In the end, the naming of our business was obvious: incremental changes are no longer viable.
No longer could we contemplate anything like a “business as usual” approach to sustainability – our clients have been clearly asking for more: more action, more transformation and, yes, for a seismic shift in how business is done.
This is why we founded Seismic, and because we know that social and environmental impact go hand in hand. There are many sustainability consultancies out there who are good at one or the other, but we couldn’t find any organisations who were outstanding at helping businesses deliver on the two clearest frameworks for transformational change: Net Zero and B Corp. We have come together to offer just that.
I feel really lucky to call Amy and Andy my co-founders. I learn from them every day. We came together because of a shared purpose – to change society and help fix the planet – and a shared belief that business, globally, has a vital role to play in reducing impact on our environment and creating a sustainable positive impact on society.
Fresh approach to business
We know we have important work ahead of us: fighting the climate emergency and social injustice, but we also want to do business in a fresh and enjoyable way. We are all a part of a shift happening in society, but it needs to go further and happen faster; we created Seismic to help businesses make that shift.
It’s so energising to be working with such talented and dynamic teammates. Our international team are brilliant people we’ve worked with in the past, many of whom we’ve trained as B Corp advisors ourselves.
Our vision is that, by our 5th anniversary, we’ll be celebrating that we have helped enable 10,000,000 people to work for positive businesses (Including B Corps and companies on a Net Zero pathway), and that we are named as one of the Times Top 100 best companies to work for. They are equally important to us.
Sustainability: it’s in our blood
I was born into a family of sustainability enthusiasts. When I was just four, my parents helped design and build an eco-house, which I grew up in on the Isle of Wight. It wasn’t anything spectacular by today’s standards, but back then it was innovative stuff.
It wasn’t until my final year at university, studying Mechanical Engineering, when I took an Energy and the Environment module, that it hit me what I wanted to do with my life. Over the last two decades I’ve had the privilege of working with many international brands, including Aviva, BT, Tesco & Aldi helping to build and deploy their sustainability strategies.
I met Andy several years ago. Though our expertise was in different impact fields – mine in environmental impact and Andy’s in social impact – we discovered our purpose was aligned; plus, we’re both big believers in having fun while you work!
Andy was a senior leader at Skype and Microsoft and headed up their social good programme, globally. He is a pioneer in the social impact space. He’s caring, purpose-driven and inspiring and has an incredible depth of knowledge around social governance. Anyone that knows Andy will know he is too humble to ever say these things about himself.
Andy has worked with Amy for a number of years and the three of us have been working together at Pearl Consulting for the last year.
Everyone loves working with Amy. She has a knack of getting to the heart of what drives a business and how to best implement sustainability strategy. She was the first and is the top B Corp advisor in the UK and a pioneer in the B Corp movement, supporting its growth in the UK and in Europe. Amy is infectiously passionate about her work including training others to become B leaders.
Shared values, Shared Purpose
In the last two years there has been an incredible movement from niche impact funds to mainstream investing – an indication to the world that enough is enough: that businesses do have a responsibility to create change for the good of people and the planet we live on. There is a global recognition that profit does not need to be compromised for this shift to take place. And, of course, through the horrific pandemic we have proven to ourselves that society can make huge changes when it needs to.
At Seismic we’re bringing together a strong international team of sustainability experts to drive change our clients are demanding. We are putting our collective experience to best effect, working directly with high growth SMEs like Lily’s Kitchen, established challenger brands such as innocent drinks, and FTSE 250 companies like PZ Cussons.
Inspired by our Clients
We’ve been humbled by all of the feedback from our clients, such as:
One of the great benefits of working with Seismic is their depth of knowledge and ability to help you to understand exactly what the B Impact Assessment is asking for and how this translates to your business.
— Piper Private Equity
On top of their vast experience and expertise, the team at Seismic have invested lots of time to understand our company culture and values, so that they really feel like part of the innocent family.
— innocent
Whether it is B Corp or Net Zero, the team have a fantastic ability to communicate technical sustainability topics.
— Lily’s Kitchen
Seismic have always approached every work-stream with a collaborative, flexible and zestful attitude.
— Seedlip, It’s important to all of us that a percentage of the profit that Seismic makes will be put to good use and invested in environmental and social impact projects. We are committed to getting certified as a B Corp and to being a Net Zero business along a science based pathway.
From a sustainability perspective, 2020 was meant to be the start of a decade of action to give the world a chance to stick to the Paris Agreement and avoid the worst of climate change, but then the pandemic struck, and we now need a reset.
The world now needs something big, something seismic, and that’s what we’ve come together to do, to help businesses make a seismic change.
If you’d like to know more, get in touch.
