By Duncan Murray-Clarke, Group Managing Director
With the state of world politics today, it is clear that business has to lead the way. The B Corp certification process has challenged us to examine what we are and what we stand for. It has laid out a path for us to improve, and highlighted areas where we have already been succeeding.
There are no cutting corners in the process, which has taken time and resource; that’s why B Corp is respected, and we believe the leading world standard for purpose-led businesses.
Duncan Murray-Clarke
We firmly believe that future decisions need to be made with positive goals in mind, for the benefit of people and the planet; building sustainable consciences, communities and cultures that strive for a brighter future.
The Ad Plain is a specialist communications and content agency immersed in the world of agriculture, food production, and environmental sciences. We are counted among businesses that are leading a global movement towards inclusive, equitable and regenerative economies.
We need to look up and consider the entire eco-system, and see the world through a new lens; examine new alternative strategies, and encourage ourselves to ask the difficult questions. This is where B Corp comes in.
I am immensely proud that our journey to B Corp status showed we were already doing many things right. What B Corp gave us was a process that focused our direction and shaped our practices; so, we could build the bridges to achieve our environmental and social responsibility goals - both at home and in business.
This is our first Impact Report since becoming B Corp certified. We hope reading about our journey and achievements so far inspires you to reflect, and maybe consider joining the movement of like-minded people, doing their bit to help create a better world.
Our B Corp journey began in 2021, when we decided to formalise our enthusiasm to be part of something good. We wanted to reinforce our belief of what we wanted to be, both as individuals and as a business; and B Corp provided the opportunity to do this.
2022 was a transformative year as we got to grips with the realities of the B Corp dream, investing many hours and passion into the cause. The hard work and dedication of our team in the months that followed, meant we were well on the way to achieving our goals.
Finally in August 2023, we fulfilled our ambition, becoming B Corp certified.
At certification, in 2023, we proudly achieved an overall B Corp score of 81.7 - exceeding the average score of ordinary companies which stands at 50.9.
Achieving B Corp status is an important milestone and is to be celebrated; but it’s just the beginning of our journey.
We’re embarking on a road of learning and discovery, aiming to improve with every turn that we take.
We’re already working to improve our score for 2024 across the board, with particular emphasis on the areas of community, customers and the environment.
The Ad Plain is a team of talented, driven individuals who care about the bigger picture. We believe our greatest asset is our positive culture - driven by our people, who work with kindness and purpose.
Collectively, we create an environment that is a force for good, that encourages everyone in the team to help evolve the business in a way that fits with our sustainable objectives.
We are reducing our carbon footprint, and have removed 52 tonnes of carbon in this last year
Our office park has a zero waste to landfill goal, 30% of our electricity is solar powered
Over 50% of the team /management at TAP are women - strong in leadership and support
92% of the team have been supported in the last year to be charitable with their time
We choose to work with suppliers that are either B Corp certified or have similar goals
With B Corp we’re empowered on our mission, driven by our synergy in aspirations; joining a movement of businesses who advocate for better and fairer standards, and higher levels of social and environmental responsibility.
“Becoming more sustainable is a journey - we all have a part to play to make a difference.”
Emma Craigie, Director
To achieve B Corp status, we’ve learnt a lot about formalising standards and practices to showcase our actions.
We understand our Carbon Footprint and Scope 1,2,3 emissions.
We’re investing in nature. Through our relationship with Earthly, we’re helping to protect the environment with accredited projects that remove carbon, and produce multiple benefits for nature, wildlife and society.
We’ve developed a strategy to help staff learn more about our sustainability journey - building knowledge and keeping them informed.
We continue to work on new ways to communicate our progress, and this report will be a useful ally; helping us to achieve this goal.
Our team dedicate their time to volunteering and charity work, and we actively encourage this.
We educate ourselves on our supplier base; actively choosing B Corps, while encouraging and supporting our existing suppliers to progress their own sustainability journeys.
The principles that underpin the B Corp culture respond to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that were developed to bring “peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”
Look out for references to these goals, throughout this report, to see how our work as a B Corp aligns with these urgent calls for action.
"Globally, the number of certified B Corps has increased more than 30 percent year-over-year for the past two years, totalling 8,051 in 2023."
B Lab’s 2023 Annual Report
Having a positive impact on all our communities is at the heart of The Ad Plain; whether it’s supporting our immediate groups of friends, colleagues or local associates; or doing something good to help communities further afield.
We’re committed to giving back, and this is a passion shared across our business.
By offering members of our team paid time off to volunteer at community projects that appeal to them, we’re helping to support initiatives and charitable causes at home and abroad.
Our colleagues often spend their own time doing good in the world; supporting community projects and raising funds for charities – like the £250 we donated to Farms for City Children.
Poverty in developing countries is all too often a barrier to education. That’s why, when presented with the opportunity, we committed to supporting two children from Harare in Zimbabwe in 2021.
With our help, David and Admire are able to attend school and fulfil their potential, so that they can grow into informed and educated adults, who can help make a difference in their communities.
“Education contributes to many of the SDGs. It reduces poverty, drives sustainable economic growth, prevents inequality and injustice, leads to better health – particularly for women and children – and it helps to protect the planet.”
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Education Strategy 2019-2030
Our Local Purchasing and Customer Policy is designed to support businesses within 50 miles of our locations.
By ensuring that at least half of our purchasing is from these suppliers, we’re making a sustainable contribution to local economies, while meeting environmental aspirations too.
We buy our corporate wine gifts from our local vineyard on the banks of the River Thames.
Howbery, where our office is situated, supports its own bee colonies - supplying us with delicious local honey.
“Being part of the B Corp community means we’re not alone in the mission to create a positive social and environmental impact. At TAP we’re challenging ourselves to learn and to keep improving - working together to support the movement towards a better world.”
Mila Navarro, Account Manager, TAP Spain
Contribution to SDGs
Our customers are the centre of our business and we were proud to achieve a B Corp score of 4.1/5 (82%) in the customer category of our initial assessment. But we want to do even better.
We’ve engaged an external source to report on customer satisfaction and have developed more systems to monitor outcomes of the work we deliver.
Contribution to SDGs
Safeguarding our environment begins at home; and we’d already made strides to reduce our impact on the planet in the run up to our B Corp journey.
Aiming high in environmental responsibility, we’ve taken steps to improve our initial 13.9/20 (70%) B Corp score further.
On a practical level we reinstated our base head office after the pandemic at a beautiful, parkland location on a site that offers zero waste and 30% renewable energy.
On World Water Day the team made a series of pledges, which we shared on social media, to boost our sustainable water actions, while also spreading the word about responsible water use.
We’ve become a more responsible business by working with Earthly.
With their help we’ve initiated links with approved projects in the UK and worldwide, investing in nature and enhancing livelihoods, by removing carbon and restoring biodiversity.
Biome Algae is at the forefront of nature-based research and development for seaweed in the UK.
Science has shown that seaweed has the potential to remove carbon quickly and cleanly from the atmosphere. Biome works with universities and research institutes, testing options for carbon removal with seaweed.
The project is working to reduce carbon and methane emissions with industry, investigating how seaweed can be used to make bio-packaging and material, bio-alternatives to fuel, cattle feed and fertiliser.
By supporting Biome Algae, we are helping an innovative project that has the power to help avert the climate crisis, regenerate biodiversity and contribute to human wellbeing; contributing to numerous sustainable development goals.
Contribution to SDGs
By supporting this project in Maroalika vital mangrove forests are being restored, with a planting initiative that also supports local communities, helping to alleviate poverty.
Mangrove forests are a crucial tool in the global effort to sequester more carbon and protect communities from storm surges. They also provide delicate ecosystems that are the essential habitat for numerous species.
Since support for the Madagascar project started in 2007, over 300 million trees have been planted, creating over 3 million workdays for local people.
Contribution to SDGs
“I am excited about the diverse range of sustainable projects we support from woodland restoration to harnessing the potential of our oceans, and these are just one part of our ongoing commitment, as a B-Corp company, to a greener, more sustainable future.”
Emily McCaver, Account Executive
By supporting these projects, we’re contributing to many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Contribution to SDGs
The commitment to B Corp inevitably involves change on a practical level and we’ve taken steps to keep our responsibilities at the top of the agenda.
TAP Directors: Duncan Murray-Clarke, Emma Craigie, Liz Tomkinson
To ensure our governance seals our future as a force for good, we’ve amended our Articles of Association, initiated strategies to keep social and environmental matters on the itinerary at Board level, and updated our mission statement to reflect our focus.
Whilst growing responsibly, The Ad Plain aims to align the company’s ambitions with the needs of employees and stakeholders, while making environmental improvement.
Contribution to SDGs
We know that our pledge to B Corp principles is only as strong as the people we depend on to bring our aspirations to life.
To celebrate our B Corp certification, we created AI generated avatars for the team, as a bit of fun. These reflected our interests and beliefs as green explorers, communicating our B Corp messages in a creative way.
Transforming sustainable plans into meaningful action is a commitment shared by the whole team. Looking after our people is the foundation for the success we aspire to as a B Corp business.
Our working culture is open and supportive, designed to make our team feel happy, valued and cared for, so that they can work at their best for our clients and the greater good.
Fostering a culture that promotes team spirit is important, especially as the majority of our team work from home. Promoting collaboration both physically and virtually is key, with the team coming together online and also regularly in-person, to enable healthy and productive connections.
Communication is key to remaining responsive, allowing us to create relevant initiatives that support our team. We’ve provided help through the winter fuel crisis, free lunch and beverages for remote workers when they attend head office, and offer paid volunteer days to encourage our people to contribute to good causes that are important to them.
Addington Fund supports those in need by providing housing, and disaster relief in the form of animal feed or services to farmers across England and Wales. The Ad Plain’s Director, Emma Craigie, volunteers as a Trustee of Addington Fund. She also serves on the Marketing & Fundraising committee and helps with marketing advice.
The Ad Plain is also serving as the design partner for Addington Fund, having recently designed event banners and a new charity leaflet, free of charge.
“I feel honoured to be a trustee of Addington Fund – an incredible charity which makes a real difference to farmers and rural families in times of need, not to mention the invaluable support for first-generation farmers. It’s a phenomenal team too!”
Emma Craigie, Trustee
Contribution to SDGs
B Corp has provided a framework that formalises our social and environmental aspirations; but we know there’s more to be done. Our next step is to increase the dialogue about the things we are doing and the areas we are aiming to work on.
By setting and reporting our objectives more rigorously, at every level in the business, we hope to achieve more; while becoming more focused about sharing our targets, ongoing progress and marking our success.
We will continue to consider the wellbeing of everyone in the business in these unprecedented times, promoting a culture of transparency and trust to help identify where support may be needed. We aim to learn from our people, with a worker satisfaction survey.
By actively encouraging a healthy work life balance, we hope to reduce stress and increase happiness and productivity; offering flexibility for working from home, so our people can successfully combine work and family life.
We want to build on the success of our paid volunteering days by dedicating more time volunteering for good causes. We aim to seek out more opportunities for members of our teams, so they can further support community projects.
We will continue our financial support for David and Admire, so they are guaranteed an education and can aspire to wider opportunities in their future lives.
By focusing more on reducing supply chain miles, carbon outputs, and the ‘buy local’ message, we hope to inspire a culture of resource efficiency. We aim to inspire the whole team to also make savings when working from home. Increasing understanding of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions will help with this, as will setting, monitoring and communicating our targets for the coming year.
We’ll do more to promote our sustainable actions; increasing the presence of relevant stories on our social media channels and website; and making pledges in response to at least one relevant world day a year (e.g. World Water Day, Earth Day).
We recognise the importance of advocating with our customers, and plan to boost carbon literacy and increase communication about our sustainable actions and ethos with all our colleagues.
We want to learn more about what our clients think of us, so we’re considering adding a client satisfaction survey and enhanced end of project reporting to our standard business practice. We’ll seek tangible measurements of our shortcomings and successes, aiming to evaluate how well we deliver for our clients.
We are hugely grateful to our team for pulling together and helping us make an impact, as part of the B Corp movement.
We know this is a journey; and it’s a challenging and time-consuming one. We will win at some things and wane in others; but we will keep trying, adapting to change and learning along the way.
We hope our story so far inspires you to do your bit too. It’s a great feeling; making an impact and being proactive in helping to create a legacy for a better world.
Interested? Then why not connect with us, or contact us for a chat to find out more?
Until next time…
Send us an Email or call us on +44 (0)1491 837 117.
TAP
Howbery Park
Benson Lane
Wallingford
OX10 8BA
United Kingdom
