Ever since I founded Achieve Breakthrough, our goal has been to unlock the potential of people and help create a thriving world. For us, a thriving world balances economic growth with environmental care and social wellbeing. It means that the work we do fulfils the needs of the current generation, without compromising the needs of future generations.
It’s ultimately a vision of a world where business success is inextricably linked with the health of the planet and the wellbeing of communities. This is how we’ve been working with clients for well over a decade. It’s our north star, informing both how we work and who we work with.
But over the last few years, inspired in part by the bold sustainability commitments of our clients, we’ve also been looking at how we can adopt a more codified approach to our own sustainability journey.
Two years ago, we commissioned EcoVadis to interrogate every part of our operations and help us understand how we’re performing in relation to the environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. We won a Bronze Medal for our performance in that first year. A great result, no doubt, but one that lit a fire under all of us to keep pushing forward.
I’m very pleased to say that this year, we’ve made great strides again. We’ve been awarded a Silver Medal and certification that we’re in the top 15% of all businesses of our size assessed by EcoVadis over the past year.
Here, I want to explain what we’ve done to get to this point, what we’re planning next, and most importantly, what this means for you, our clients.
What’s changed since our last report?
One of the big breakthroughs has come thanks to Frederic Laloux’s ‘The Week’ programme. Participating in the programme served as a catalyst for us to take even more radical steps – provoking us to re-examine everything from air travel, data storage, our energy supply, and even the food we consume.
We also successfully expanded our ‘Pay it Forward’ campaign over the last year, helping our various charity partners like The King’s Trust and Julian House adopt the breakthrough thinking required to drive through positive social and environmental impacts.
However, perhaps most importantly, we’ve committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the reduction our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030, offsetting any emissions we can’t yet eliminate.
To make progress over the last 12-18 months, we’ve adopted a threefold strategy aimed at reducing our carbon footprint across all operational areas:
Business travel, specifically flights, hotels, and ground transport has always been one of our largest sources of carbon emissions. Over the course of 2024, we introduced policies to embed a culture of sustainable travel. For example, we shifted towards electric taxis for airport transfers and have prioritised train travel for domestic and regional trips. We also continued to encourage remote working and virtual meetings to minimise the need for travel altogether. This not only reduces emissions but also increases the flexibility and work-life balance of our staff.
Our previous EcoVadis assessment revealed that 31% of our Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions in our value chain, but not directly controlled by us) came from our relationships with professional services providers. On this basis, we conducted full reviews of our advertising, audiovisual, banking, insurance, and training providers – streamlining services to reduce emissions where possible. We also established sustainability criteria for our suppliers, encouraging them to adopt greener practices like waste reduction and shifting to low-carbon transport methods. Additionally, we integrated supplier emissions data into our carbon reporting processes, ensuring that we can accurately track and manage the environmental impact of our procurement activities. All measures that contributed to our improved score this year.
As part of our digital transformation, we adopted a cloud-first approach, which has already had a positive impact on reducing the carbon footprint of our IT infrastructure. However, the latest report has shown us that there is much more we can do on this front. Which leads us to…
What we’re planning to do next
Over the next 12 months, we’ll be focusing on five core areas that can help us drive sustainability:
3. Further increase offsetting: While our main goal is always to drive down our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, for any impact we are still making this year, we will offset.
Ultimately, our big dream is to deliver all our consulting programmes, everything up to and including client travel, with zero environmental impact. We don’t yet know how close we can get, but we’re committed to getting there.
What this means for our clients
It goes without saying that our primary objective is delivering the breakthroughs our clients want for their businesses. If we can do this with no impact on the environment, that’s better for us, and it’s better for our clients.
While we might be changing the way we do some things (for example, if I have to take an international flight, I’m committing to seeing as many clients as I possibly can on that trip), the way you experience our breakthrough programmes won’t change. What we will have is a bigger international faculty, and the ability to deliver even more programmes remotely as and when the need arises.
We’re deeply proud of the progress we’ve made over the last 12 months, and are excited to see what’s possible in the year ahead. If you’d like to learn any more about our approach to sustainability, our work with EcoVadis, or how we can support your own sustainability journey, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.