Delivering and measuring impact is hard. That’s because the impact you want to have is often a long time away and might be hard to measure. And so you need to understand the connection between the activities you do now, the outcomes those have and how those outcomes are connected to the longer term impact.

What does it mean for a business to be sustainable? For me, this is about four pillars - financial sustainability, innovation, long term relationships, and environmental sustainability.

When you’re trying to make progress on sustainability / impact there are always so many things you could work on. You can’t do them all. To help you move forward and make progress, you need to prioritise. I’ll share some tools to help you do that.

When you’re trying to make progress on sustainability / impact it can feel overwhelming. There are so many things you could do. It’s hard to know where to start. To create an actionable plan, you need to break things down into clear manageable chunks. I’ll share some of my favourite ways of doing that by using an example.

Keartland & Co became a certified B Corporation® on 25 August 2023, an achievement I’m incredibly proud of. In this blog, I’ll give you some insight into the journey over the last two years…

“We all loathe the term ESG.” This was how the email from one of my clients started. They wanted to call 'it' something that resonated better with all the people within the business and asked me to share some ideas. I did and I also asked the question on LinkedIn. As expected, there were lots of great contributions and discussions so I’ve pulled them all together…

Lots of the people I talk to say they don’t know where to start when it comes to writing an impact report for their business. Here are my five top tips…

On 19th January 2023, 350 people came together in Manchester for the first ever Better Business Summit. Here are some of the things that stood out for me…

Close your eyes. Dream big. What’s your bold goal for your business? For the world? If you want people to change or to deliver something then you need to give them a ‘tangible vision’ to move towards. A clear destination, something that motivates them and helps them know what to do. This is what we need as a society when it comes to sustainability. And it’s what you need as a business if you want to have a meaningful impact.

If you’re a B Corp then you have to publish an annual impact report, explaining the impact your business has had on people and the planet. Some other businesses voluntarily choose to produce one. Here are my top ten tips on what makes a great impact report.

A lot of us are concerned about the measures being taken by Liz Truss since she became Prime Minister. Something we can all do is write to our local MP, sharing our concern and asking them to use their power to feedback on the measures being taken. This is what I wrote to my MP…

Business leaders often ask how to scale up their impact. They’re already ‘doing good’ but they feel they could do more. Some have taken the actions that seemed obvious to them and are unsure what to do next to step up the impact they’re having. Others have an allocated pot of money to spend on ‘doing good’ and want to make sure they’re having the maximum impact. How do you scale up and amplify your impact?

When it comes to ‘responsible business’, we use lots of words that mean everything and nothing. Words that mean different things to different people. And that can make it hard to get specific, prioritise, take action and make progress. In this blog, I talk about sustainability, impact and purpose – what each of these mean to me and how I think they’re different.

Did the unbearably high temperatures and wildfires earlier this week give you a taste of what might be to come? How did it make you feel? You wouldn’t be alone if it left you feeling anxious, scared, overwhelmed and unsure of what you can do about it. I know I felt like that. As a business leader you need to understand the risks to your business and ensure climate risk is embedded in your approach to risk management and strategic planning.

With pressure from coming from all angles demanding lower carbon footprints from organisations, there’s a huge opportunity to use existing innovation tools and approaches to tackle sustainability head on.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve recommended this book! That’s the sign of a good read.

To motivate action and engage with change, we have to be inspired to move towards something. Something that looks and feels so much better than today. Rob Hopkins helps us do that by sharing stories of initiatives that are happening right now. In communities where they’re challenging the status quo, imagining a different way of doing things and trying out new ideas to see what happens.

Sustainability has often been seen as a nice-to-have. An investment that can be deferred until next year if times are tough and budgets get slashed. But the world is changing, buffeted by shocks from all angles. We’re on the edge of a radical transformation. ‘Business’ must change and the businesses that become sustainable and grab the opportunities this transformation presents will be the leaders of the future. Right now, sustainability can be a competitive advantage. In future, it will be the status quo.

Sustainability is a massively overused word. So let’s spend some time thinking about what sustainability really means.

The traditional way of doing business isn’t sustainable – we can’t keep outsourcing the damage and closing our eyes and ears to it. What Paul Polman and Andrew Winston do in this book is paint a picture of a different way of doing business. And they go into practical detail about how this can be done. If you’re a business leader who wants to challenge the status quo and build a business which integrates responsibility and ‘doing good’ into its core then this book is well worth a read.

Business has a crucial role to play in tackling the environmental and social challenges we face. And it also has a responsibility towards all stakeholders. On Better Business Day, together with over a thousand other businesses we called on the Government to amend the Companies Act so it's no longer an option for businesses to pursue profit at the expense of workers, communities and the environment. Here are some of my takeouts from the day.