E001 - Interview with Green Element founder Will Richardson

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Welcome to the Green Element Podcast, where business and sustainability come together. So, hi! Welcome to the first interview for the Green Element podcast. And I— well, we both thought that it would be really great to interview Green Element as the first company on the podcast. So I'm back here with Will Richardson, who is the founder of Green Element.

Hey, Will!

Hey, Charlie, how you doing?

Yeah, all good here. So this is the first interview podcast, so it's really exciting. So Will, you are the founder of Green Elements. Can you tell me a little bit about your business and what's your purpose and what sort of clients do you work with?

What's our purpose? I think that's quite a broad question because we— there are 2 aspects to this. The purpose of helping environmental businesses become more environmental, more sustainable, and more ethical. So we'll look at your whole business model and and understand what environmental impacts you have within that business model, and we will try and help you alleviate and reduce those environmental impacts. We'll also have a look at the way that you treat your staff and look at the way that you work with your clients and your supply chain and help with relationships on that and really try to understand your whole business as as a whole. And then what's your purpose? Well, we can also talk about Green Element as a purpose as well. So I am trying to grow a— or I'd say we are trying to grow, actually, the whole team are behind me on this. We're trying to grow an ethical, sustainable business model that works, that is also very profitable, but helps all of the people, organizations, and stakeholders around us in a really positive way. So really good purpose-driven business.

Fantastic. So you mentioned B Corp on your website, so can you tell me a little bit about what— yeah, what's B Corp and why are you one?

So B Corp's a movement of ethical, sustainable, and purpose-driven businesses. We are all trying to do business with a force for good, which is their B Corp motto. We became a B Corp because a client of ours asked us to be a B Corp because we, you know, we're their environmental and sustainability consultants, and we— I'd never heard of B Corp at that point. This is back in 2015.

Yeah, 2014.

Yep, quite a long time ago, and we looked at it and thought, that actually fits exactly within our values. And of course I was like, oh yeah, let's do that, do that. And now having gone through the process— we've actually gone through the process twice, so every 2 years you have to recertify— I'm absolutely completely bought into it, and I think that all it does is highlight the values that we hold dearly, and it has also made us, I would say, a more ethical and moral business because there are questions in there that I was answering no that I'm desperate to answer yes to and really push our model to the extreme. And this will help our clients because we will understand an awful lot about how to run a business very, very ethically. And because there are some questions that you sometimes answer and you go, oh, probably shouldn't answer that. but actually we can absolutely do it properly.

Fantastic. And B Corp, is that a global movement or just a UK movement?

Nope, completely global. So you've got companies like Kickstarter, Patagonia, Ben& Jerry's in the UK, Jojoba Mama Bebe, Pukka Teas. Unilever brought out a report about a year and a half ago, so back in 2017. I keep on forgetting that you could be listening to this in 2020. So a year ago won't help you. Yeah, so 2017, Unilever brought out a report on how 50% of their businesses were growing faster than the other 50%, and what they all had in common was they were all ethical, moral, purpose-driven businesses. So Ben& Jerry's is a B Corp and a purpose-driven business, and they are a part of that Unilever clan. They've just bought Pukka Teas.

So this is—

Well, we're in May 2018, and that was in April, March 2018.

Fantastic. So let me sort of understand a little bit more about Green Element. So what is your— what would you say is your business superpower?

What's our business superpower? We are able to understand your business as quickly, very quickly, and we're able to help your business become much more environmental. We are environmental management consultants. We take pride in how bright our staff are and how quickly we can come to terms with helping you and your business and your business model.

Fantastic, awesome. So what, like, can you tell us a little bit about how you engage your staff, your suppliers, and your customers with with your sort of your mission and your business purpose?

So it's quite a broad question, but it's, um, it's a good one because we work with our clients. We will look at what it is that they want to, um, do, and I've just realized you're actually asking about what Green Element, how we do it. Assess every single supplier that we have and ensure that we use the supplier for the right reasons. I believe very strongly that you should work with local suppliers, but in some instances that isn't the best fit. For example, you, Charlie, help us with our marketing and you're based in Nottingham. In theory, along that same business model, I should be using only someone in Edinburgh, which is where I live, or should it be in London where the business is based? You know, it's in the UK. So therefore, I think the fact that you're asking the questions and the fact that we ask ourselves how and what we're doing and why we're doing it on a regular basis, and those answers change on a regular basis as well. Some years we may have chosen one way to do and work with someone, and then another year we may have actually changed that because of the way that our business has evolved and what it is that we are doing, and it may not necessarily fit to you. So we also own a business called compareyourfootprint.com, and we're currently looking at coders, and we're deliberately looking at the Edinburgh area because this compareyourfootprint.com business is based in Edinburgh, and I feel very strongly that we should be employing local talent in Edinburgh. So, you know, I think fit for purpose— you need to be able to assess what it is that you want at all times and be flexible on those needs.

So I've spoken to a lot of businesses over the last few years, and one of the things that I've heard and spoken about is The challenge of engaging staff, engaging your staff with your mission and your purpose, how does Green Element do that and what would you sort of recommend to other companies that might be going through this challenge?

Ensure absolutely totally that you believe, you as the business owner and you in the senior management, Practicing what you preach. I think that is probably the easiest way to— which is what we've done at Green Element. For example, we went for a pitch with Unite, the union, and one of their things is they do expect a lot of their suppliers to have— to be a part of the union. And Emma, who works at Green Element, was in the meeting with me, and the first— one of the first things they said was, of course, Emma. you're probably a part of Unite the Union, because it was actually a friend of hers that introduced us to the union. And she immediately went, no, why would I be? I work for Green Elements. I don't need to be in a union. And that for me epitomized exactly what it is that I'm trying to achieve at Green Elements, because we look after each other. We look after, you know, we work as a team. And it sounds a bit airy-fairy, but actually It is top-down, and I believe very strongly that we all bring people on that have exactly the same values as us as well. So we all want to work together, we all have our own goals, and we work towards a common goal of Green Elements. We also work towards our own goals as well because we're all individuals, we're all people with our own path and our own career, and they may be very different to other people's within the business, but as long as we respect and honor each other and work together for those common goals, then I think that's the best— yeah, that's how we've achieved it at Green Elements.

Fantastic. So hopefully our listeners can take lots of things from what you just said there, and then hopefully that will help inspire and give them things to work with as well. So one question as well is that, you know, when it comes to running an ethical and sustainable business, what has been your biggest struggle so far, and can you tell us a little bit about how you've overcome it?

What's been our biggest struggle so far? I would say ensuring that we make the right decisions and Making sure that the long-term decisions fit in with short-term outcomes. And what I mean by that is you can put policies and procedures in place that help right now, but what are the future ramifications of those particular decisions that you've made? So thinking about your 2, 3, 5-year, even 10-year business plan. Where is it that you want to be and what is it you want to be doing? I guess putting it very simply is we travel totally by train around the UK. Yes, granted, that possibly isn't the cheapest way to do it, but I believe in the long run It is a much more ethical and sustainable business model, and I also feel that it puts in the right values into the business. And as a management consultancy, it allows us to be able to work on trains, and we deliberately then can travel to places, work and then go to the meetings. And I've worked out, and there is a financial calculation that's on our website of exactly how much a consultant costs, how much you'd lose if you were to fly to somewhere, and how much you gain by actually having billable hours on A-Train, for example.

That's really interesting, and we'll put a link to the article in the show notes. And then these show notes will be hosted on the website as well, which is greenelement.co.uk. So that's really interesting because I know, especially from my point of view, the more I use trains, the more productive I am because you can work on a train, whereas if you're sat in traffic or if you're sat driving somewhere, you— yeah, it's really, really difficult to get anything done. So I can absolutely believe that. I'm going to check that article out myself as well. So you've already given loads of advice and lots of different things that can inspire other, you know, our listeners on this podcast. So if you could offer just one piece of advice that would help them with their purpose, what would that be?

I would say go to compareyourfootprint.com. It's a piece of software that we set up primarily to help businesses in the first stage of understanding how to be sustainable. compareyourfootprint.com is a very effective and incredibly cost-efficient way to understand your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and if you want to know what each of those scopes are, then we'll be putting that in the notes at the end, a link to what they are, and it also will benchmark you against someone within your own industry, so you'll be benchmarked against other people within your own industry, and what I have found over the last 15+ years of running an environmental management consultancy, Green Element, is that the initial steps are very cost prohibitive if you are a business because you want to use a consultancy because that you don't know how to make and understand your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, but that is an expensive process to go through, and actually that shouldn't be the case. What you should be doing is doing that initial step incredibly cost efficiently, and then you should be using a consultancy to help you become more environmental, and that is actually the business model that we have used at compareyourfootprint.com. So it won't be just Green Element that you could use, you could be using all manner of sustainable consultancies. Go Travel is a company that currently we're working with on the travel side. And again, we can put the link up for them. They are trying to help businesses be more effective in the way that they are traveling to work and to clients and setting up agreements with travel companies to ensure people travel more sustainably and don't drive individually in their own cars.

So just on the benchmarking side of things, with all the companies that you've worked with, how many surprises, or like, you know, are businesses shocked when they learn what their carbon footprint is or what their emissions are?

I wouldn't say they were shocked because they don't understand exactly what that means. I think they're shocked when they're benchmarked against other people within their industry, and I think sometimes it can be really good because you're benchmarked and you find out you're actually quite a good lean ethical business, but then you can also be shocked in the fact that you are using, or, you know, your carbon footprint is way bigger than any other organization within your industry.

Brilliant, and is there a cost involved in Is there a cost, did you say?

Yes, there's £299 pretty much per organization, and it's a very effective way to understand your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Fantastic. So as closing remarks, what is the best way to keep in touch with you, and if anybody wants to learn more, how would they do that?

You can email us at— actually, you know what, email me, william@greenelement.co.uk, and you can phone me on 0207 096 0054, and do keep in touch. And I— my inbox and my telephone is always open to talk to you and try and help you become more sustainable, because let's face it, the more that do it, The better it is.

And we've also got a Facebook community as well. So if you want to network with other like-minded businesses, get advice from Will, or just sort of ask questions and find out more, then we've got a Facebook community that you can come and join. It's free. We'll be running regular Facebook Lives with lots of advice. And it's— yeah, it's a great way to keep in touch.

Brilliant.

Fantastic. So thanks so much, Will. And then it will be Will doing the interviews from now on.

It's a bit weird to be interviewed on your own podcast, but that's all good.

So yeah, so every week from now on, we will have different interviews with different businesses, and we really look forward to keeping you on our journey. So yeah, see you later and see you next time.

Brilliant, thanks Charlie. Cheers.

Bye.

Thanks so much for listening. We created this podcast for you, so we'd really appreciate any feedback you want to give us. You can do that by rating and reviewing on your favourite podcast, or for iTunes, visit www.greenelement.co.uk/apple. If you'd like to keep in touch, then we invite you to join our free Facebook community, which is everything to do with sustainable and ethical business. Lots of daily conversations, themes, and great ideas. A really great place to work and network with like-minded individuals. If you open Facebook and search for The Green Element, hit the group search function, we will let you right in. All of the show notes, any links, any references to the This podcast will be featured on our website, greenelement.co.uk. As a special thank you for listening, please head over to www.greenelement.co.uk/podcast2018 and you can pick up a free guide on how to green up and environmentalize your business or organization. That's greenelement.co.uk/podcast2018.

Thank you very much, Will.

Finally, I would like to thank Ben Chatwin for writing the fantastic opening music. He is an amazing artist with a phenomenal following. It was a privilege he said yes to even write it for us. We look forward to seeing you next week and hope you have a wonderful day.