At SustainSuccess we believe that before we can help clients address sustainability issues that we should demonstrate by our own behaviours that we are practising what we preach.
As a result we are committing at least 10% of all after-tax profits to environmental, community and social projects: either in the form of charitable contributions or in the form of pro-bono work. In the 11 years since SustainSuccess was founded, the total value of our contribution is £46,727 or 12.4% of after-tax profits. You can see the details below.
We also believe strongly that we should “walk-the-walk” in our actions. We try to use public transport where feasible, we offset all our business flights, we have made our offices as energy-efficient as we can (see below).
From 2017 we have focused on maximising our contribution to sharing best practice in our industry – recognising the key role that energy and resource efficiency practitioners have in addressing the challenge we all face: “how to do more with less”.
How can we put a value to this? Over 4,000 hours of work went into writing the book, and £16,000 of direct publishing and research costs, so the total investment in the book by SustainSuccess is £416,000!
For simplicity’s sake and to be conservative, we have decided to put a value of £20 per copy of the book directly downloaded from this site, without taking into account the copies being passed around after the download from our site (which we warmly encourage). That values the contribution at £30,000.
Without the support of our customers on existing projects, this commitment of time would not have been possible, and we are very grateful to them.
Prior to 2017 our contributions were primarily in the form of cash:
In 2016 a further charitable contribution of £5,000 to the World Land Trust towards their Action Fund which will help to acquire land and so preserve the habitat of many highly endangered species around the world.
SustainSuccess were moved to make this donation in memory of Duncan Gibbon, a young man whom many people have told us was a truly amazing person, whose life was cut short tragically early. The inspiration comes from Duncan’s mum and dad and the Open Voice Choir who are celebrating his life by raising funds for his favourite charities. If you are interested in the work of the Land Trust, do visit their website.
Certificate and details of the Action Fund.
In 2015 we made the following contributions:
In 2014 we decided not to make any contributions as SustainSuccess made little profit that year and so funds were held in reserve (see also the box above about work on a book which was one reason why profits were lower than previously):
In 2013 we made the following contributions:
This contribution took the form of sponsorship for the Frogfish Photography triathletes at the Chorlton X Triathlon on 16th June 2013. Caroline Robertson-Brown is is one of the partners in Frogfish Photography taking part in the Triathlon and also works with the SustainSuccess team. The image to the left is one of the many stunning images from Frogfish.
This contribution took the form of sponsorship for the Peel Media runners at the BUPA 10k Greater Manchester Race on the 26th May 2013. Well done everyone!
A charitable contribution of £5,000 to the World Land Trust towards their Action Fund which will help to acquire land and so preserve the habitat of many highly endangered species around the world.
SustainSuccess were moved to make this donation in memory of Duncan Gibbon, a young man whom many people have told us was a truly amazing person, whose life was cut short tragically early. The inspiration comes from Duncan’s mum and dad and the Open Voice Choir who are celebrating his life by raising funds for his favourite charities. If you are interested in the work of the Land Trust, do visit their website.
Certificate and details of the Action Fund.
In 2012 we made the following contributions:
A charitable contribution of £3,510 to Practical Action to fund a micro-hydro system in a rural community in Zimbabwe.
Practical Action are an outstanding charity working on appropriate technology to empower people in developing countries. If you are interested in buying a Practical Present for someone do visit their website – there are some absolutely super ideas!.
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This contribution took the form of sponsorship for John Peter Whittaker who was participating in the incredibly gruelling Marathon Des Sables. Thanks to the generosity of Peel Group the contribution to the charities was doubled.
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We made a pro-bono contribution valued at £250 towards the UN program in Vietnam by providing five license for MACC Builder Pro free of charge.
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We should note that it is not just the SustainSuccess staff who are “walking the walk” on sustainability. Caroline Robertson-Brown, an Associate with SustainSuccess was a founder of Seastraw a campaigning group that aims to get food and beverage businesses in Greater Manchester to pledge not to use single-use plastics – over 50 businesses have signed up so far.
In terms of our own environmental performance, the team at SustainSuccess continue to make our offices as energy efficient as possible. Having installed cavity wall insulation two years ago, the sloping roof of the attic study has had additional 750mm of dry-wall insulation board fitted which has further reduced heat loss from the room. By fitting a Velux window the lighting requirement during daytime has been virtually eliminated. We also also installed 3.3kWp of solar PV panels on the roof which will generate approximately half of the electricity used in the household – including that running the home office.
10 Canadian SunPower super-high efficiency E20/333W solar panels now grace the south-facing roof of 19 Harboro Road, in Sale, Manchester.
Although we strive to avoid using our cars wherever possible, our primary vehicle is Plug-In Hybrid, which dramatically reduces the emissions associated with business travel.
However we believe that by far our biggest contribution to sustainability is our ability to support our clients to meet or exceed the goals they have set for their programs. We are hugely privileged to be able to contribute to our client’s sustainability efforts and will remain focused on maximising the outcomes of these programs.
We are also actively committed to sharing our expertise through public speaking, articles and publications, so that the next generation of sustainability practitioners can build on and improve on our experience.
It is only because we have had a solid foundation of fee income from our many clients that we are able to make these contributions, and we would like to thank all our customers for your business over the years which has made this possible.
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