Material

Our Impact

our impact - material b-corp

Making a Material Difference

Making a Material difference starts at home and our journey towards a net zero future is well underway, having begun pre-pandemic in 2019 with the establishment of our emissions baseline year, our Environmental Committee and our very first Carbon Literacy team training.

In 2019, we also became a signatory of Race to Zero – the UN’s global climate change campaign for businesses, sharing our first voluntary emissions disclosure through the SME Climate Hub.

Fast forward to 2025, we are in our 6th year of emissions reductions measurement and we are pleased to report a 65% reduction in our Scope 1 & 2 emissions and an 83% reduction in our Scope 3 emissions (2024 vs 2019 baseline). For more info on our emissions reductions plans and reporting, see our Net Zero Roadmap document here. 

We are also immensely proud to be 2-years B Corp Certified with an initial score of 98.9 which we will be aiming to build on with our first biennial re-evaluation in 2026.

We’ll be updating this section of our website along with our Net Zero Roadmap, B Corp Impact Report and SME Climate Hub disclosures by no later than April 2026. In the meantime, we warmly welcome any discussions around our journey, the credentials we’ve achieved to date and our plans and goals for the future.

material our impact
material our impact

Strong Strategic Foundations

Our B Corp journey and our net zero roadmap are underpinned by a broader Social and Environmental Sustainability Strategy which is built on 3 core pillars, each containing priority areas of focus with short-term (12-24month) objectives and mid-term (2030) targets to meet in order to achieve our longer-term (2045) goals.  

Progress is driven by our 3 appointed Pillar Leads and their supporting Pillar Teams, with our 12-24month objectives tackled business-wide via colleagues volunteering themselves to support specific tasks based on their professional skills or personal interests.  

We were fortunate to benefit from the fantastic support of Glasgow’s Step Up To Net Zero funded programme, enabling us to bring in a specialist to map and audit our (scope 3) upstream and downstream suppliers.

Click on each of the 3 boxes below to read more on the progress we have made to date around the 3 pillars of our social and environmental sustainability strategy:

Reducing our Material Impact

Empowering our Material People

Mobilising our Material Leadership

Reducing our Material Impact

We focus on improving our own environmental footprint through consistent emissions monitoring aligned to our reductions plans and driven by resource and operating efficiencies and the integration of circular processes across our business. We also focus on how we engage and work with our clients and suppliers to source and procure in a responsible way from those that share our net zero goals, considering end of life planning for purchased goods to reduce raw material inputs and waste outputs from our operations.

Emissions Monitoring & Reductions:

  • Our footprint is established with 5 years of emissions reductions tracking in place at the end of 2024 
  • At 2024 we have achieved a 65% reduction in our Scope 1 & 2 emissions and an 83% reduction in our Scope 3 emissions (2024 vs 2019 baseline)

Scope 3 Suppliers & Procurement

  • Participating in the Step Up To Net Zero programme via Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 2024 enabled us to bring in a specialist for 6 months to map and audit our scope 3 upstream and downstream suppliers

Resource Efficiencies

  • We have Hive controlled 100% verified renewable office energy supply and LED lights and clear power-saving policies in place 
  • We developed and implemented an Environmental Efficiencies Staff Guide which was socialised via an all-staff Lunch & Learn 
  • We have also developed and introduced a ‘Virtual Office Stewardship Guide’ with ways to reduce our footprint when working from home  
  • And we have introduced comprehensive colleague guidance for sustainable event and content creation  

Waste & Circularity

  • Segregated recycling has been in place since 2007, and we continue to improve our recycling levels and reduce waste to landfill each year 
  • Recycled product sourcing policies and leftover client collateral donations are also in place 
  • We began food waste recycling in 2024, and this has prevented 184kg / 3.92kg CO2e of food waste from ending up in landfill over the past year 

Empowering our material People

We focus on how we will drive change collectively by engaging and enabling each of our team members in the delivery of our strategy, by creating the opportunity for career development and continuous learning and aiming to protect the health and wellbeing of our people. We also focus on how we can contribute positively to our local community by raising funds and volunteering with organisations, charities and causes in which we believe passionately.

Colleague Engagement & Environmental Education

  • Material established our first Environmental Committee in 2019, the same year that our team took part in Carbon Literacy Training 
  • Our senior leadership team took part in a Circular Glasgow Circular Assessment workshop in 2022 
  • Our whole team took part in an internally delivered SES Comms Compliance workshop in 2023  
  • All client facing employees undertook CAP Climate Impact and Environmental Certification in 2024 
  • Our team are all engaged in voluntarily supporting the delivery of various 12-24 objectives within our SES strategy based on their skills or interests  
  • We introduced a Colleague Commuting & Travel policy promoting public and active transport methods and introduced a Cycle to Work scheme  

Employee Wellbeing

  • We have been Living Wage accredited since 2021 
  • 67% of our SLT identify as women and 38% of our employees have been with us for over 15 years 
  • Monthly staff lunches and quarterly healthy breakfasts have been introduced 
  • We implemented a ‘Returning from Maternity Leave’ policy which also includes a section on breastfeeding in the workplace 
  • We are developing an anonymous Employee Wellbeing & Satisfaction Survey for introduction in H2 2025 

Community Engagement

  • We developed an interactive digital climate learning platform called VIDI which was adopted by Glasgow City Education Department across all schools (now featured on 60,000 iPads in schools across Glasgow) in February 2024 (more info here) 
  • We are developing our first formal Material Team Volunteering and Charity Strategy and Action Plan to align annual fundraising and in-kind-time with specific charities and organisations  
  • We have established ourselves in Scotland’s thriving and growing B Corp network, playing an active role as advocates in promoting the many benefits of B Corp Certification 
  • Our senior leadership team regularly speak at public events and take part in webinars and panels to discuss and share our knowledge and understanding of the evolving social and environmental sustainability landscape  

Mobilising our Material Leadership

We focus on how our leadership team ensure that our decision-making and actions are guided by our values and by our responsibilities as a B Corp certified business, holding ourselves accountable to the standards set by our Board, to B Corp standards, and aligned to climate action frameworks such as the UN’s Race to Zero. We also ensure that our decision making is aligned to how we look after our people, our clients, our wider social impact and our plans for business growth.

Independent Assessment & Voluntary Disclosures

  • We are 2-years B Corp Certified with an initial score of 98.9 which we will be aiming to build on with our first biennial re-evaluation in 2026  
  • Our first net zero roadmap has been published and will be updated annually by April each year (at the start of our new fiscal year) 
  • As part of our B Corp commitment, we have established a Client Impact Survey to quantify the positive impact of our SES services  

SES Policy Development

We have implemented and/or updated many social and environmental policies including (but not limited to)  

  • Net zero strategy 
  • Dignity at work policy  
  • Fair working policy  
  • Equality, diversity & inclusion policy 
  • Controversial industries policy  
  • Environmental responsibility & social impact policy  
  • Modern slavery policy 
  • Local & independent first sourcing guidance 
  • Returning from maternity & breastfeeding policy  
  • Environmental Efficiencies Staff Guidance  
  • Aligned Governance Standards & Environmental Values Policy  
  • Internal SES communications approval policy  
  • Working from home environmental guidance 
  • Sustainable event and content creation guidance  
  • Ethical stewardship pension fund available