Ocean Bottle - 2022 impact report review

👍🏻 3 things I like...

1. PARTNERSHIPS TO SCALE IMPACT

Both up and down the value chain, Ocean Bottle partner with other organisations that enable them to deliver their strategy and scale their impact – e.g. plastic waste collectors, commercial partnerships with businesses like Finesterre. 

The partnership with Finisterre makes so much sense – they have an aligned vision and mission, and complementary products.

2. IMPACT MEASURES

Impact is hard to measure. So lots of businesses report on activities rather than the impact these have had on people or the natural world. 

Ocean Bottle has some lovely measures of genuine real world impact – e.g. numbers of collectors supported, amount of plastic collected / diverted.

3. ANTICIPATE QUESTIONS & ANSWER THEM

I like that they proactively answer the question “Why don’t we use 100% recycled materials yet?” 

When it comes to building an impact-focused business, especially a product-based one, we’re all on a journey. A lot of invention, reinvention, and innovation is needed. We need to take it one step at a time. For those not on our specific journey, it helps to share the progress along the way – and explain why it’s progress towards our destination, even if we’re still a long way from that destination.

❓3 questions it raises

1. HOW DO THEY SELECT & AUDIT PARTNERS?

In the report, they talk about having a partnership framework. I’d love to see this to understand more about how they select, audit and monitor partners.

I’d then be curious to know why they decided it was OK to partner with Oracle Red Bull Racing? This partnership has resulted in lots of plastic collection and brand awareness for Ocean Bottle … but F1 is a hugely polluting sport. Is there a risk of greenwashing on Oracle Red Bull Racing’s part? And Ocean Bottle being associated with this?

2. HOW DO THEY USE THEIR IMPACT PILLARS?

They have four impact pillars. I’d like to understand more about what objectives sit under these and how they’ve influenced their in-year activity and future plans.

3. HOW HAVE THEY INFLUENCED SUPPLIERS?

They talk about influencing Chinese factories to install solar panels.  I’m curious about how they influenced this change as a relatively small business. This is something lots of businesses struggle with and so there could be some valuable learnings to share.


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You can read the report for yourself here and let me know what you think.


If you’re preparing to write your own impact report, you might find my FREE Impact Reporting Roadmap helpful:

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