In 2019, Bristol became the UK’s first local council to declare a climate emergency. And six months later the elected Mayor, Marvin Rees, set a goal for the city to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Last year at Bristol’s bi-annual City Gathering, the One City Environment and Economy boards launched the Bristol One City Climate Ask – urging every business and organisation in Bristol to declare their support for their net zero initiative.
It’s exactly this kind of moving and shaking that makes Proctors proud to call Bristol home. So we’ve not only pledged our support to the city’s goal, we’ve also set our own – with an aim to reach net zero by 2030.
The rise in interest around climate change has also meant working with our clients on their own sustainability journeys. From creating explainer videos to running campaigns for more sustainable products and services, we are collectively learning and improving together.
We created an animated explainer video for Burges Salmon, showing how their multi-sector legal expertise enables clients to take a holistic view of their Net Zero roadmap and make the most of the opportunities it presents.
Achieve your Net Zero goals by seeing the full picture video here.
Proctors offices
view image in blog here.
When we moved our office from St Paul’s to Easton, Bristol, our Founder and Chairman, Roger Proctor, made the conscious decision to reduce the building’s environmental impact and make it as sustainable as possible going forward.
To do this, we sought out environmentally responsible materials. The ceilings, walls and floors in the main office area are ‘super’ insulated using CelotexPIR boards, manufactured with low Global Warming Potential (GWP) and zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). And the outside of the building has CristalACTiV coating which reduces atmospheric pollution in the surrounding areas. As far as we know we are the only building in the UK to have this coating.
We were also conscious of the waste we produced. Generally, all leftover building material was recycled, including the original building fittings such as steel, old radiators, wood etc.
We wanted to go beyond bringing an old, unused building up to modern standards. We wanted it to be sustainable, self-sufficient and practically future proof. So, we installed a 3KW PV solar panel system (90 panels) on the roof to power the building, charge our company fleet of electric and hybrid vehicles (company car policy since 2010) and export any excess to the grid.
We understand that on occasion, our building may need more energy than the solar panels can provide (we are in the UK after all!). To offset this, we are on a green tariff with Good Energy for both electricity and gas. Ensuring we use renewable energy is always our top priority.
Since installation, our 90 solar panels have reduced our CO2 footprint by 72,960kg. That’s the equivalent of 30,400 litres of petrol. And from July 2021 to March 2022, our solar panels have produced an average of 2,213.5 kWh of energy a month, saving 75 tons of carbon.
All our lighting is ‘ambient lighting’ which self-adjusts to light coming into the building and switches off when there is no activity in the room – reducing our energy use. And our HVAC is all monitored through a programmable thermostat.
We have installed a living wall in our building that circulates fresh oxygen, removes air pollutants, increases productivity and creativity and boosts wellbeing.
view image in blog here.
Getting to the office
We installed a bike lock up and have a cycle to work scheme to reduce car congestion both at the office and on the roads. We recently signed up to CyclingWorks Bristol, a group of organisations supporting better cycling infrastructure across Bristol to allow their staff to travel safely to work by bike.
view image in blog here.
For those that do drive, we have 8 electric car ports which are powered by our solar panels. And we encourage use of public transport where possible with our commuter travel club scheme by first bus.
Company culture around sustainability
Lots of our sustainability success comes from our Proctorians’ passion to get involved. We saw this on this past Earth Day when one of our CSR officers, Aimee Ferris, ran a seed planting lunch and learn. We learned all about how we can use edible flowers, some of their medicinal properties, as well as how to garden sustainably using peat free composts and avoiding chemical pesticides.
We have numerous reminders around the office that celebrate our company culture and promote a sustainable mindset. From our living wall which helps purify the air, to our solar energy panel in the entrance. We even got in a local artist to create a mural wall highlighting everything we do for our team and the local community.
Our aim
Alongside many other businesses in Bristol, we’re currently working towards our B Corp certification. And to help us reach net zero by 2030, we are using the advice provided by Bristol City Council.
A word from Cllr Craig Cheney, Deputy Mayor with responsibility for City Economy, Finance and Performance:
“The city’s ambitions to reduce emissions are accelerating with the finalisation of the City Leap consortium– and up to £1 billion in new investment, the shortlisting of Bristol and Oxford as the potential pilot for the UK’s first zero emission transport city and the announcement that Bristol along with Glasgow have been selected to join the EU Horizon 100 Net Zero by 2030 cities mission.
However, to shift the city’s economy we need every business in the city to act. I welcome the steps that Proctor + Stevenson have taken to reduce their emissions. This is this is the kind of leadership the city needs to reach its 2030 climate ambition. I hope that other businesses are inspired by this example, and that they too will share their stories of how they are reducing emissions, and join the Bristol One City Climate Ask.”
What do we mean when we say the word sustainability?
This may seem like a trivial way to begin this guide but this is an absolutely vital start if we’re going to address the first hurdle one must climb when talking about sustainability.
When you think about what sustainability is, like, the picture or definition that pops into your head; I can almost guarantee that what you thought is different from what I and practically everyone else (yes, I’m talking to all four of Future Shift’s loyal blog readers) thinks sustainability is.
Unlike, say, a pencil, which in this part of the world will almost certainly conjure up this image (left), sustainability in our collective mind looks more like this (right). On the right is what is called a floating signifier in linguistics. A signifier because it points to a specific image or idea and floating because the image or idea is unspecific amongst a population. The word sustainability floats around without a common definition which makes it almost impossible to talk about.
And I will start with my hypothesis here: that because the definition of sustainability is not agreed upon (and in some cases not fully understood by those advising sustainability), greenwashing is endemic in the world of business and sustainability consulting. This is because of a structural problem and not any malintent on the end of sustainability consultants, but all the same something that should be talked about and addressed through education and sound communication.
This is where my definition of sustainability comes into play. Just like an anthropologist must be aware of their positionality (their social or political stance relative to what they’re studying), you must be aware of my stance: which is chiefly biological. That is, that sustainability is a status of a business or person that would make this person or business exist within nutrient, water and carbon cycles indefinitely all the while not relying on existing structures of inequality to do so.
Now that the definition and hypothesis is out of the way we can get to our greenwash guide. I’ll run through three things to look out for to spot greenwashing in sustainability reporting.
This one’s especially important for large or impact-driven companies (companies that have impact at the heart of their business model or value proposition) that have sizeable budgets set aside for sustainability reporting.
If a company is working within a given framework (like the Science Based Targets Initiative for carbon reporting for example) or have brought in an independent reporting body to do the heavy lifting with respect to the numbers (like a university or research institute), they are already taking a big first step towards cutting out bias and greenwash from their sustainability report. Riverford Organic Farmers partnered with the University of Exeter and independent researchers Savanta to sort out their carbon foot-printing and plastic packaging reporting respectively and a produced a stellar, evidence-driven sustainability report as a result.
On the flip side, if a company is doing everything in-house, using their own reporting methodology, you’ll have to do some digging before their reporting approach can be considered greenwash free.
Accountability is important in reporting and there are tricky ways that companies get around accountability for things like sustainability commitments. One law to live by is that numbers always speak louder than words.
Numbers always speak louder than words
If words are chosen instead of numbers to define a commitment or action taken towards sustainability, then you need to look out for weasel words. These are words like ‘supporting’ ‘encouraging’ and ‘promoting’ which sound all well and nice, but when it comes to sustainability reports, an action to ‘encourage staff to be more environmentally friendly’ carries with it no accountability. This is because the extent of encouragement is up to the company here. It could be just putting an A4 print out over the printer telling staff to print two sided; a valuable nudge, but as a serious sustainability commitment, this is nothing more than wordplay to ensure a company is not held accountable for doing not much at all.
A better way to approach this ‘encouraging of staff’ can be seen from Riverford Organic Farmers who give a free lunch to anyone who cycles to work. There is no ambiguity here and, though not a number, is something that Riverford can be held accountable for if they fail to deliver.
This one’s high up on my pet peeves list and perhaps for me the most telling sign of greenwash. Let’s take Net Zero commitments for example, something that every company seems to be churning out these days.
Something I see all too often are half-commitments that don’t have a clear cut way of how to get there. An example I came across recently is Bristol’s Net Zero 2030 commitment which is mapped in this 120-page report. Their commitment relies on so many forces that are out of their control making it very difficult to actually call this a true commitment; more greenwishing than malicious greenwash, but still reduces the integrity of commitments all the same. Some of the assumptions are that the UK energy mix will be pretty much zero carbon by 2030, all 20-25,000 new homes in Bristol will be built with no carbon emissions, and that citizens will replace gas boilers (which have a life expectancy of 15 years) with air source heat pumps within the next 8.5 years.
This last one, where Bristol residents have to replace fossil fuel boilers with an electricity-powered alternative is particularly tricky as it passes on a pivotal part of Bristol’s commitment to the consumer. If we don’t see significant policy-led incentives for consumers (especially those who don’t have the disposable income to replace a working boiler) to make the shift, this commitment can be considered greenwash on a city level.
Good roadmaps, based on existing technologies are vital for sustainability plans that are free of greenwash. There are countries and companies that are net zero right now, so waiting for the system to change to suit your commitment leaves commitments and sustainability plans empty and false.
Look out for the three mentioned things in sustainability reporting to spot the green from the greenwash. At Future Shift, we are committed to evidence and science-based sustainable transition and reporting. We dig into the norms to create valuable resources that allow our clients to steer clear of greenwashing and implement true sustainability.
In the mid 90s there was a buzz in the air. A new technology was on the horizon and the business world was starting to get their head around the opportunities associated with it. The internet was just around the corner and it was going to change everything.
You can bet your bottom dollar that your average successful 50-something business(wo)man rode the dot-com wave – in some form or another – all the way into the doorway of their second home in Padstow.
As Peter Thiel (PayPal) recounts, “The dot-com bubble was a goldrush: there was money everywhere, and no shortage of it, and no shortage of people to chase it … Appending .com to your name could double your value overnight” (Zero to One). The titans of business today were forged in the dot-com furnace – fueled by limitless information.
The dot-com wave irreversibly changed everyone’s lives. For the better? That’s not what this blog is about. The important point here is that today, 20 years after the large-scale adoption of the internet, we spend a sizable portion of our days thinking about the internet. In the eight hours a day we spend at work, we spend at least two of those hours thinking about the internet.
An important clarification: what I mean by “thinking about the internet” isn’t the time we spend navigating the internet, but the time that we spend making decisions in which the internet is a player. “Thinking” in this should could be more accurately thought of as consideration.
In the mid 90s, the internet was a fringe concept: open to debate and not universally accepted as a norm. At this point, the innovators and early adopters were turning the wheel and setting sail towards new ways of conducting their business which included the internet. The laggards and late majority, had their fingers in their ears and took the “I don’t think the internet’s going to change our business too much” stance (Context if you don’t understand these groups).
In the end, it was those who had full faith in this new way of thinking (pre-2000 in the graph above), changing their internal decision making to adopt an unproven and futuristic way of thinking who shaped the world we live in today. Those who were resistant, were forced to join the future at some point – and most likely don’t have that second home in Padstow today.
It will be no surprise — especially given the nature of our work at Future Shift — that I will pull this internet analogy into the world of 2022: a world just starting to adopt sustainable thinking into business. If you add 20 years to each of the values in the X axis in the graph above, you are seeing a picture of what the future trends will look like for sustainability being adopted as a core element of a business day-to-day.
For businesses and the people that work in them, thinking about sustainability today is just like what thinking about the internet was like 20 years ago. One had to think about a complicated, risky, futuristic system that we’re all moving towards, and no one had any idea of the social consequences. I can completely understand why people are opposed to making complicated, systemic changes — there’s definitely a lot less brain-ache involved with keeping your fingers in your ears (but I guess that’s why only 2.5% of the population are innovators). It is the job of this 2.5%, who quite like the risk and brain-ache to make thinking about sustainability accessible to everyone – just like Microsoft, Google and Apple did in the 00s. This is the business challenge of our working lives (unless you are in your second home in Padstow) and one that Future Shift is embarking on now.
The Microsoft’s, Google’s, Fa***ook’s and Apple’s of the world succeeded because they took the unbearably complicated concept that was the internet and made it so simple your nan could use it. This is the nature of the sustainable business arms race of the next 20 years. The internet’s market size is about $2 trillion. If you’ve heard Mark Carney speak on sustainability in the financial space, you’ll know that $2 trillion are baby numbers compared with what must be circulated to combat the climate crisis.
So, how is sustainability going to change your life? If you are a director or working in the innovation space, then everything you’ve already read is for you and how sustainability will penetrate your every business thought over the next 20 years.
For everyone else, think about your day-to-day job — and I want you to be honest here — and answer the question: “do I think about sustainability in my every-day decisions?” (sustainability here means how this decision will compromise the ability of people to live forever). If the graph above is anything to go by, only 3/10 of you can answer yes to this, and that’s pretty accurate in my experience of working with developing sustainable thinking in businesses.
Here are just some examples of how sustainability will be involved in your day-to-day, for some of the most common roles in a business:
Procurement – “keeping our supply chain in line with carbon limits/taxes is the bane of my life!”
Operations – “what is the climate-related disaster risk for our factories in Bangladesh? This is the second factory closed down due to flooding this week!”
Recruitment – “no innovative or progressive graduates are looking to work for my business”
Sales – “no-one wants to buy our individually plastic-wrapped dishwasher tablets any more”
R&D – any future facing role will have to be resilient to climate risks. This is perhaps the only role within a business, where thinking about our longevity as a species is close to enough, but people in R&D are kind of cheating because it’s their job to think about the future.
HR – “Climate migrants have created new challenges for language and ethnic diversity in our workplace”
In reality, a lot of these problems are on people’s minds right now and will become every-day consideration in the all too near future. When we get to a sizable chunk of the world thinking about these ideas before they are risks, that is when we transition into a sustainable society and start to address the fundamental sustainable issues we face today.
“Invest in emotional intelligence and emotional resilience because for the first time in history people will have to reinvent themselves multiple times throughout their life”
Yuval Noah Harari on what children should be taught today.
Our mission in the world is to redesign sustainability for business. Our mission for our clients is to change everyone’s job description to include sustainability principles, thus nudging people to start thinking about sustainability and pulling sustainability into the equation when making day-to-day company decisions, however seemingly futile.
If we change enough people’s job descriptions, we begin to redesign what sustainability means to business – not some limitation or harsh boundary in which a business can operate, but an ideological shift within a business’ inner workings that can be induced by nothing more than the ability to see the world a little clearer.
First up ADLIB. Our very own Steve Kay has been promoted to MD of ADLIB 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
12 months ago, we set out to achieve a lot in preparation for this move. The result of which has seen us deliver our best ever financial year, the development of the ADLIB x enable group proposition, organically growing a group headcount of 55 talented and lovely people, all which comes without any need to scale and sell and best of all we’ve built an infinite business model that opens career opportunities without ceilings and a stakeholder profit model for all to enjoy.
Steve’s been with ADLIB for 9 years and instrumental to our growth and success from the day he joined. Alongside Steve is an incredible management team that have stepped up to support him in realising our future ambitions.
Next up is enable. It’s taken time to pull together the perfect leadership team that balances energy, opportunity and structure, but we now have it, and it’s been well worth the wait.
Tim Macmillan, enable’s Founder, brings his unstoppable energy and the ability to create opportunity, Oliver Howson has been promoted to be our new MD. Ollie flips seamlessly between the vision and driving the team’s success, whilst Shannon Matthews rejoins the business to bring the structure that underpins everything. enable is bursting with energy and opportunity, the team is growing fast, B Corp is underway, we’re excited for how the next 12 months will unfold.
As for Nick, he’s here to help our new MDs and leaders, to be the best the business has ever had (his words).
Viva ADLIB & enable.
At a Bristol Creative Industries virtual event recently, following an excellent Andy Hawkins presentation, Nick Dean and I shared our positive experiences of the B Corp process & why we think any organisation should give it serious consideration.
I’ve been asked a few more questions about the “business case” for B Corp following the event, so thought I’d cobble my thoughts together…
Please note: Since publication this crowdfund has closed. £988,776 was raised in 28 days with Yuup reaching 131% of its desired fundraising target.
Yuup, the Bristol-based online local experiences marketplace, has been offering the city’s creative community a platform to generate income through hosting experiences since it was founded in September 2020.
In just a year company has grown from supporting just under 40 experience hosts to now being a community with over 270 people and small businesses and 500+ experiences to enjoy throughout Bristol city.
On Yuup’s platform you will find anything from unicycle lessons to rum tasting, wild winter swimming to hot air balloon rides, and pottery making to fresh pasta making masterclasses. Each one of these unique experiences is hosted by a local person that can’t wait to share their skills and passion with new people.
The platform has seen side-hustlers and hobbyists turn their favourite thing to do into a business and their main source of income. In the past year, Yuup has generated over £450k of income for local people and small independent creative businesses in the Bristol and Bath region.
Maria Fernandez, from Healing Weeds, hosts foraging workshops in Bristol. Her experiences teach guests how to identify seasonal wild produce and how to make balms, medicines, cordials, and elixirs from the foraged harvest. Using Yuup, Maria was able to change her career in order to properly pursue the thing she loves. She said:
“Yuup helped me turn my hobby into a business and Healing Weeds is now my main source of income.”
Since launching in the middle of a pandemic, Yuup has been used by Bristol creatives to help their income streams and businesses bounce back from lockdown and the effects of the pandemic.
The drop in economic activity within the UK in response to the pandemic impacted SMEs and the self-employed significantly in comparison to their larger business counterparts.
Local businesses were forced to adapt in order to survive. For indie businesses that could facilitate experiences, Yuup provided a platform that allowed alternative revenue streams to the local businesses that were struggling to achieve their pre-pandemic footfall.
Alice from Trylla shop on North Street joined Yuup early on in order to use the platform as a kickstart to her business’ post-pandemic recovery. Her pottery making experiences have been so popular that Alice has since hired new staff to help support the demand for her pottery classes on Yuup.
Yuup’s positive social impact extends to platform support, marketing, and a ticketing system for charity events and fundraisers. Yuup’s recent collaboration with Belly Laughs comedy festival 2022 raised over 22k for charity and generated over 10k of revenue for local restaurants and bars. The company have also recently supported grassroots charities such as MAZI Project and KASK’s Ukraine Fundraiser.
At the start of February 2022, Yuup announced that the business will be opening up investment to the public to allow for the company’s scaling up operations this year. There are a number of ways that you can join the Yuup community. As an investor, as a Yuup host, by introducing a Yuup host, or as a customer.
How to join the Yuup community as an investor: Yuup’s crowdfund is open until March 31st, and the funds raised will go towards reaching hundreds more potential experience hosts in Bristol and Bath, generating income and jobs for locals and the communities that need it most.
Yuup will also be launching in its second city this summer, connecting creatives, makers and dreamers from another UK city to the Yuup community.
You can join the crowdfund from as little as £20. You will own a part of Yuup and participate in the financial rewards of share ownership. Your investment will support local independent businesses whilst helping even more people to discover incredible things to do in their local area. Visit the Yuup crowdfund webpage to watch the investment film and find out more here: https://invest.yuup.co/
How to join Yuup as an experience host: If you are a creative or passionate local person, you could turn that love of something into an experience for others to enjoy. Yuup helps people create, promote, and host experiences.
It’s free to join the platform, and you get simple tools, a host portal, and marketing support and investment. A small commission is taken from each sold experience, so Yuup only makes money when you make money.
The scope for experiences is almost boundless. From food and drink tours to cooking classes, craft workshops to cinema nights, outdoor adventures to indoor wellbeing sessions. If you love it, why not share the experience? Get in touch with the Yuup team about your future experience here: https://www.yuup.co/pages/join
How to introduce an experience host: Do you know a wicked weaver? A crowd-pleasing cook? A passionate painter? A cool climber? Refer your friend to the Yuup team and help them turn their passion into a business. Refer an experience host here: https://www.yuup.co/host_referrals/new
How to join the Yuup community as a customer: Just browse yuup.co and pick something that you would love to do! Alternatively, you can also buy experiences as gifts, purchase gift cards, or use Yuup’s experiences in your employee rewards scheme.
The Green Claims Code has come into force, meaning companies making sustainability announcements should review their claims. Marketing and PR teams will need to take notice of what the Green Claims Code means for their communication work.
The code has been introduced to stem the tide of greenwashing, the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information, presenting a company’s products as more environmentally sound than they truly are.
Companies that are found to be greenwashing may end up in the firing line of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). They are breaking consumer protection law.
It’s therefore imperative that sustainability information distributed by your company is accurate and true.
Development of the Green Claims Code
The Code comes after the CMA’s discovery that around 40% of businesses’ claims around their environmental work were misleading for consumers. More and more companies are adding green or positive environmental claims to their products and services.
Claims include suggesting a reduction in packaging pollution or that your item was produced more sustainably than your competitors’ product. Consumers have seen these announcements in all areas, from cleaning products to tech services to beauty supplies.
The CMA has found that these statements are often unsubstantiated or inflated.
This video from the CMA has more information about the Green Claims Code.
The Green Claims code guidance
The CMA’s is focusing on fashion and fast-moving consumer goods to start. Don’t think that other businesses can wait. The Green Claims Code guidance applies to every company. Non-consumer facing and services businesses also need to check their claims that relate to sustainability. Every business should review their green claims and ensure that they are meeting their obligations.
What does the Green Claims Code mean for my business’ PR campaigns?
CMA’s criteria states that all environmental claims must be truthful and accurate; unambiguous; substantiated and consider the full life cycle of the product or service.
If businesses are comparing themselves to similar companies, then any comparisons of services and products must be fair.
Your business cannot fall foul of the CMA’s requirements. Here are some steps that could be helpful as companies seek to change their operating models and principles to become more sustainable.
Look inwards and understand just how sustainable your business really is. Review the claims made by your company relating to the environment, sustainability, carbon emissions or socially responsible actions.
This should be thorough and cover every part of the company, from packaging, marketing materials, website copy and encompass visual representations as well as text. If you use a recycling icon to illustrate a product when the entire product is not recyclable, the icon could be an infringement as it creates a misleading effect for the consumer.
B2B companies should be wary of using words such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘eco-friendly’. The Code states that terms such as these may suggest that a product or service has a positive environmental impact or “at least no adverse impact”. To meet the Green Claims Code, words and claims such as these must be true and can be proved. Otherwise, the company might not meet legal obligations.
Once you understand how sustainable your business is, ensure the information shared with your audiences uses the right language. As mentioned above, all claims must be substantiated. Add a single click-through link to provide clarifications for the claims.
Review all links in your business’s communications that relate to sustainable and environmental work, products or services. Proof points are needed to substantiate all the claims made and so this may require new designs, marketing materials and potential retractions.
Ensuring compliance with the Green Claims Code is not a one-off process. Across any sector, the number and nature of references to sustainability will change over time. Invest in training for all employees and check they understand the requirements regularly. It is not enough for senior leadership to understand the importance. Marketing, communications, compliance, product development teams should understand it too.
Preparing for the CMA’s Green Claims Code may appear daunting. However, consider this as part of your wider ESG and Sustainability strategy, as well as part of legal compliance. Accreditation via cross-sector schemes such as BCorp and membership of industry-specific organisations can help you to ask the right questions about your green claims.
The introduction of the Green Claims Code is also an opportunity to refresh your ESG & sustainability messaging, so also consider outside ESG communications support to ensure your PR strategies are fit for purpose.
Find all resources and relevant information about the Green Claims Code here.
Mental health issues do not discriminate. They can affect anyone at any time, and reflecting on the last two years, it comes as no surprise it is being experienced by more and more people.
In the UK alone, 1 in 4 will be affected by a mental health problem of some kind each year. Leaving more and more people searching for support from charities, the NHS and healthcare providers.
For the second year in a row, we have decided to raise awareness and help fundraise for a chosen charity by donating our Christmas Card video.
We did lots of research into which charity we wanted to raise money for, and the decision wasn’t easy. There are so many organisations fighting for important causes, and that’s just in Bristol and South Gloucestershire alone.
The chosen one
We finally came to an agreement on OTR, a mental health movement for young people in the region.
Their mission?
To defend, promote and support the mental health of people between the ages of 11-25. This incredible organisation focuses on breaking the stigma around mental health and their aim is to get people talking about it.
Their approach?
OTR runs a number of workshops, 1:1 therapy sessions, support projects and much more.
They run Resilience Lab workshops, helping young people develop the tools to manage stress.
And host Acts of Activism sessions, where young people can go to socialise, express their frustrations about inequality and come together to encourage small and big acts of activism.
They also hold a 6-8 week Nature Works project, which teaches young people the importance of nature for their mental health, and how connecting with it can be a very beneficial tool for stress-relief.
And their work doesn’t stop there.
OTR works tirelessly to make mental health an aspect of life that people can talk about without any feelings of shame. They believe in the power of partnerships and collaboration and that the world around us, also impacts our wellbeing.
Ultimately, they provide a help and support network so that young people can develop tools to cope with day-to-day life and the challenges that may come their way.
The OTR fundraising video
We worked closely with OTR to develop a video that represents their personality, demonstrates their mission, and spurs people to get talking (and donating).
And once you’ve watched the video, we hope you can help. With your donation, you can help a young person gather the tools they need to shape their own futures. You can help change the game.
A wellbeing pack is just £5. But the self-esteem it brings is priceless. Please donate what you can here.
What’s the purpose?
It can be hard to find meaning in what you do.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a digital strategist, a dog walker, a traffic warden, or a chef. If you don’t feel connected to your work – if you don’t feel a sense of purpose – it can be hard to stay engaged or committed.
Purpose is a big deal right now. The advertising and marketing industries have been accused of reckless greenwashing, in a bid for products and services to appear more appealing. They’ve been accused of promoting overconsumption and wastefulness. It’s even been said that we’re driving the climate crisis.
And at Proctors, we’re not blind to those concerns. (It’s why we’re so selective with our own campaigns, clients and partners.)
But we’re also firm believers in the merit of our own, ‘personal’ purpose. A purpose which is as simple as helping others, by using our time, talent and resources wherever possible to create a better world.
So we do this by giving back to our communities: whether local, global or simply like-minded. From sponsoring the local Easton women’s football team, to running the annual South West Design + Digital Student Awards, to ensuring our office is eco-friendly and self-sustainable, and by fundraising for chosen local charities.
Because for us, our Corporate Social Responsibility is just another part of our work. And we treat it with the seriousness and dedication it deserves.
Raising money for cancer research, Business Beats Cancer West of England
Our Founder and Chairman, Roger Proctor MBE, is passionate about ensuring Proctor + Stevenson do our part.
As a board member for Business Beats Cancer West of England (BBCWoE) – Cancer Research UK’s Business-facing arm in the region – Roger offers both our services and the personal commitment of Proctors employees to their cause.
Throughout our partnership with BBCWoE, we’ve created awareness campaigns complete with copy, design and marketing support, and assisted with event promotions year-round. And, of course, we got stuck in to raise some of those all-important funds ourselves.
Firstly, we took part in ‘The Big Hike,’ where a group of brave Proctorians hiked 26.5 miles through the Brecon Beacons on a beautiful, brisk Saturday, raising an impressive £1,832 for cancer research.
As if that wasn’t enough, even more Proctorians then took on ‘The Big Ride Cycle Challenge’ – a 79.2-mile loop starting from our offices in Easton and continuing through Cheddar Gorge, Wells, and the surrounding areas. With thighs of steel, our amazing team raised another £815 – a storming success.
If you’re a friend of Proctors, you’ll know every Christmas we create a ‘Christmas Card video’, treating our clients, friends, and family to a behind-the-scenes look at our team which will lift spirits and spread a little hilarity, too.
But when the COVID-19 saw us all locked down last year, the team agreed we should do something different.
We took a step away from the dressing up and hijinks, and instead approached a local charity to offer some help instead.
Caring in Bristol are a local charity working towards an incredible goal: to end homelessness in Bristol, for good. But during the pandemic homelessness tripled in Bristol, reflecting a nationwide trend. And it left the team with an even bigger task ahead.
So, our incredibly talented team of animators, copywriters and our marketing team got to work to produce a video which would get Bristolians digging deep for the cause.
The result? More than £20,000 of donations in just under two weeks, absolutely crashing through the Caring in Bristol team’s targets – and deservedly so.
It goes without saying, but the entire Proctors team was so proud of what we achieved for such a brilliant cause. So much so, you may want to watch this space…
If you’re an aspiring Philanthropist, looking for a cause to get stuck into, or are a charitable cause looking for support, Quartet Community Foundation are your answer.
They bring people together who want to work on community projects in the west of England, supporting hundreds of thousands of people through local frontline charities and voluntary groups.
We’ve been working with the team at Quartet for years, and have developed real, personal friendships with them. So when we heard they had begun a Coronavirus 2020 relief fund, we wanted to help in any way we could – which, as it turns out, meant hosting a virtual ‘Quarantine Quiz’!
We used the quiz to raise money for the foundation – and along the way, we experienced a real boost to our own morale too.
Babbasa are a Bristol-based organisation who work with young people, businesses, and the local community to address inequality in all its forms, and produce a fairer city. They offer advice on recruitment policies, and work with organisations to explain how they can diversify their workforce, as well as providing potential candidates.
So we partnered with them to get their advice on our own recruitment policy, to ensure we’re doing everything we can to create an inclusive culture – and actively work towards creating a fairer city.
Purpose is what you make it
Whoever you are, and wherever you work, it’s important to feel you’re doing the things that align with your values.
And at Proctors, we do that by ‘doing good’ and giving back wherever we can.
As you’ll see, it’s not all about big, transformative gestures. But about the things we can all do as a team to make the world just a little bit brighter.
So we’ll carry on doing what we can by working closely alongside charities and organisations to help those in need – both locally and further afield. We’ll continue to ensure we’re cultivating a sustainable office environment, and remain a place where employees feel valued and appreciated for their hard work.
To see more of what Proctor + Stevenson are involved in, have a look at our CSR page on our website. Or if you’d like to do some good of your own, contact us at [email protected].
Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of brands demonstrating their social stance. And today, these brands are choosing to buy their media from a diverse range of creators and ethical sources.
However, businesses are under pressure to show they are a brand of integrity and fear their advertisements might feature next to other content that could be detrimental to their reputation.
Brand integrity is of the utmost importance. 54% of consumers said they would think negatively of a brand that runs ads alongside content designed by others whose morals don’t align with theirs.
You can see why brand safety is such a hot topic in marketing, and this is especially apparent in the programmatic world.
If you’re unsure of what brand safety includes, it essentially encompasses all the measures advertisers implement to protect their brand from the potential backlash they could face by running ads next to harmful content.
Over-blocking content can actually be doing more harm than good. A vast majority of businesses still adopt a cut-throat approach when it comes to protecting their brand’s reputation.
However, this overprotective approach has led to a great proportion of content being excluded, even when it’s safe and suitable for your brand. We’ve seen this happen in many negative keyword lists and blocklists.
Industry-standard blocklists contain a vast array of terms related to race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. So, it’s clear to see that…
“Industry standard advertising practices [are] unfairly penalizing content creators within various groups, including the LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and API communities, as well as content relating to important aspects of the human experience, including social issues, mental health and wellness, and identity.”
[Taken from Channel Factory, Conscious Project, 2021]
In 2019, CHEQ’s ‘How Keyword Blacklists are Killing Reach and Monetization’ report looked at what type of content has been excluded from an industry-standard blacklist of 2000 keywords.
The report found that 57% of articles that were safe, were incorrectly flagged and blocked from serving ads. This was taking place because brands had been using overprotective negative keyword lists and blocklists.
These lists are incredibly harmful to creators and publishers, as they are unable to monetise their own content.
Other statistics the CHEQ study uncovered included:
Most companies do not update blocklists regularly, which is why a great deal of suitable content is deemed harmful.
Times are changing and have been changing quite drastically over the past few years. Our lists of negative keywords may have been necessary in 2017, but today they could be absolutely pointless.
Unfortunately, these outdated blocklists are harming marginalised communities across the globe, which is unfair, to say the least.
And this is a problem that needs urgent attention from our industry.
This overwhelming fear has led brands into the trap of unethical exclusion. What we mean by this is that brands and agencies are blocking all content related to marginalised groups and communities.
Therefore, content related to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, social issues, identity (to name a few) should be monetised.
Positioning yourself in the market as a diverse and inclusive business has never been more important. Today, 60% of consumers prefer to associate themselves with companies that actively show they are committed to creating an online experience that is inclusive for all.
Of course, it’s important to focus our attention on brand safety. But as an industry, we need to think of new ways to implement brand safety without excluding creators based on their sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity.
This new approach needs to be one that can monetise positive content, which will, in turn, benefit the wider society.
Your blocklists and negative keywords need to be tailored to your brand and checked frequently. Don’t just keep adding new words, remove the unnecessary ones.
It’s always worth checking over your brand safety processes. You can then remodel a new brand strategy that encourages inclusivity.
You should always search for and connect with brands and creators that share your values. Once you have added them to your whitelist, they can assist in the monetisation of positive and inclusive content.
Working with a third-party brand safety and brand suitability partner can help with your brand safety measures. These third-party partners usually opt for human input, which ensures content is categorised with diversity in mind.
As an industry, we need to get embrace the needed changes to brand safety measures to ensure we are not excluding words, phrases, or languages that could exclude minority groups.
All voices should be represented in your content, not just a select few. By monetising your content, you can create new and improved content, which highlights diverse and marginalised communities.
It’s time you move forward with your approaches to brand safety because when you do, you will be actively creating an online world that promotes positivity and inclusivity.
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