Knowledge Peers

Key points Not only do customers want to buy good quality, sustainably-made products, thereby increasing loyalty, but a closer partnership with your suppliers can help promote mutually-beneficial innovation. Safia suggests it will only be a matter of time before companies are held accountable for bad practice, there is an element of risk management to imp...

Key points An independent assurance body and adviser on best practice, the Commission also manages the stakeholder engagement in a bid to involve people with a legitimate interest in the sustainability of the Olympics to deliver the greenest Games. With a sustainability team involved since the bid phase and clear objectives set out from the start, the Com...

Rajeeb Dey is the winner of the O2 X Young Entrepreneur of the year Award 2009. Rajeeb is mentored by an experienced executive from the Information Technologists’ Company. In this interview Rajeeb talks about his experience of being mentored and what he gets out of it.

Nicholas Birtles is a Court Liveryman of the Information Technologists’ Company, a livery company of the City of London. In this interview Nic talks about the Company’s mentoring work.

Peter Desmond, Managing Director of Growth International, discusses:

• Why companies should report on their sustainability performance
• Good practice and current trends in sustainability reporting.

Peter Desmond, Managing Director of Growth International, discusses:

• The background to his company becoming involved in responsible business practice
• The business benefits for other SMEs
• Examples of practical gains that his company has reaped because of this involvement.

Sonia Chhatwal is charities manager at Game group. She has experience in developing mutually beneficial strategic partnerships between the corporate and not for profit sector.

In this interview Sonia discusses:

• Why responsible business practice is important
• How companies can be more responsible

Sonia Chhatwal is charities manager at Game group. She has experience in developing mutually beneficial strategic partnerships between the corporate and not for profit sector.

In this interview Sonia discusses:

• Her background in working in corporate social responsibility
• Her role as charities manager at Game Group
• The benefits of being a socially responsible company

Sonia Chhatwal is charities manager at Game group. She has experience in developing mutually beneficial strategic partnerships between the corporate and not for profit sector.

In this interview Sonia discusses:

• How Game Group practices corporate responsibility
• The benefits of practicing responsible business practice

Jim Haywood is Director of the environment campaign at Business in the Community. A charity dedicated to engage, support and inspire companies to improve their positive impact on society.

In this interview Jim discusses discuses the business profile of Business in the Community including:

• The aims of the company
• How its business model was developed
• The advantages and the disadvantages of the business model

Patrick O’Meara, National Membership Director at Business in the Community, talks about the work of his organization.

In this interview Patrick covers:

• What is responsible business practice, and how is it relevant to smaller companies?
• How does Business in the Community help companies to act responsibly?

Patrick O’Meara, National Membership Director at Business in the Community, talks about how businesses can get started on their journey into responsible business practice.

In this interview Patrick covers:

• Responsible business practice in the workplace, community, marketplace and environment
• Commercial challenges that might trigger a business to review its working practices in each of these areas
• Good places for a business to start when reviewing its working practices.

Alan Coates is Chairman of Park Royal Partnership Ltd, an urban regeneration partnership, committed to the promotion and economic development of Park Royal, Europe’s largest industrial area. Mr Coates worked for United Biscuits in a number of roles including account management, sales and marketing and manufacturing. Since leaving he has chaired and been on the board of commercial and not-for-profit companies.

In this interview Alan gives an introduction to the Responsible Business Practic...

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

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About Futerra Sustainable Communications

How Daisy's growth has been ma...

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Key points Don’t get into sustainability just for the sake of following a trend. You need to be clear on what sustainability means in the context of your business. Ask yourself: Why are you doing this? Being green is not just a PR tool: it can reduce the operational costs of your enterprise, help you to win over new clients and allow you to attract the b...

Ingrid Silver, the Media and Technology Partner at Denton Wilde Sapte talks about the legal issues surrounding UGC (User Generated Content).

In this interview Ingrid covers:

● what UGC is
● the legal issues surrounding its use
● what UGC platforms should consider with respect to the subsequent use of the content that they receive.

Brad Martin is founder of Thin Martian. A creative agency that designs and builds websites, campaigns, tools and games, using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter.

In this interview Brad discusses:

• How and why Thin Martian started working with local schools
• The benefits working with children has brought to the company
• The commercial benefits to responsible business practice

Brad Martin is founder of Thin Martian. A creative agency that designs and builds websites, campaigns, tools and games, using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter.

In this interview Brad discusses:

• How and why Thin Martian started working with local schools
• The benefits working with children has brought to the company
• The commercial benefits to responsible business practice

Bettina Gronblom is founder of consultancy firm Not Just For Profit. Bettina has extensive international experience in public, private, and not for profit sectors.

In this interview Bettina discusses:

• The role of corporate social responsibility in businesses today
• The benefits of business being responsible
• Examples of responsible business practice working

Bettina Gronblom is founder of consultancy firm Not Just For Profit. Bettina has extensive international experience in public, private, and not for profit sectors.

In this interview Bettina discusses:

• Setting up Not Just For Profit
• The aims of the consultancy firm

Steve Acklam, the CEO of School Governors One Stop Shop, explains the benefits of becoming school governors for businesses and their employees. In this interview Steve discusses:

• The aims of School Governors One Stop Shop
• The benefits for the individuals who become governors
• The benefits for schools and the community
• The benefits for businesses whose employees become governors
• The process for getting involved.

Amanda Jordan, Joint Chair at Corporate Citizenship and a leading expert on corporate social responsibility, describes the benefits businesses can derive from engaging with their local community.

In this interview Amanda covers:

• Why the community matters, even to businesses which don’t consider themselves “local”
• Improving the quality of your local business environment
• Making the most of your local workforce

John May is Chief Executive of Career Academies, an organisation that helps schools and businesses to work together in creating a better future for 16 to 18 year-olds. In this interview he covers:

• The background and purpose of Career Academies
• Benefits to schools and young people
• Benefits to employers
• Challenges

Key points Sustainability is about preserving resources and living conditions for future generations, whilst equally encouraging a more sensible and healthy lifestyle among current generations of customers and employees. SMEs are huge drivers of sustainability, being more innovative and entrepreneurial than large corporates. Becoming sustainable can give ...

Key points "Get on and do it!" - it helps to be proactive and driven. Sometimes you just need to stop planning, bite the bullet and go for it. Learn from your competition and react to what they do. Be different and make yourselves stand-out. All companies have rules, guidelines and principles, and so running an ethical business is no harder than r...

Rob Elvin, a Partner with Hammonds LLP, explains directors’ responsibilities relating to waste disposal. In this interview Rob talks about:

• Waste disposal regulations
• What can happen to directors of a company that breaks these regulations
• What should boards do to fulfil their responsibilities relating to waste disposal.

“It’s incumbent on the board to understand what type of waste their company is producing and how it is being disposed”.

Maxine Rossbotham is a marketing and communications executive at Matrix Knowledge Group. She works closely with the company’s “better society” projects.

In this interview Maxine discusses:

• Why her company decided to implement an energy saving policy
• How they went about implementing it
• The results and the benefits from implementing the policy

Jim Haywood is Director of the environment campaign at Business in the Community. A charity dedicated to engage, support and inspire companies to improve their positive impact on society.

In this interview Jim discusses discuses:

• What the benefits are for businesses to become environmentally responsible
• What the May Day initiative is
• How to stay abreast of environmental legislative changes

Jim Haywood is Director of the environment campaign at Business in the Community. A charity dedicated to engage, support and inspire companies to improve their positive impact on society.

In this interview Jim discusses discuses:

• How ‘Business in the Community’ is environmentally responsible
• The benefits of being environmentally responsible

Jim Haywood is Director of the environment campaign at Business in the Community. A charity dedicated to engage, support and inspire companies to improve their positive impact on society.

In this interview Jim discusses discuses:

• How a company can become environmentally responsible
• How to measure your carbon footprint
• The future of environmental responsibility

Jim Haywood is Director of the environment campaign at Business in the Community. A charity dedicated to engage, support and inspire companies to improve their positive impact on society.

In this interview Jim discusses discuses:

• His role as director of environment
• The benefits for companies becoming environmentally responsible
• The disadvantages

Colin Crooks, Chief Executive of Green-Works, talks about the benefits of businesses recycling their unwanted office furniture.

Paul Pyle, managing director of Vivid Prepress, talks about his experience of 'turning his business green'.

In this interview Paul explains:• What he did to make his business environmentally friendly and his reasons for doing so
• what business advantages he gained as a result.

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Outline of the policy The impetus...

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Introduction and outline of the project

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Introduction and outline of the project

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Introduction and outline of the project

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Introduction and outline of the project

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Introduction and outline of the project

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Good Energy's aim Customers' perc...

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The impetus The identification pr...

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Introduction The impetus behind W...

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Zac is the MP for Richmond Park, and Director at The Ecologist. Zac spoke to us about what the Coalition Government is doing to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, why it can be good for a company to do so, and how customer power can force their hand.

Companies can save money by reducing their energy consumption and becoming more sustainable. Beyond this, sustainability can be good for your brand and building relationships with customers


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Zac is the MP for Richmond Park, and Director at The Ecologist. Zac spoke to us about what the Coalition Government is doing to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, why it can be good for a company to do so, and how customer power can force their hand.

Zac discusses some Government initiatives which are upcoming such as the Green Deal, Feed-in-Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive. Zac sees the Green Investment Fund as essential for the UK to hit its emissions reduction tar...

Zac is the MP for Richmond Park, and Director at The Ecologist. Zac spoke to us about what the Coalition Government is doing to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, why it can be good for a company to do so, and how customer power can force their hand.

There are organisations who can give advice, but Zac suggests that Government should be the best source of advice. He adds that the Government has a duty to maintain a stable policy environment over the long term, to give people...

Zac is the MP for Richmond Park, and Director at The Ecologist. Zac spoke to us about what the Coalition Government is doing to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, why it can be good for a company to do so, and how customer power can force their hand.

A good example of Government sending the right signals to business through regulation is the landfill tax. The fear of increases in this tax has been responsible for companies responding to policy.


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Zac is the MP for Richmond Park, and Director at The Ecologist. Zac spoke to us about what the Coalition Government is doing to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, why it can be good for a company to do so, and how customer power can force their hand.

The Government is ensuring that there are incentives to be green, but also creating a floor price for carbon so that businesses are not able ignore carbon on their balance sheets. He adds that people are able to influence busine...

Mark is the MD of Powerday, a company that provides recycling and waste management solutions to a wide range of industry sectors. They bring commercial waste into their plant in West London, and prevent it ending up in landfill be reclaiming what can be reused, and sending the rest to be converted to energy.

Key points

• All companies produce waste, but legislation dictates that they also have a duty of care
• Companies want to reclaim the value from their waste, a...

Mark is the MD of Powerday, a company that provides recycling and waste management solutions to a wide range of industry sectors. They bring commercial waste into their plant in West London, and prevent it ending up in landfill be reclaiming what can be reused, and sending the rest to be converted to energy.

Key points

• All companies produce waste, but legislation dictates that they also have a duty of care
• Companies want to reclaim the value from their waste, a...

Mark is the MD of Powerday, a company that provides recycling and waste management solutions to a wide range of industry sectors. They bring commercial waste into their plant in West London, and prevent it ending up in landfill be reclaiming what can be reused, and sending the rest to be converted to energy.

Key points

• All companies produce waste, but legislation dictates that they also have a duty of care
• Companies want to reclaim the value from their waste, a...

Mark is the MD of Powerday, a company that provides recycling and waste management solutions to a wide range of industry sectors. They bring commercial waste into their plant in West London, and prevent it ending up in landfill be reclaiming what can be reused, and sending the rest to be converted to energy.

Key points

• All companies produce waste, but legislation dictates that they also have a duty of care
• Companies want to reclaim the value from their waste, a...

What do Powerday do? Why recycle your commercial waste?

Why Octink went ‘green’

Why Octink went ‘green’

Why Octink went ‘green’

Why Octink went ‘green’

Why Octink went ‘green’

Key points Harping on about how green you are could you leave you open to criticism by someone greener; instead, think about sensible moves to make, like switching to Ecotricity and having motion-activated lightbulbs, and avoid boasting A lot of green tech, from photo-voltaic panels to grey water collection, makes commercial sense, saving you money after ...

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Why move to zero landfill? Busine...

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Stephen Thomas is managing director of Matrix Decisions, part of the Matrix Knowledge Group. Stephen is responsible for the group's technical services that are sold across the private and public sectors.

In this interview Stephen discusses:

• Why his company chose to work with Fair Trade
• How they work with Fair Trade
• The benefits to the business of working with a charity

Amanda Jordan, Joint Chair at Corporate Citizenship and a leading expert on corporate social responsibility, describes how you go about building an ethical supply chain.

In this interview Amanda covers:

• What is an ethical supply chain?
• Why would a smaller company with limited resources want to implement one?
• Typical areas of concern to ask your suppliers about

Amanda Jordan, Joint Chair at Corporate Citizenship and a leading expert on corporate social responsibility, discusses the impact on the suppliers of companies who are attempting to build an ethical supply chain.

In this interview Amanda covers:

• What is an ethical supply chain?
• What new demands is a big company likely to place on its suppliers as a result of this?
• Is it just about box-ticking, or is a deeper change required?
• Areas typically presenting the bigges...

Anita Woods, Managing Director at William Murray PR, talks about how her company is benefitting commercially from increased consumer interest in responsible business practice.

In this interview Anita covers:

• Why it is important for companies in the food and drink sector to be seen to act responsibly
• How her company is helping food and drink companies to talk about their responsible business practices, and the commercial benefits they are achieving from this

Amanda Jordan, Joint Chair at Corporate Citizenship and a leading expert on corporate social responsibility, talks about sustainable business practice.

In this interview Amanda covers:

• What is sustainable business practice?
• Why sustainability is not only for big companies
• The commercial benefits sustainability may bring
• Simple starting points for businesses which want to become sustainable.

Key points Bulldog’s founders were able to start from their business from scratch in a progressive way, approaching sustainability in terms of body-, animal- and earth-friendliness, an approach they implemented across the entire operation As well as comprehensive and clear information on their website and packaging, the certifications and approvals Bulld...