Our impact promise

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our brand new impact page! 

While our purpose is to support tech for good startups and the amazing work they do, we think it’s just as important to make an impact as a business outside of the office, too. Over the last couple of months, our team has been busy brainstorming ways we can make a difference. Now, we’re proud to unveil our impact initiatives for 2021.  

We didn’t realise how much of an impact we could have or how simple it is to get an impact strategy set up. Hopefully this article will give you some ideas or inspire you to make some commitments. 

Here’s a breakdown of our aims for the year and how we came to those decisions...  

Our inspiration 

One of the things our team all have in common is the desire to do good. We’re all conscious of the impact we make in our personal lives, whether that’s following a plant-based diet, reducing our plastic consumption or shopping with sustainable businesses.  

Having worked closely with tech for good startups over the last six months, we’ve learnt more about how they’re built and the way they do business. They’ve helped us realise that we could do more as a company too.   

While our day-to-day revolves around helping tech for good startups grow, we want to practise what we preach to truly help build a better future. We got to thinking, how could we combine our love of tech for good and sustainability with our wider business goals? 

Choosing our impact areas 

We kicked off this conversation during our yearly review and 2021 planning session. We came together as a team in March (the first time we’d all been together since the pandemic!) to discuss where we each wanted to make an impact and how we could achieve it. We wanted our business goals for the year to revolve around our impact on the planet, as well as company growth. We just needed to decide where and how we wanted to make that impact - which was easier said than done!  

Businesses we admire  

As a band of startup enthusiasts, we're inspired by so many different businesses. Brands like Who Gives a Crap, allplants and Ocean Bottle (to name but a few), all have amazing products and ethos. Most importantly, they outline their sustainability efforts in an engaging, transparent way. We knew that whatever we chose to do, we wanted to emulate this approach.  

Sustainability goals and certifications  

We did a lot of research on existing organisations to help inform our decisions. B Corp certification was an obvious one to look into; it was a real eye-opener to learn about the different areas of a business they investigate in order to class it as a B Corp.  

We were also immediately drawn to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. They are all-encompassing goals, named an ‘urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.’ 

We were keen to align with an existing set of goals to make sure we make as much impact as we can in the areas that need it most.   

That’s why we decided to choose four of these Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to support each year. In 2021, we're focussing on: No Poverty, Clean Water, Climate Action, and Life Below Water. We’ll choose a different set of goals to support in 2022.  

What could we actually achieve as a team? 

Next, we needed to pin down what was achievable for us. We wanted to ensure we planned a mixture of more straightforward donations, as well as actions we could take as a team and individuals.  

We're now working on making a positive impact in our chosen SDG’s through: 

• Becoming carbon-neutral and plastic-free 

• Organising four Impact Days a year 

• Donating at least 2% of our profits to charity 

There are loads of great products and services that allow businesses to easily reduce their carbon footprint and become more responsible. It was through researching these businesses that we came across Cleanhub and Ecologi – keep reading to find out how we’ve partnered with them!  

How we’re making an impact in 2021 

This year we’ve chosen to support the following causes through monthly donations:  

Beam 

What they do: Beam is the world’s first platform that crowdfunds training for homeless people and supports them into stable work. Our monthly donations help Beam's community hit their funding goals for a brighter future. Learn more, here.  

Our impact: Our donations support at least one homeless person a month on their journey to back into work.  

charity: water 

What they do: By donating to charity: water's The Spring community, each year we’re able to help 50 people gain access to clean drinking water. Over 47000 people will get clean water each month thanks to Spring members. Learn more, here. 

Our impact: Over this year, our monthly donations will help provide 50 people with clean drinking water.  

Ecologi  

What they do: Ecologi calculates our team's collective carbon footprint and enables us to offset it through planting trees. That funding directly impacts atmospheric CO2 levels. Learn more, here. 

Our impact: Our donations help offset our collective carbon footprint through the planting of 12 trees per employee per month.  

Cleanhub  

What they do: Cleanhub enables the safe collection and recovery of ocean-bound plastic waste. The contribution supports clean environments and creates sustainable jobs in the global south. Learn more, here. 

Our impact: The Cleanhub team will collect 3,000 kg of ocean-bound plastic this year, thanks to our monthly donations.  

Impact days 

As mentioned earlier, we want to make an impact through a balance of donations and team activities. We’ll be holding one impact day per quarter with the whole team. These will be regular paid working days (not unpaid or holiday days) so we can all come together to do some good.  

We’re currently planning our first impact day of 2021. With the help of Brighton council, our team will be heading to the coast in June for a big beach clean-up. We’ll be posting some photos and more information about the day very soon!  

Our impact reports  

For us, accountability is key. To ensure full transparency, we’ll be sharing an overview of everything we’ve achieved in annual impact reports. Keep an eye out on our impact page for our first report at the end of the year!  

If you have any questions about our impact initiatives (or would just like like a chat), we’d love to hear from you. Say hello at contact@confidotalent.com, on LinkedIn or on Twitter.