Business of Sustainability

Most businesses track what they've already achieved on sustainability. Fewer have a clear picture of where they're heading and why that gap matters. In this bite-size episode, Alex Smith speaks with Leo Cohen, Sustainability Executive at FuturePlus, about why the distinction between actual and ambition scores is so important for SMEs, how a three-year roadmap helps businesses work on the right thi...

Most businesses have sustainability goals. Far fewer can communicate them credibly. In this bite-size episode, Alex Smith sits down with Sophie Davies, Sustainability Consultant at FuturePlus, to unpack why there's so often a gap between what companies do and what they say. Sophie covers what separates a genuine impact report from a box-ticking exercise, why materiality assessments matter more tha...

RH Amar has been operating as a family-owned food importer and distributor for over 80 years. Long before ESG became mainstream, they were making decisions rooted in doing business the right way. In this episode of the Business of Sustainability Podcast, Alex Smith sits down with James Amar and Simon Fry to talk about what that actually looks like in practice. They cover: How RH Amar formalised gi...

Workplace culture has been pushed back into the "soft and fluffy" bucket. Nick McClelland, CEO of Byrne Dean, thinks that's a serious commercial mistake. In this episode, Nick joins host and FuturePlus CEO, Alex Smith to make the hard-nosed business case for people-first culture. They dig into why organisations are sleepwalking into major people risk, the psychological impact of AI on employees, w...

Clare Toombs joins Alex in the studio to share her journey from tech consulting in Australia to ESG and sustainability advisory at FuturePlus. Clare reflects on what sparked her passion for sustainability as a teenager, why she believes sustainability is still too siloed in most businesses, and why the human element is the critical differentiator when it comes to turning data into real progress. D...

Molly Todd, sustainability and carbon consultant at FuturePlus, joins Alexandra to talk about her journey from nearly a decade in hospitality to becoming one of the team's go-to experts on carbon and ESG consultancy. Molly breaks down the three types of clients FuturePlus typically works with, why so many businesses are doing good things without the evidence to back it up, and how the FuturePlus p...

Procurement is where sustainability commitments get made or broken. But most businesses don't realise that the bid process itself is being transformed by AI, and that social value is increasingly the deciding factor in who wins. In this episode, FuturePlus CEO, Alex Smith sits down with Tricia Blatherwick, Chief Evangelist at AutoGenAI, to explore what is really happening at the intersection of AI...

What can the world's highest mountains tell us about building a sustainable future? Kenton Cool has summited Everest 19 times, each time as a guide. He's spent 35 years operating in environments where resources are scarce, conditions are unpredictable, and the margin for error is razor thin. In those environments, sustainability isn't a strategy; it's survival. In this episode, Alex Smith talks to...

Sustainability hiring has grown fast. But a lot of businesses are still getting it wrong, writing job specs that are too broad, hiring without knowing where sustainability fits in their organisation, and then wondering why it isn't working. In this episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith talks to Sustainability Executive Poppy Clarke, who spent two and a half years recruiting in the climate tech space...

AI is changing how every business operates. But how many are thinking about what that means for their sustainability? FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith and COO Polly Milne sit at the intersection of sustainability and AI every day, and in this episode they share what that looks like in practice, from how FuturePlus is integrating AI into its own platform to the practical steps any business can take right...

Put sustainability in marketing and you risk it becoming a storytelling exercise without the substance behind it. Put it too far from the boardroom and it loses the weight to drive real change. So where should it actually sit? In this episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith and Sustainability Consultant Ana Biedermann Villagra work through that question from multiple angles, drawing on Ana's experience...

Poppy Clarke spent time in climate tech recruitment, watching other people do the jobs she wanted. So she made the move. In this episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith talks to Poppy, now a Sustainability Executive at FuturePlus, about what the industry looks like when you're new to it, what surprised her, what confused her from the outside, and what she's found most engaging in her first few months....

Tuppenny Barn started with a single hectare of land and a simple idea: teach children where their food comes from and grow it organically. Over 21 years later, it has become one of the most quietly impressive sustainability success stories in the South East. In this episode, Alex Smith sits down with Maggie Haynes, founder and outgoing CEO of Tuppenny Barn, an accredited education charity based in...

Two of the biggest sustainability communication mistakes businesses make sit at opposite ends of the same spectrum. Overclaiming. And saying nothing at all. In this episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith and COO Polly Milne discuss both, why they happen, what the consequences can be, and how businesses can find a more confident, authentic middle ground. Polly shares a practical example of a company th...

Sport has a reach that almost no other industry can match. In this episode, Sustainability Consultant Ana Biedermann Villagra joins CEO Alex Smith to explore how sporting events and organisations can use that reach for genuine social and environmental impact, and what happens when they don't. Ana brings a perspective shaped by her background in sports sustainability and her passion for women's foo...

Louisa Hoy, Junior Sustainability Consultant at FuturePlus, returns to explain SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting), the UK regulation requiring businesses above certain thresholds to report energy use and carbon emissions in their annual financial accounts. With reporting deadlines approaching, Louisa breaks down who needs to comply (the three-threshold test), why voluntary reporting ma...

Damien Stork and Jonathan Hook from CHX Performance return to discuss with FuturePlus CEO, Alex Smith, why workplace sickness has increased 60% since pre-COVID levels and what businesses are fundamentally missing about human sustainability. In this conversation, we explore why feelings aren't fluffy; they're biological signals telling us how well resourced we are to meet demands. We discuss the ri...

Louisa Hoy, Junior Sustainability Consultant at FuturePlus, works primarily with sustainability professionals who are either a team of one or managing ESG as an add-on to their primary role. It's a growing reality in businesses of all sizes; someone has the job title, but not the team or the capacity to match. In this conversation, Louisa explains why data-led platforms need human guidance to be e...

Ellen Hughes, Head of Consultancy at FuturePlus, walks through what sustainability consultancy looks like in practice; from government-funded food redistribution projects to investor presentations and global ESG strategies, often all in one day. In this conversation, Ellen reveals three key trends emerging in the sustainability space: the explosion of materiality-led strategies as businesses navig...

Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at a sustainability management business? Sam Sweeney, Sustainability Manager at FuturePlus, walks through what a typical day looks like, from delivering waste workshops to client meetings, navigating legislation changes, and helping businesses prepare for supply chain requirements they didn't see coming. We discuss: → How advisory support works through...

Sara French, Head of Scale-Up Programmes at London & Partners, shares insights from supporting over 4,500 businesses through international growth. In this conversation with Alex Smith, Sara reveals why companies that embed sustainability early scale 50% faster, how governance strengthens business foundations, and what VCs really look for in scale-ups today. We discuss the practical realities o...

Welcome to our new bitesize episodes - a new series of shorter conversations (around 10-15 minutes) where members of the FuturePlus team discuss what we're actually seeing in sustainability right now. In this first episode, CEO Alex Smith and COO Polly Milne talk about what 2026 holds. Despite regulatory rollbacks and green claims pressures, there's a clear shift happening: sustainability is movin...

Bottled water is a £2 billion market in the UK, but at what cost? In this episode, FuturePlus CEO, Alex Smith sits down with Anthony Newman, CEO of Ape2o, who's on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles through innovation, not shame. After witnessing the devastating impact of marine plastics on turtles in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Anthony knew he had to act. The result? High...

In this episode, FuturePlus CEO and host, Alex Smith sits down with Rachel Sadka, Director of Social Sustainability at EY, to explore how businesses can move beyond compliance to create genuine transformation through social sustainability and DEI initiatives. Rachel shares insights from her 13+ years at EY, including her work developing the National Equality Standard and Global Equality Standard....

In this special episode recorded on location in Trinidad & Tobago, FuturePlus CEO, Alex Smith sits down with Maria-Elena Navarro and Anya Ayoung-Chee from We Are Soveryn to explore how their partnership is transforming sustainability practices across the Caribbean. Fresh from exhibiting at the AMCHAM T&T HSSE Conference 2025, the conversation explores the unique challenges and opportunitie...