When we presented our first Sustainable Investment report to you a year ago, the world was still creaking back to life after a year and a half of pandemic lockdowns. None of us knew then that while the worst of Covid was behind us, 2022 would be a year of war, a cost of living crisis and, now in the week we send this report out, soaring record temperatures across Europe.
All of these reasons are why the sustainability work we’ve done over the last year is so important and why we are working ever closely with our portfolio companies to help them grow sustainably. You can read our new Sustainable Investment report here.
Our sustainability champions
Each of our partner brands now has a sustainability champion at board level who has committed to leading the charge. These voices – a mix of founders, CEOs, COOs, FDs and Marketing Directors – are so important in boardrooms to guide decision-making and manage risks.
To support them over the last 6 months, we’ve been running workshops with our sustainability partner, Seismic, on topics such as carbon reporting and how to use the B Corp framework to lead business strategy.
Beyond learning there has been action too, with most of our portfolio now in the process of carbon reporting, and the remaining 2 (our latest investments), starting in the coming months. We’ve also made strides in governance and looking after our people. All of our partners now run team engagement surveys to make sure their employees have a voice, and 44% are actively monitoring diversity as they grow their teams with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. We believe this makes for fundamentally better businesses that make better business decisions.
The momentum for change
Beyond the negative headlines, on the ground with the hundreds of businesses that we speak to, we are seeing more highly engaged businesses reworking their models to look after people and the planet. In March our sustainability manager, Georgia, joined hundreds of other business representatives at Parliament to lobby ministers to support the Better Business Act to enshrine these principles into Companies House law. Please read more and sign up to support the campaign.
Our portfolio leading the way
We are proud of all the things that our portfolio are doing. Monica Vinader has joined the UN Global Compact and published their SDG aligned Sustainability Roadmap. NEOM has pledged to be zero waste by 2025, meaning all their products are either recyclable, refillable, reusable or compostable. Bloom & Wild are now carbon neutral and make over 70% of their deliveries by foot, bike or electric van. Wild Nutrition opened their own fulfilment centre near their headquarters in Lewes to create local employment in the Lewes area, as well as increasing recyclability and efficiency of materials used. We could go on.
Our commitment, our purpose
At Piper, we are committed to continuing to invest in brands that do good, balancing people, planet with profit. These are brands that fit with our purpose of building brand legends that make people’s lives healthier, happier and more fulfilling, while helping them minimise their impact on the environment.
Over the coming year, we are excited to launch more sustainability-focused projects and bring in more experts to expand our expertise on this fast-changing topic. We hope you find our Sustainable Investing report insightful in your thinking. We are very open to feedback or just having a chat about all things sustainability – please get in touch with our Sustainability Manager, Georgia Jones.