it.

And I’ve been working really hard to share the research and resources I have discovered, and encourage action on climate, nature, and social issues.

However, recentlyI have realised that I’ve probably taken lots of shortcuts in assuming most people think the same.

Perhaps I’ve not explained the data clearly enough, or offered enough resources to give you the opportunities to take action too. And I’d like to do better.

This blog aims to offer more (but not too many) explanations and resources to help you better understand the problems facing us (both in business and as individuals) and what you can do about them.

Because I know that most people are also worried about the future we’re facing.

🟢 According to recent research by DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), 80% of the UK population are concerned or very concerned about climate change.

Yet, the temptation to do nothing is strong.

So it seems the biggest challenge we face today isn’t ignorance – it’s inaction.

🛍️ Marketers work relentlessly to keep us consuming more, deepening the crisis we’re already in.

But we are not powerless.

Every decision we make moves us closer to either destruction or regeneration.
The choice is ours.

🌪️ The polycrisis is here and it’s personal

This isn’t just a crisis happening somewhere else, affecting people we don’t know.
The polycrisis – the convergence of climate change, biodiversity loss, economic instability, and social upheaval is already reshaping the way we live, work, and do business.

📉 According to PwC, almost half of CEOs do not believe their business will be viable in 10 years without significant adaptation.

This is about risk and resilience, not just responsibility.

🔤 Climate and Nature Impacts: A–Z Snapshot

A – AMOC Collapse: Why It’s a Ticking Clock
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a vital global ocean current system. It regulates temperatures, rainfall, and weather patterns, especially in Europe.
But it’s weakening faster than scientists expected, and scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the potential for collapse. What would that mean for our businesses and our lives?
🌊 A full collapse, possibly this century, could:

  • Increase sea levels around the UK by up to 1 metre
  • Cause more extreme flooding
  • Disrupt monsoons in Asia and West Africa
  • Shift the Gulf Stream, freezing parts of Northern Europe
  • Trigger agricultural collapse in parts of the world
    📘 Summary of AMOC risks

B – Biodiversity Loss
There has been a catastrophic 73% decline in the average size of global wildlife populations in just 50 years. More than 1 million species are at risk of extinction. This affects our food, water, medicine, and ecosystems we rely on.

C – The Financial Cost of Inaction
💷 Doing nothing will make us much poorer. A 4°C world could reduce average personal income by 40% according to recent research.
Guardian summary

E – Economic Risks to Capitalism
Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurers, warns climate crisis could “destroy capitalism as we know it.”
Insurers are already pulling out of high-risk markets due to wildfires and floods.
Read the full Guardian article

F – Food Security
Crop failures are becoming more frequent due to droughts, floods, and unpredictable seasons. AMOC collapse would severely disrupt food production worldwide, creating knock-on effects in UK supply chains.

H – Heatwaves
Heat records are being broken across the globe. At 2°C of warming, over 1/3 of humanity will experience deadly heat.

S – Sea Level Rise and Flood Risk
Melting ice caps, particularly in Greenland and Antarctica, could lock in metres of sea-level rise.
Over 6 million homes in the UK are at risk of flooding and that number is forecast to increase.Low-lying UK areas including parts of London, Norfolk, and the Humber Estuary are at risk. Check the risk in your local area here

🌱 What Can You Do? Start With the Five Fs + One S

Here’s how individuals can start making a difference:

1. Food

This is probably the easiest and most cost effective change you can make today. Shift towards a plant-based diet to reduce emissions and deforestation.
Oxford University research | Plant-based ideas

2. Fuel

Choose renewable energy tariffs or join a community energy scheme. There are over 300 community energy schemes in England, generating and distributing low-cost renewable energy.
Advice from the Centre for Sustainable Energy

3. Fast Fashion

The fashion industry produces 10% of global emissions, devastating waste, water, and pollution problems, and puts pressure on low labour costs. Just STOP!
Buy less, buy better, repair, and reuse. Please read more here about the impact of the clothes you buy.

4. Finance

Most people don’t know that most banks are still actively propping up the fossil fuel sector to the tune of trillions of dollars of our pensions and investments. You can choose not to by
switching to ethical providers.
Find out more

5. Flying

Walk, cycle, take the train, or public transport – there are so many options now to travel with a much lighter footprint. Wherever possible avoid flying.
Why Aviation is a climate super-polluter

6. Stuff

Most of the stuff we buy, has a negative impact on people and our planet, and (somewhat shockingly) nearly all of it ends up in landfill within a year.

Remember the 5 Rs: Regenerate, Refuse, Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle.
Practical guide for homes and businesses

💼 Businesses: Be a Courageous Force for Good

  • Understand your impact on people and planet.
  • Consider B Corp Certification – the only rigorous, globally recognised, independently verified, legally accountable and transparent certification that assesses every part of your business. .
    More about B Corp
  • Redefine success: Move beyond profit to people, planet, and purpose. Set IPIs (Impact Performance Indicators), not just KPIs.
  • Use your influence to support better policy and practice.
    Join the Better Business Act
  • Innovate and collaborate. Solutions exist; they need brave leaders to act.

🌡️ 1.5, 2, or 3 Degrees of Warming: Why Every Fraction Matters

  • 1.5°C: Manageable impacts. Most ecosystems survive.
  • 2°C: Heat extremes become dangerous. Coral reefs die.
  • 3°C+: Mass displacement, crop failures, irreversible tipping points.

🔁 Planetary Boundaries and Tipping Points: The Edge We Stand On

We’ve already breached six of the nine safe operating limits for life on Earth, including:

  • Biodiversity loss
  • Climate change
  • Freshwater use
  • Land use change
  • Chemical pollution
  • Ocean acidification

🌿 Every decision we make matters. These boundaries aren’t abstract — they define whether human life as we know it can continue.

Planetary Boundaries explained

❓The Only Question That Matters

You knew. What did you do?

We are the generation that still has a choice.

Let’s be the ones who stepped up – with courage, compassion, curiosity, and commitment.

✨ Join Us at UK for Good

Whether you’re a business leader, changemaker, or simply somebody who cares about the future you are creating, you are welcome here.

Let’s explore what’s possible when individuals, communities, and organisations work together for a future worth fighting for.

👉 Get in touch
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