For a while now I have been keen to start giving from our business. We are passionate about being kind to the planet and our people but want to take this a step further and start supporting causes.  Rather than make the occasional donation to charities I want to take this to the next step and embed this into my day to day business processes. In particularly we want to align our impact to the UN Global Goals. My intention was always to kick this off after the Business For Good Conference in Edinburgh, which took place last week (more to follow on this amazing two days).

One of the recurring themes of the conference was to keep it simple.  Last weekend I was having a conversation with a friend about the need for change to save our planet. The topic came up about how important trees are. Then it came to me. The simplest, most powerful, way I can have an impact on climate change is to plant trees. It also goes towards our goal of being carbon neutral in both our home and business.

According to the United Nations “Forests have a significant role in reducing the risk of natural disasters, including floods, droughts, landslides and other extreme events. At global level, forests mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, contribute to the balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity in the air and protect watersheds, which supply 75% of freshwater worldwide.” Planting trees, in the right way, helps contribute to the UN Sustainable Global 15.  Aligning to the UN Global Goals is one of the most important ways businesses can make a difference. 

So, I have a target of planting 1 million trees. While some of this will come from my business’s contributions.  By inspiring others to do the same I hope to have the direct and indirect impact of planting 1 million trees. Utilising the brilliant B1G1 platform I will link my actions to planting trees.

There are a number of ways businesses can contribute to causes. For example, you can donate a percentage of sales, provide probono work, fundraise or you can link actions to impact. I like the idea of linking my impact to actions.  While this is an ongoing project, initially my idea is to plant a tree every time I file a set of accounts. Every time I hold a meeting online, instead of wasting fuel travelling, I plant a tree.