First things first: an adage in journalism tells us that, typically, when there is a question in a headline, the answer to that question is ‘no’.
But on this occasion, it might be different. I pose the question with hope that I’ve stumbled across something with real potential to take the UK’s environmental agenda in the right direction.
Essentially, I attended an event last week, and it felt like I was present at the start of something big.
The Amelia Scott community space in my local town, Tunbridge Wells, was the scene for a gathering of regional businesses and organisations that want to do more to help society become greener.
In attendance were managers of local farm shops, people running homeware and decor companies, family-run packaging firms, owners of jewellery retailers, zero-waste retail entrepreneurs, and representatives from the now council-owned local shopping centre.
And that was just a taste of the retail cohort, where I’ve aligned myself and Green Retail World.
Elsewhere, there were different streams: one for hospitality businesses, which is led by the proprietor of my favourite town centre drinking establishment, Fuggles Beer Café, another for professional services, others covering the creative industries, and several more.
So what is it all about?
Amplifi
Given the name Amplifi, this is a local movement co-founded by creative design agency YoYo CEO, Jenny Kitchen, and one of the partners at law firm Cripps, Pete Kenyon.
The stated aim is “to reduce the noise and confusion around ‘sustainability’ and facilitate ways to learn from and support one another”. The belief is, by tapping into their collective knowledge and expertise, local businesses from Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding areas can ignite real change, share practical ways to make an impactful difference to the environment, and – potentially – pave the way for others to follow.
Pete and Jenny and their respective businesses represent the driving force behind the collective, which also includes significant support from Childrensalon, AXA Health, Fuggles Beer Cafe, The Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre, Handelsbanken, Crowe, Times of Tunbridge Wells, the Royal Tunbridge Wells Together business improvement district, the local council, the TN Card reward scheme, Snelsky, and Colley Raine Associates.
On 31 January there were more than 125 businesses represented at the event – most with a local focus, but some of us, including yours truly, with more of a mandate for national/international coverage.
Each of the sector streams met for the first time, chatted through some big issues, and decided on a plan for a series of meet-ups over the coming year to share experiences, ideas, and inspiration. Aside from that and the plan for results of these endeavours to morph into a shared framework for reporting the town’s impact, there’s no strict structure to all this – it is the beginning of a journey that will be directed by the people’s passion and commitment to the cause.
Retail inspiration
For a launch event, there were some pretty impressive speakers.
Retail is our beat at Green Retail World, so to have representatives from the industry on stage highlighting how they have put environmental matters at the heart of operations was very relevant. It was great to hear from Andy Stephens, head of sustainable food at Cook Food, and Kresse Wesling CBE, co-founder & CEO of Elvis & Kresse.
There were lots of pearls of wisdom from them, including how in 2018 Cook became a member of Business Declares, a business group officially acknowledging the climate and ecological emergency. The pressure group lobbies government on environmental matters, and Stephens said Cook’s involvement in it helped strengthen the eco agenda within the retailer’s wider team.
Wesling, whose work we have covered on these pages before, told us she set up her business, which makes and then sells luxury goods made of would-be waste material, under her life mantra of focusing on doing things she can celebrate with other people’s grandchildren.
She said it is a suitable barometer when making business decisions, adding that as an environmentalist she can’t demand of others what she’s not delivering herself.
Illustrious backing
As the event kicked off, we heard, via pre-recorded video, from There is No Planet B author, eminent green expert, and consultant, Mike Berners-Lee. His comments such “we are facing enormous risk at the moment” and society is in a “race against tipping points” as it faces into the climate crisis, certainly set the tone for a night of important discussions.
Simon Heppner, co-founder of Net Zero Now, a platform for helping businesses reduce their carbon emissions, rounded off the speaker slots by telling the audience, if they’ve done nothing yet, the “most powerful” action they can take with regard to environmental strategy is to put a climate action/carbon reduction plan in place.
Calculate current emissions, target reductions, act on those goals, and report: that’s the way forward for all organisations, he said.
The community and sector approach to sustainability action Amplifi is pursuing was described by Heppner as potentially “the secret sauce” to enacting real change. He called it a “powerful opportunity”, saying when businesses, organisations, and people go it alone there can be troubling inconsistencies.
“The sector-based approach is a brilliant solution,” Heppner noted.
So, to reflect on that headline question again, on whether the town I live in can find the secret sauce for sustainability, I can’t tell you yet. But Heppner thinks Tunbridge Wells might well be on to something.
I’m excited about the potential direction this can go in, I’m encouraged about the fact there was a long wavy queue of guests waiting outside the The Amelia Scott venue to get into this event, and I’ll be sure to keep Green Retail World readers updated with how things map out over the next 12 months.
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Ben Sillitoe, editor, Green Retail World (@bsillitoe)
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
