If you’ve worked on a tender or supplier form recently, you’ve probably noticed the questions changing slightly. Alongside the usual sections on capability, pricing and references, there’s now a block on sustainability or social value that asks for things like:
For many agencies, that’s the point where the bid manager or new business lead has to go digging for information, or admit that the answers don’t really exist within the company yet.
This blog is to help make that moment less stressful. Not by turning you into climate experts, but by getting a few simple building blocks in place so you can respond to carbon questions calmly, consistently and without scrambling every time a client asks.
There are three big shifts behind the influx of carbon questions:
1. Clients are under pressure on their own emissions
Large brands, universities, councils and the NHS have public Net Zero commitments that they have to monitor and report on. Your agency’s emissions sit inside their own Scope 3 footprint, as a supplier to their operations. That means procurement teams are expected to look at environmental performance as well as cost and quality, to ensure no negative impact on their own emissions and progress so far.
2. Public sector rules are tightening
Many central government and NHS contracts now require a Carbon Reduction Plan that follows PPN 006 (06/21) – a set of rules and processes around carbon reduction plans, put in place by the UK Government. That applies to service providers too, including digital, creative and marketing agencies, and is on track to become a standard part of the bid process for all public sector tenders.
The short version: if you want to work with larger organisations or the public sector, these questions are not going away.
The language used when requesting carbon data can sometimes feel overwhelmingly technical, but most requests boil down to a few basics.
You’ll often see questions asking for:
Seen through an agency lens, that’s not a thousand different asks. It’s really four repeatable pieces of evidence:
1. A recent organisational carbon footprint.
2. A Carbon Reduction Plan, where relevant (public sector and NHS tenders).
3. A clear policy and point of ownership within your organisation.
4. A short, practical approach to carbon on the specific project itself.
Get those in place once and you’ve covered the majority of what tenders, portals and client questionnaires are looking for. Below are three simple steps on how to get started.
The starting point is a baseline carbon footprint for your agency.
For most creative and digital teams, that means pulling together data such as:
The goal isn’t perfection; it’s a structured, GHG-Protocol-aligned view of where your emissions actually sit, covering Scopes 1, 2 and the relevant parts of Scope 3.
Once you’ve done that based on a 12-month period, you can:
You can build this yourself using spreadsheets and publicly available government emissions factors, pulling in your energy, travel and spend data and converting it into tonnes of CO₂e, especially if you’re comfortable working with data and have a bit of capacity in ops or finance to own the process.
Many agencies however, use platforms like Seedling to do the heavy lifting: analysing data, aligning it with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and having an expert review the footprint so it’s robust enough to share in bids and reports.
Either way, the important thing is that you have one source of truth you’re comfortable reusing, for every requirement that might come your way.
Once you’ve done the work, turn it into a small set of reusable assets that make life easier for bid managers, new business and account teams.
This can be a simple PDF that includes:
You can attach this to tenders, link to it in supplier portals or adapt it as a slide in your credentials deck. You can also make this available on your website, or via a dedicated climate action/impact page.
If you’re bidding for central government or NHS work, it’s worth creating a Carbon Reduction Plan that follows the PPN 006 (06/21) structure from the outset.
Typically, that means:
You can manually pull this together from your footprint data and reduction plan, following government guidance yourself if you have capacity. Or work with an external partner like Seedling, who will be able to produce the reports for you.
The key is: once it’s written, approved and published, it becomes something you can then simply upload or reference whenever it’s requested.
None of this should live solely with ‘the sustainability person’. To avoid last-minute scrambling:
Make sure bid managers, new business leads and account directors all know:
Keep a short internal FAQ or crib sheet that covers:
That way, when a client or portal asks, ‘Do you have a Carbon Reduction Plan?’ or ‘How will you support our Net Zero goals?’, your team can answer consistently and confidently.
Handled well, carbon data and reduction plans, can be more than a compliance chore.
It can help you:
The important thing is to do this without greenwashing.
A few simple principles:
Most clients don’t expect you to have solved everything, but they do expect you to have made a start, and to not overclaim.
You can build a lot of this yourself if you have the time and appetite internally. But Seedling exists for teams who’d like some help.
We work with agencies and other growing organisations, by combining software and 1:1 expert support, to:
So you end up with carbon data that feels manageable, and evidence you can stand behind whenever a client asks for it.
Weston College and University Centre Weston are looking to work with creative businesses to shape delivery, curriculum and skills alignment to provide your industry with a talented and work ready future workforce.
Current courses delivered by us include:
Please join us at one of our events (you can find them all here) and have your say! https://forms.office.com/e/0T1Z42Ey2V
UK digital agency, Torchbox, delivers major website transformation focused on environmental responsibility and inclusive design
Bristol, UK – 14th October 2025 – Torchbox, the digital agency behind open source content management system Wagtail, has developed a new website for World Wildlife Fund-US that demonstrates how sustainable web development practices can work hand-in-hand with improved user experience.
The project helps one of the United States’ leading conservation organisations share its critical conservation message with its nearly 10 million annual users by rebuilding its digital platform.
“Working with a conservation organisation like WWF-US meant sustainability couldn’t just be a talking point, it had to be built into every technical decision,” said Gabi Mamon, Client Partner, Torchbox. “We’ve created a platform that performs better whilst reducing its environmental impact through thoughtful technical choices at every level.”
The new platform runs on Cloudflare’s renewable energy infrastructure and employs modern web development practices, including optimised image formats, efficient content delivery networks using caching to serve all content. These improvements deliver faster page loads whilst reducing the data transfer required for the site’s 30 million annual pageviews.
Accessibility features are integrated throughout the platform, including enhanced keyboard navigation, improved colour contrast, proper semantic markup, and screen reader compatibility. The rebuild also involved thoughtfully reorganising 6,000 pages of conservation content to create clearer user journeys.
“Our website is where millions of people come to learn about global conservation and how it helps both people and nature thrive,” said WWF-US Vice President of Digital Projects Diane Querey. “It’s important that it welcomes users in a way that highlights the important role nature plays in all our lives while conveying the urgency and importance of our mission.”
The project required tight deadline management, with Torchbox working closely with WWF-US’s internal team to migrate and reorganise content whilst building new functionality.
For WWF-US, the new platform provides a foundation for long-term digital growth. The successful delivery demonstrates Torchbox’s capability to meet the complex requirements of large international charities working under demanding timescales.
Visit the new site at https://www.worldwildlife.org/
As part of ADLIB’s ‘True Diversity’ series, they had a chat with Andreyana Ivanova, Head of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing at KeolisAmey Docklands. With over 16 years of cross-sector experience her work focuses on building inclusive, resilient and high-performing cultures through insight-led strategy, organisational capability building and inclusive design.
Andreyana believes that thriving employees are the driving force behind sustainable business growth. She helps organisations reimagine and shape more human-centred, equitable employee journeys, cultivating workplaces where people feel they belong, are valued, and empowered.
ADLIB: Let’s start with the need for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) – what’s your take, why is it so important?
Andreyana: In my work, I approach DEI as a strategic lever for unlocking productivity, innovation and long-term growth. I often describe DEI as the engine of high performance and belonging as the fuel that powers it. When people feel safe, valued and empowered, they bring their full potential to work, perform at their best, and stay engaged and motivated. Organisations that embrace DEI not only attract and retain top talent, but also accelerate innovation and remain resilient through change. In other words, DEI is the infrastructure behind high-performing, human-centred and future-ready workplaces.
DEI goes beyond representation. It is about redesigning the systems, structures and everyday practices that shape how people experience work. When embedded in work design, leadership competencies and decision making, DEI helps organisations cultivate inclusive cultures, resilient workforces and human-centred workplaces where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. This people-first approach not only supports colleagues through key life moments, but also strengthens customer confidence and loyalty, ultimately accelerating organisational growth and social impact.
In an increasingly complex and polarised competitive landscape, DEI matters even more. Rising backlash in some regions makes it harder to sustain momentum, yet DEI remains the anchor that keeps organisations grounded in purpose and aligned with their values.
ADLIB: What are the risks of not prioritising DEI and what are the tangible benefits of building an inclusive workforce?
Andreyana: The link between DEI, organisational culture, resilience and performance is now widely recognised and backed by both research and practice. In the absence of inclusive cultures and equitable employee experiences, the consequences for organisations and their people can be significant: employees feel disengaged, isolated or struggle in silence, often resulting in presenteeism, attrition, or low discretionary effort. These outcomes not only impact individual wellbeing and performance, but also steadily erode organisational culture and long-term success.
According to Deloitte (2023), poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion annually, with presenteeism alone accounting for £24 billion. The latest Workplace Wellbeing Deficit report (2025) adds further depth: people from lower socio-economic and marginalised backgrounds are disproportionately affected by mental health challenges at work. Rather than taking time off, many employees feel compelled to continue working while unwell, often to avoid stigma or falling behind (a pattern known as ‘leavism’). This hidden toll of exclusion leads to burnout, low psychological safety and a culture of survival. Over time, it deepens structural inequalities and stifles potential.
On the other hand, embedding DEI into the fabric of everyday work and employee experiences fosters wellbeing, engagement and belonging, and in doing so, boosts retention, performance and collective resilience. When people feel they belong, they are more engaged and connected, more likely to stay with their employer, and empowered to contribute meaningfully to the organisation’s shared success.
From a business perspective, embracing DEI provides a competitive advantage. Teams that reflect a diversity of lived experiences are more creative, adaptable and better equipped to solve complex problems. As research continuously shows, diverse organisations consistently outperform their peers. According to McKinsey’s 2023 report, companies in the top quartile for gender or ethnic diversity on executive teams are 39% more likely to financially outperform less diverse peers (McKinsey, 2023). Other studies on board-level diversity, such as those by Bloomberg Intelligence, point to similar trends across regions (Bloomberg Intelligence, 2023).
Cloverpop’s research shows a direct link between inclusive decision making and stronger business performance:
Taken together, these findings reaffirm that DEI is not only a moral imperative but a business one, delivering measurable results and long-term impact. Organisations that embed DEI as a core enabler of their strategy and ESG commitments are better positioned for sustainable growth. They connect more authentically with employees, customers and stakeholders, building cultures of trust and accountability. In doing so, they strengthen both their employer and customer brand, and establish themselves as credible, responsible leaders within their industries and communities.
The message for leaders and organisations is clear: if you don’t embrace DEI as a strategic advantage, your competitors will. In fact, the most forward thinking ones already have!
ADLIB: How can organisations make DEI more impactful and sustainable across the employee experience?
Andreyana: While there is strong evidence that more engaged employees drive stronger business outcomes, too few feel truly connected to their organisations in a human sense. Accenture’s research (2022) shows that only one in six employees feel a deep connection to their work, culture and colleagues, described as ‘omni-connected’, which has a significant impact on retention, productivity and revenue growth. This highlights the gap between stated commitment and lived experience.
The best place to start is by listening and learning, using both data and employee voice to identify barriers, inequities and opportunities to create fairer outcomes for everyone. Ask the deep questions: Do colleagues feel safe to speak up? Whose voices carry weight? Are policies designed for the diverse realities of employees’ lives? Alongside feedback loops, organisations need robust data and insights to identify pain points in the talent journey, inform their strategies and priorities, measure the impact of their efforts and hold themselves accountable.
The next step is to act. That means integrating DEI into every stage of the talent journey from attraction to offboarding, and embedding equity into systems, processes, leadership behaviours and daily practices that shape organisational culture and how people experience work. Crucially, DEI and Wellbeing go hand in hand: colleagues are more likely to thrive and contribute fully when they feel supported through key life stages and challenges. As part of this, digital platforms and AI-enabled tools must be reviewed through an inclusion lens to ensure they deliver fair outcomes rather than perpetuating bias.
Fundamentally, embedding DEI into the employee experience is about creating equitable workplaces where people feel safe to speak up, supported to grow, and empowered to contribute fully. Achieving this requires leaders, managers and colleagues to take an active role in DEI, modelling inclusive behaviours that strengthen organisational culture. To sustain progress, DEI must also be embedded into leadership responsibilities, performance metrics and promotion criteria, ensuring accountability is consistent, measurable, and aligned with the organisation’s purpose and values. When DEI is woven into every stage of the employee experience, it transforms daily interactions into a culture of belonging where people and organisations can truly thrive.
ADLIB: What skills, mindsets or shifts do DEI and People leaders need to navigate the future of work?
Andreyana: The future of work calls for a different kind of leadership: one that is collaborative, human and grounded in integrity. DEI and People leaders are not only delivering programmes; they are working to reshape systems and cultures that were often not designed with everyone in mind. That requires clarity of purpose, resilience and the ability to navigate complexity. In today’s world of increased scrutiny and polarisation, balancing commercial focus with humility is more important than ever.
We cannot ignore the dynamic global landscape. The backlash in some regions, particularly the US, has created a more complex environment, one where the value of DEI is being questioned or misunderstood. But this also presents an opportunity to reflect, realign and strengthen the case for meaningful, systemic change that drives innovation, customer trust and long-term growth.
The most sustainable change happens when DEI is built into the way an organisation leads, makes decisions and grows. Leadership is central as we need leaders at every level who model empathy, accountability and allyship, and who foster trust and psychological safety.
For me, three shifts feel especially important:
The best leaders I have worked with lead with curiosity, courage and vulnerability. They listen, reflect, ask the hard questions, collaborate and bring others with them, not through blame but through shared ownership. They adopt inclusive leadership and allyship in their everyday behaviours, using their voice and influence to make space for others, challenge inequity and act even when it feels uncomfortable. At the same time, they use data and storytelling to demonstrate impact, making the business case for DEI visible and credible across the organisation.
Ultimately, inclusive leaders recognise that DEI is a continuous journey, not a destination. Especially in times of uncertainty it requires intentional, collective effort, guided by clarity and consistency, and the courage to lead with vulnerability, integrity and compassion. As Maya Angelou reminds us: ‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.’
If you are a part of an initiative, brand or company that proactively champions diversity and would like to be featured as part of the “True Diversity” series please get in touch with Tony.
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This blog previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
About ‘True Diversity’ by ADLIB:
Our series, True Diversity, is dedicated to featuring the people, organisations, and initiatives that truly understand why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EDI) matter.
We spotlight who they are, what they do, and why their work is important. Through their stories, we explore how they’re driving meaningful change and how businesses and potential employers can get involved in building a more inclusive future.
View ADLIB’s EDI Directory.
We are incredibly proud to announce that we are now a Certified B Corporation.
B Corps are companies verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It’s more than a certification – it’s a global movement of businesses using their influence as a force for good. From how we treat our people, to the impact we have on communities, to the way we consider the environment in our day-to-day decisions, B Corps commit to balancing profit with purpose.
For us, this milestone represents us thinking carefully about how we want to run our business. Working with FMCG brands, we’ve always believed that creativity and responsibility go hand in hand. The B Impact Assessment gave us a rigorous framework to measure this – from governance and ethics, to how we support our team, to the ripple effects of the work we create.
But certification isn’t the finish line. B Corps are legally committed to continuous improvement: reviewing progress, raising the bar, and striving to leave things better than we found them. That fits perfectly with our ethos as an agency – we’re always challenging ourselves and our clients to push boundaries, and create ideas, not noise… that connect with people in meaningful ways.
By becoming part of the global B Corp community – which now includes over 8,000 companies worldwide (2,500 of which are in the UK), across 160+ industries – we’re joining a collective of businesses that share a common vision: an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy that works for everyone.
This matters to us, because marketing isn’t just about selling more products. It’s about shaping culture, building trust, and influencing behaviour. That comes with responsibility. As a B Corp, we’re committed to ensuring that responsibility is front and centre – whether we’re developing a launch strategy for a new challenger brand or helping an established favourite stay relevant for the future.
We’re excited to continue this journey, alongside our brilliant clients and partners, building brands that don’t just grow – but grow in the right way.
As part of ADLIB’s ‘True Diversity’ series, ADLIB had a chat with Seleeta Walker, who is widely recognised for her work in Diversity and Inclusion, where she has consistently championed progress and inspired change.
Her journey began with side-of-desk projects and has since grown into a dedicated career with meaningful impact. With experience spanning aviation, health and fitness, education, finance and IT, she combines lived insight with a strategic perspective. Named a 2024 CRN A List honouree.
Here, Seleeta shares why inclusion must move beyond awareness into consistent action, and how building truly inclusive workplaces today will shape better futures for the generations to come.
Seleeta Walker on Inclusive Futures: Creating Workplaces Worth Passing On:
This is a story that has been repeated many times, especially to those who know me, but we all have our individual journeys, and this is mine.
Once upon a time, I believed the world of work was simple: if you had a growth mindset, were consistent, determined, patient in your approach and grounded in a good heart, opportunities, doors and even financial abundance would be plentiful. In practice, as I pursued this ‘successful’ career in the aviation, health and fitness, education and finally finance and IT industries, I honed my instinctual awareness of the subtle dynamics at play.
Not so long ago, there was a moment when the world seemed to stop. An event so visible and so raw that it cut across borders and industries. People spanning cultures, identities, and perspectives were recognising the subtleties, the structural obstacles and unspoken disparities that had long shaped collective experiences.
It was momentous but also complicated. The greater the awareness, the greater the risk of further fracturing, and division rather than solidarity taking hold.
What struck me most was not a sense of resolution, but a sense of possibility. That if awareness could lead to action, and if action could be sustained, then change was not only necessary but achievable.
In the four years that followed, I invested time into side-of-desk projects supporting ethnically diverse employee engagement. It was unpaid, often unseen, and sometimes hard to explain to those who had not experienced personal challenges first hand. But it mattered. And I saw how even small, consistent actions could begin to shift how people felt in the workplace.
By 2024, this work became my official career path, but by then I had already learned that diversity and inclusion is a discipline, a set of everyday choices that shape whether people can not only enter the room but truly thrive once they are there.
That dedication also led to being honoured as a 2024 CRN A List honouree, recognising inclusive leaders shaping channel culture towards greater equity and opportunity.
So where are we now?
Years on from that global turning point, the challenge is keeping the momentum alive. Fatigue has set in, and priorities are shifting, leaving Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) always at risk of being reduced to a line in a strategy deck or a slide in an all-hands meeting.
For me, it is about more than representation. It is about whether people feel heard, respected, and supported to do their best work. True diversity is the foundation for stronger teams, better decisions, and more sustainable organisations. It is about moving beyond “fitting in” to building a culture where difference is seen as an asset. When I speak of diversity and inclusion, I mean everyone. Diversity includes every demographic, including the traditional white male. We should not ignore or exclude any group, because if we do, we risk becoming the very thing that once separated us in the first place.
I have seen what happens when this is done well. Teams become more innovative because they draw on a wider range of perspectives. Decision-making improves because blind spots are reduced. The culture feels healthier because people know they belong.
I have also seen the other side, the missed opportunities that happen when diversity is not prioritised. Talent walks out the door. Innovation slows. Organisations lose touch with the markets they serve. And it is not always dramatic; sometimes it is the slow erosion of trust or the quiet disengagement of people who no longer feel seen.
There is also another reality to face: those who remain uninspired, or who believe inclusion does not serve them. We cannot ignore this section of society. They may not connect personally to the value of D&I, but their presence and perspective shape the culture too. The challenge is not to persuade through force or rhetoric, but to create environments where even sceptics cannot deny the tangible benefits: better teamwork, fairer decision making, more resilient organisations. When inclusion becomes everyday practice, even those who do not champion it directly still live within its positive impact. And in time, some of the most sceptical can become unlikely allies, not through persuasion but through experiencing the benefits of a fairer, more collaborative environment for themselves.
To anchor inclusion sustainably, I focus on three actions:
True diversity is not a fairy tale with a happy ending. It is a practice, one that requires commitment, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning. And when we get it right, the result is a workplace where people are valued for their ideas, their insight, and their impact.
We also must look ahead. Future generations have been exposed to a level of openness and global connection that was not the norm before. Many of them carry an instinctive inclusivity, a natural ability to accept difference without hesitation. We owe it to them to create working environments that reflect those ideals, so they can step into careers where inclusion is not an aspiration but an expectation. Their perspective is hopeful and unburdened, and it reminds us that inclusion is not only possible, but it can also be natural. Our responsibility is to ensure the momentum does not fade, so that what they inherit is a working world that lives up to the promise of their ideals.
That is what keeps me committed: if we keep listening, keep noticing, and keep acting, despite discomfort, the possibilities are far greater than the challenges. And the greatest truth of all is that inclusion, when practised with sincerity, creates more than just better workplaces, it creates better futures for everyone.
If you are a part of an initiative, brand or company that proactively champions diversity and would like to be featured as part of the “True Diversity” series please get in touch with Tony.
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This blog previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
About ‘True Diversity’ by ADLIB:
Our series, True Diversity, is dedicated to featuring the people, organisations, and initiatives that truly understand why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EDI) matter.
We spotlight who they are, what they do, and why their work is important. Through their stories, we explore how they’re driving meaningful change and how businesses and potential employers can get involved in building a more inclusive future.
As part of ADLIB‘s ‘True Diversity’ series, Tony had a chat with Lee Chambers, Founding Director at Male Allies UK, business psychologist, male allyship specialist and speaker.
This article is based on a transcript from that chat where Lee talks about why inclusion matters, how it helps build better workplaces, and why men need to be part of the conversation.
Tony: Starting with the need for diversity and inclusion. Why is it so important?
Lee: So from my perspective, and from a lot of the work that I’ve done, the importance of diversity and inclusion spans a variety of different areas. The first one for me is, in an increasingly individualistic world, the things that actually bring us together, especially across difference. Because as we become more individualistic, we actually start to fear difference more than embrace and celebrate it.
So things that actively work to bring different people together in a proactive and intentional way are increasingly important in an algorithmic world, which is trying to bring commonality together rather than difference. I think it’s vital for society that we’re able to create communities of difference rather than communities of commonality.
I think, secondly, it’s important because we still live in a world without modern meritocracy. Your outcomes are still massively determined by lots of things that you can’t necessarily control yourself, but that do potentially present either an awful lot of systemic barriers to overcome, or significantly less. And we all benefit when we collectively work together to reduce some of those barriers, because fundamentally it means that we can create better outcomes from the work that we do together.
There’s more opportunity to work with great people. Talent gets the ability to rise. People can get closer to their potential. People get the opportunity to perform, which is vital for sustainable businesses. And more than ever, people feel like they can belong, not necessarily their whole self, because many people don’t want to bring their whole self into the workplace, but they would like to bring their best, most effective self. And an inclusive culture allows that to happen.
It allows that embracing of difference which, whether we’re looking at commercial or societal outcomes, helps us mitigate risks earlier, see more potential opportunities, create more effective products and services, and just make better workplace cultures where people want to stay, continue to develop themselves, and continue to contribute. They see it as a net positive rather than something that takes away from them.
I think that’s vital because the next generation is more sensitive towards these things and is definitely looking for more purpose and more alignment in the very work that they do. So yes, it’s vital in a lot of different ways. When it’s done effectively, and in a structured and really considered way, it simply makes for better ecosystems that humans can exist within.
At the end of the day, as humans, we need those spaces to be able to grow and thrive. And it’s not always on us as individuals to create those spaces.
Tony: That’s a brilliant answer. Thank you. Absolutely agree with all of that. Can you share a little bit more about what you do at Males Allies UK?
Lee: Male Allies UK fundamentally exists to help men engage in inclusion. From our work, we’ve seen that when it comes to people-orientated projects in the workplace, whether that’s around well-being, inclusion, people engagement, or people development, there are a lot more women who get involved. In the bigger picture, that means men are missing out on the opportunity to be part of designing what these people structures will look like in the future. If they’re not present, they can’t be part of co-designing and co-creating them.
We’ve also seen over the years the impact on men’s health when they don’t take a more collective approach to navigating the world. The isolation, individualism, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency, sold as independence and freedom, actually come at a cost. No man is an island. If men can connect with people, it gives them the ability to feel more connected to the world, and also to themselves.
So we exist to engage men in inclusion, to support them in building the skills of allyship, and to be honest about the systemic barriers that still exist for all genders in the workplace. We specifically start from a binary perspective and move beyond that over time.
We do this through delivering masterclasses that are more informational, busting myths and misconceptions, identifying barriers from our research, and highlighting the benefits of inclusion. Too often, inclusion is framed only around when it goes wrong, microaggressions, discrimination, poor behaviours, bad cultures, rather than amplifying the benefits of getting it right and doing it well.
We also create spaces and consult on engagement, whether that’s events, men’s networks, male partner networks, male strands, or male pillars. We host what we call creative spaces, where men can share their perspectives on inclusion without judgment, contribute their honest views, and express sentiments they might feel suppressed from sharing elsewhere. There are boundaries of respect, but it removes the sense of “I can’t say anything.” This lets them explore their beliefs, and as we go through that process with curiosity, we often find the root of resistance is linked to their own personal challenges, economic pressures, divorce, mental health struggles, fertility issues, lack of friends, caring for parents, and more.
If men don’t feel they can share these experiences, it can cause frustration that other challenges get more attention or visibility. In these spaces, they can connect, support each other, and see they’re not alone, because again, no man is an island.
We also look at what organisations can do systemically to get more men collaborating together. Our big mission, beyond those safe spaces, is to get everyone in the room together. It’s vital to shine a light on our blind spots, recognise that men and women are not homogeneous groups, and that there are massive intersecting identities within both. There are also common challenges across genders, and many issues that impact women in the workplace have a tail, end effect on men that often goes unconsidered.
If we can work together to address the gender stereotypes and norms that restrict us, many of which are at the root of these challenges, we can start to create a world where we can be who we truly are, rather than who we’ve been told to be. This will make us less judgmental, more curious about each other, and more able to explore what’s possible, bringing our own authentic expression into the world.
Tony: In your opinion, what does good allyship look like?
Lee: Yeah, so the word “allyship”, when I first came across it nine years ago, I didn’t like the term. It felt very militaristic, like “good guys versus bad guys,” a rallying cry of “join us and let’s blow them up.” That didn’t mirror my perspective on what I wanted to achieve.
I’d been on a personal journey, building a tech company, getting ill, learning to walk again, stepping out to become a stay, at, home dad, and through that, I began seeing the world differently. I realised there were many things I hadn’t seen or noticed before, a lot of unfairness in the world.
Initially, I resisted the term, but then I learned its root comes from the Old French word alliere, meaning “to combine, to unite, to come together.” That clicked for me. Allyship is about that collaborative, collective coming together, partnering with people for change, and partnering through difference.
Good allyship is multifaceted. It starts with personal work: unpacking your own conditioning, educating yourself on other perspectives without placing emotional labour on others. Then there’s allyship “in the moment”: thinking about who’s not in the room, who is in the room but not being heard, who’s being interrupted or not credited. It’s having the courage to bring someone in, amplify their voice, ensure they get the credit they deserve, and being mindful of who is doing work that goes unrecognised.
There’s also the systemic aspect, examining policies to see if they create more or less opportunity, and looking at processes like meetings, networking, promotions, project allocation, recruitment, and more. We all have different levels of systemic power to make change, but everyone has some ability to make change.
I see allyship as a skill to build, not an ideology to believe. We’re often beginners when it comes to the lived experiences of others, but over time we gain benefits from building these skills. It requires willingness to learn, humility, courage to challenge, and curiosity about what we don’t yet know.
Good allyship also means knowing when to step forward to challenge and question, when to step to the side to partner on change and projects, and when to step back to allow others to take the platform and lead. That ability to move fluidly, stepping forward, aside, and back, is the essence of allyship. It’s easy to get stuck in one of those positions, but true allyship is an agile skill.
Tony: I love that meaning of allyship! And your point about stepping forward, stepping to the side, and stepping back is a great one. A lot of people, maybe through fear of getting it wrong, default to stepping back, and I’ve done that in the past. Then, once you do step forward, the tendency might be to do it all the time or too much. So that’s a really good awareness point , I’ve learned something just from hearing that. Thank you.
Tony: Can you give an example of what good allyship looks like?
Lee: In terms of good allyship, there are more great examples than we often appreciate. Sometimes those examples are small and easy to overlook, because we tend to think of allyship as lots of small, intentional, inclusive acts that build the skill set.
We don’t see allyship as making big sweeping statements, grand gestures, or one, off transformational changes. It’s about those micro, moments in the day, to, day. Yes, there’s a lot that could be improved, but even simple actions can be powerful, like seeing senior leaders openly say, “I’m going to pick my kids up” or “I’m taking time off with my children.” Especially for male senior leaders, that challenges stigma and models what I call “caregiving loudly.”
Other examples include men calling out sexist remarks in meetings and explaining why they’re problematic, or pulling women back into conversations when they’ve been interrupted, saying, “Hang on, you’ve just interrupted her, let her finish her point.”
Some of the most powerful examples of allyship, though, are the ones we don’t see, like changing policies or systems, or using institutional power to advocate for something you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be passionate about. Those are moments when people put real skin in the game, because allyship can be uncomfortable.
If you’re going to build this skill set and take action, it’s going to feel risky at times. You might feel scared or unsure. In our research, fear is the biggest barrier to men stepping in. That’s understandable given the current climate, but fear can also be a signal to act. Today’s discomfort becomes tomorrow’s growth.
It’s important for men to see that allyship is a beneficial skill to build and to understand the potential personal benefits over time. That perspective can help turn discomfort into growth. While that might sound transactional or self, centered at first, we’ve seen that men who sustain their allyship journey often don’t know the benefits at the start, they discover them gradually, and that keeps them engaged.
Tony: Can you tell us more about the report you’ve been working on?
Lee: Our social impact work as a company includes working with boys in schools. We’re passionate about that, because many of them are not far from entering the workplace themselves, a workplace that’s increasingly volatile, dynamic, and, at times, really challenging.
It’s a very different environment compared to the education system. These young boys have grown up in a fascinating but complex world. They’ve had a digital, first existence; social media has been present in their lives from the day they were born. Many of them have never experienced living on a street where they know all the neighbours, people of different ages, cultures, and political affiliations, and sharing those everyday connections, like a garden party. They haven’t had that exposure to difference.
Instead, they’re often algorithmically pulled into echo chambers of people who think and act exactly like them, manipulated, shaped, moved around, and sold to, growing into future consumers. At the same time, they’re living in a world where masculinity is unclear. The way it used to be isn’t how it will be in the future, but there’s no clear definition of what it is now. Many young boys are searching for answers during that crucial adolescent period, trying to figure out who they are.
We wanted to understand what it’s like to be a boy between 12 and 15 in the UK today. So we spoke to over a thousand boys, asking their perspectives on education, the future, technology, masculinity, and femininity, just to understand how they see these things. Our upcoming report will bring their voices to life, sharing their views directly, in their own words.
Ultimately, they too will benefit from building the skills of allyship in a world of disinformation and moral outrage, where they’re often told they’re hard done by. And yes, economically, it will be difficult for many young men to achieve what their parents did, given the current economic cycle.
But I take a lot of hope from speaking to them. They’re insightful, and I think we often undervalue their perspectives. More than ever, it’s a challenging time for them, but if we can support them through it, they can help us understand the world they want to live in. That’s why we need to work together across generations, something we haven’t always been very good at.
Tony: That’s amazing, when does it go live?
Lee: It’s going live on the 30th of October. We’ve got a launch event at the House of Commons.
Tony: That’s awesome. Will it be available to the public?
Lee: Yes, there’ll be an accessible version available, which will be downloadable after the event.
Tony: How can businesses or potential employers get involved with Male Allies UK?
Lee: The best thing to do is connect with us on LinkedIn, where we share a lot of resources and perspectives. You can also visit our website, maleallies.co.uk, which has a range of resources.
Engage with us, because the most valuable thing we do is speak with people. We work across 13 different industries, so we see a wide range of perspectives, commonalities, and sector, specific challenges. Everything we do starts with a conversation.
We don’t gatekeep our lessons or knowledge, because we want companies to make this work relatable to them. The key is for us to connect and follow each other’s journeys. There might be a point where you’re looking to engage more men, or when allyship skills could benefit your culture, and at that point, we can partner and do something more formal.
Until then, it’s just good to be connected, to understand the work, and to know you’re not on the journey alone. This is meaningful work, and in these uncertain times, coming together is more important than ever.
Tony: Thank you so much, Lee. I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you and there are so many takeaways. Best of luck with everything and I look forward to reading the report when it’s live.
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Male Allies UK is on a mission to normalise active allyship and cultivate gender equity within organisations and communities.
If you are a part of an initiative, brand or company that proactively champions diversity and would like to be featured as part of the “True Diversity” series please get in touch with Tony.
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This blog previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
About ‘True Diversity’ by ADLIB:
Our series, True Diversity, is dedicated to featuring the people, organisations, and initiatives that truly understand why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EDI) matter.
We spotlight who they are, what they do, and why their work is important. Through their stories, we explore how they’re driving meaningful change and how businesses and potential employers can get involved in building a more inclusive future.
Bristol-based period care brand Grace & Green has launched a new TV campaign highlighting the lack of workplace period products in their spot, ‘Caught Short’.
Collaborating with JonesMillbank, Bristol-based B-Corp video production company, the ad was created after Grace & Green was named as Sky’s Local Heroes winner for the South West, securing funded media support through the Sky Zero Footprint Fund.
“This campaign is about making sure every employee can manage their periods at work without stress or stigma, and placing Grace & Green as the go-to period brand for businesses that care about their employees,” said Fran Lucraft, Founder and CEO of Grace & Green.
“Access to period products should be a right, not a privilege. We are so excited to see our brand on the small screen! Being a Bristol-based business, it’s incredible to see our work recognised locally and shared nationally.”
Abbie Howes, rostered director at JonesMillbank, added: “Getting caught short at work is a stress far too many women have endured, so it was really important to get that relatability across – whilst using light humour to highlight how ridiculous it is that it’s still not the norm for workplaces to supply period products.”
“Understandably if you’ve never been in the situation yourself it may never have crossed your mind, so we didn’t want this to feel judgmental or lecturing, but rather an issue that’s very easy to fix.”
The campaign is running across the Sky network throughout September alongside digital. For more information visit www.graceandgreen.co and www.jonesmillbank.com.
***
JonesMillbank are a full-service production company based at Nine Tree Studios, their 10,000sq ft film studio.
Producing branded content, TV ads and social content their clients include local, global and household brands such as Dyson, University of Bristol, DHL, Oxfam, Pukka and the NHS.
jonesmillbank.com
01173706372
[email protected]
As part of our True Diversity blog series, we sat down with Jane Ayaduray.
Jane has over 15 years’ success delivering people strategies that strengthen culture, leadership, and performance across complex global organisations, partnering with leaders to embed inclusive practices that foster sustainable business.
Here she shares powerful insights on what good D&I looks like in practice, the unique opportunity smaller companies have to embed it from the ground up, and the trends reshaping the landscape, from AI to intersectionality.
Let’s start with the need for Diversity and Inclusion, what’s your take – why is it so important?
It’s easy to connect with D&I through the lens of “the right thing to do”—after all, it’s often stories of injustice or exclusion that bring the topic into focus. But from a business perspective, D&I is a strategic essential in today’s competitive and fast-moving environment.
We know there’s a strong link between diversity and innovation. Research from HBR, BCG and McKinsey shows that more diverse leadership teams outperform on metrics like revenue growth, profitability, and new market expansion. The Royal Academy of Engineering even found that diverse teams generate more impactful intellectual property—measured through things like patent citations.
D&I also plays a powerful role in risk management. Time and again, examples across industries—vehicle design, product development, health and safety—demonstrate how more diverse and inclusive teams could have saved time, money, and in some tragic cases, even lives.
As we look to the future and think about how we want our organisations to grow and the kind of impact we want to have, we all want access to the best people. And talent is everywhere — it’s opportunity that’s unevenly distributed. By removing barriers both to and within the workplace, we increase the likelihood that our teams reflect the very best of what’s out there — not just the candidates who sound like us or went to the same university.
But diversity alone isn’t enough. If we want those perspectives to be heard, we have to build inclusive environments where people feel valued and safe to speak up. D&I done well isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s a business-critical capability.
What Does Good D&I Look Like?
One of the things I love most about working in the D&I space is how strong the practitioner community is. I think that’s partly because effective D&I work is so contextual—there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
When working well, D&I efforts:
Ultimately, great D&I work is aligned with how an organisation grows and leads—with creativity, integrity, and sustainability.
We typically see D&I leads and teams in large organisations. Should smaller companies also be thinking about D&I?
Absolutely. In fact, smaller organisations often have more agility to weave D&I into their DNA early on.
There are more than 30,000 UK companies with 50–500 employees, many of them scaling quickly, navigating cultural shifts, and trying to attract and retain great people. And regardless of size, every organisation benefits from innovation, risk reduction, and stronger performance — all of which D&I supports.
Embedding inclusive practices early on doesn’t just help now — it future-proofs the business. It attracts people who want to co-create inclusive, purpose-led workplaces and helps prepare companies for shifts in legislation and societal expectations. Take the new UK requirement for menopause action plans (for companies with 250+ employees, from 2027) — even if you’re not legally required to act, it’s a signal of what a supportive workplace will soon be expected to look like.
I’ve recently started taking on advisory board work again with the specific goal of supporting small and scaling companies in building their D&I capability. A good advisory board — especially one with expertise in leadership, culture, and inclusion — can offer a smaller organisation:
D&I seems like a hot topic at the moment. How is D&I evolving?
A contact of mine recently said the term D&I is “triggering more people than a seagull stealing chips,” and honestly, I’ve never felt more seen! The 2025 landscape is fast-moving, a bit chaotic, and occasionally polarising. There’s been deep uncertainty —especially in the US — about what companies can or should do in this space, both practically and philosophically.
That said, I’m seeing more thoughtful conversations around the risks of pulling back. A report released in June explored exactly this and offered a timely reminder: stepping away from D&I has real consequences — on trust, talent, and long-term success.
Looking ahead, some of the key trends shaping D&I include:
This article originally appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
If you are a part of an initiative, brand or company that proactively champions diversity and would like to be featured as part of the “True Diversity” series please get in touch with Tony.
View True Diversity blog collection
Introducing Eden Sinclair, UX Designer & Research Lead at the RSPCA! Eden ensures intuitive digital experiences for animal lovers, crafting impactful solutions that inspire action and promote animal welfare. Eden’s dedication shines through, leveraging the support of over 200 volunteers to conduct user research. ‘Designing for good’ has exposed Eden to the immense passion and drive in the charity sector, enriching design with inclusivity for all users.
The purpose of our ‘Design For Good’ content series is to shine a light on how creative innovation can be a driver for positive change. We feature those that are making it happen, those with grand potential. Businesses and individuals that are shaking up their sector and finding ways to do things better, for social or environmental good.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us what your role is at your organisation?
My name is Eden, and I’m a UX Designer and UX Research Lead at the RSPCA. In my work life, I’m responsible for ensuring that all of our digital platforms, including websites and mobile applications, are intuitive, user-friendly, and meet all of the needs of our very diverse audience base! I work hard to create digital experiences that inspire action and promote animal welfare.
My work involves understanding user behaviours and needs through research and analysis, using wireframing and prototyping to create impactful solutions that encourage really meaningful and lasting engagement with our charity. I also spend a lot of time collaborating with teams across the RSPCA as a whole to ensure our digital platforms are not only user-friendly but also promote empathy, education, and action for creating a better world for animals.
Can you tell us a bit more about the work your organisation does, and how the UX teams support this?
The RSPCA is the world’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity, and we focus on rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming or releasing animals across England and Wales. We’re also campaigning around animal welfare laws, effecting change for animals in laboratories, improving farm animal welfare, educating young people and adults, and providing scientifically backed advice and information to support this.
The UX team, comprising three designers (including myself) and a UX manager, focuses on improving our digital offerings: the main RSPCA website, the RSPCA Education site, the politics site, and new and exciting projects. As a unit, we work closely with the public to ensure that our designs are user-centric and that our UX is tailored to not only encourage people to donate to support us, but also improve animal welfare themselves.
Can you share some challenges or barriers you had to overcome whilst working in a charity and ‘designing for good’?
I’d say that resource is the biggest challenge that I’ve faced. My last company was in the Technology sector, and so resource was never an issue due to very large budgets. However, working at the RSPCA, it’s imperative that we keep costs as low as possible to maximise the number of animals we can help. This is especially evident when attempting to complete user research, as usually a company would pay for research participants, but we have to rely on the generosity of the public.
Thankfully, the public are incredibly generous, and we have over 200 wonderful volunteers who help us test our designs every week. We couldn’t do it without them, and it’s heartwarming to see the commitment to animal welfare.
What has been the key thing you’ve learned about ‘designing for good’ and your target audience specifically?
I think the key thing that I’ve taken away from designing for good has been the incredible passion and drive in the charity sector, not only from the target audience, but also my colleagues at the RSPCA. It’s a fantastic and rewarding place to work.
My target audience is incredibly diverse, but they all share a common love and concern for animals. Whether they are long-time supporters of the RSPCA, or children being introduced to animal welfare for the first time, the passion for animals and kindness is clear.
One of the most rewarding things about working in the charity sector is getting to experience this first-hand. I get to work rather closely with our audience, through research, testing and interviews, and it is incredible to see how deeply people care, and how our supporters are making such a positive impact.
What’s more, the diversity in our target audience really enriches the work that we do for the RSPCA and challenges us to make our designs accessible and inclusive for all. Irrespective of physical or cognitive abilities, embracing the diverse nature of our users allows us to create a more meaningful experience for everyone.
I think the passion and commitment of our audience really drives us to continuously innovate, iterate and improve our designs. It’s amazing to work alongside and for people that are making such a tangible difference to the lives of animals.
This article originally appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
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