Issue #13 - Doing less harm is just not good enough!

Hi everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read People, Planet, Partners.?

This month, I’ve been excited, inspired, and nervous (as one of the speakers) to be part of Paragon’s first ever “Paragon Presents” event: Transforming to Net Positive.?

It was fantastic to have 100 fully engaged stakeholders from our clients and partners there. We took some bold steps forward at the event, stating our intentions to work to a Net Positive agenda.

The first big move came from our CEO, Jim Hartshorne , who outlined the long-term vision for our business that will see ESG deeply embedded into our strategy. He started with real intent by committing Paragon to become Carbon Net Zero by 2035, bringing our target forward by 15 years! He then went on to highlight our further ESG goals, including becoming a zero-waste business by 2035, and to have a leadership team made up of 50% women within the next five years. ?

Taking a leaf out of Paul Polman and Jacinda Ardern’s books, Jim explained our desire to reset our measures of business success to include bottom lines for People, Planet, Partners and Prosperity. The traditional bottom lines of profit and growth will form a key part of the Prosperity measure, but they won’t be the sole focus. ?

I want our business to have a positive impact. So this step change in our targets shows a commitment to move away from doing less harm while making a profit, and into doing more good while delivering prosperity. It makes me hugely motivated and optimistic to have such a clear purpose to my work.?

Our keynote speaker was the charming and passionate Roger Harrabin , the former BBC environmental correspondent. Roger delivered a compelling speech that outlined the need for urgent climate action.?We had a great quote from one of our clients, which I agree with, that sums up Roger’s contribution to the day:?

“It definitely gave us food for thought and the desire to do more”.?

We also gave attendees early access to two upcoming launches. The first was our latest and most usable version of our Carbon Calculator, AutoCarbon. Keep a lookout for the official launch in August! This is an important part of our carbon reduction efforts, and we can’t wait for it to land.?

We also launched of our new Paragon Research Report: Going Green on a Shoestring, which examines consumer attitudes towards sustainability during a period of economic downturn. Our event attendees were given exclusive early access to the research. I’m also delighted to give you, our loyal People, Planet, Partners?subscribers, early access too, a week before it goes live on our external channels. You can view and download the Paragon Report here.

It’s been a busy summer getting these launches ready and preparing for the event, and as part of the organising team, it was important that what we delivered was carbon neutral. We scrutinised everything we could: the choice of venue, event materials, and even the beer and wine for the after party!??

We asked attendees to provide details of how they travelled there, and we’re going to offset the carbon emissions generated by their attendance as well as for the event itself. We’ll do this with the World Land Trust offsetting scheme. This is something Paragon is keen to do more often as we target net zero.?

As part of the event, we announced our four bottom lines?– People, Planet, Partners and Prosperity and how our performance against them?is our new measure of business success. So what does that mean for this newsletter? Well, for one, it means this will be the last issue?in this?current form. ?

To reflect our reenergised ESG strategy we will be relaunching over the summer as People, Planet, Partners and Prosperity, a newsletter that will be even bigger and better. It will feature more invited guests, with a wider scope for discussions, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all!??

Thank you for taking the time to read it. As ever, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.?

Lucy?

Previous issues of our newsletter below ??