Business Reporter

“Millennials want to feel empowered in their jobs and feel they are getting better at them. They also want to work for a business with a clear purpose.”

Nadine Exter

The value of family values

“Is it because we are a family-owned business that we think long term, value stewardship and understand that our success is based on our stakeholders’ success? I don’t know – this way of thinking is ingrained, is part of our history and our culture. Our employees, suppliers, customers and communities are all part of our extended family.”

Business in the Community

“When people say sustainability is about being ‘nice’, but not necessarily good for business, this guide provides the evidence for why that is not true. This well-received report by Cranfield University and BITC provides 9 clear business benefits with examples such as cost savings, brand growth and operational effectiveness.”

Modern slavery: ever prevalent

“Modern slavery is so common in the fashion industry that each of us is probably wearing at least one garment that has been made with some element of forced labour. The UK Modern Slavery Act highlights how slavery, traditionally seen as villagers kidnapped and shipped to mines or fields, looks very different in today’s supply chain.”

Can and should a for-profit company have a social purpose?

“It’s obvious – if we are not talking about it [social purpose], if business is not aiming to create equity, then they are left behind. It is so matter-of-fact that we have moved on from questioning it. Those who do not move on won’t survive.”

Cambridge University MSc in Sustainability Leadership

“This eminent Master’s helps to develop leaders who can respond effectively to the economic, social and environmental challenges facing the world and lead others to achieve positive change. Past guest speaker Nadine Exter wrote the Employment practices module on organisational behaviour, culture, and the role of employees.”

Employee engagement model

“A practical way to engage employees: utilising 4 organisational platforms to transition employees through the 3 key stages of engagement (Inform, Interest, Engage).”

Developed by Nadine Exter

Corporate sustainability: an academic perspective

“What role does academia have in sustainable development? This book is designed to stimulate debate about what sustainable development means for business and, therefore, business schools. It is a manifesto for a new holistic, embedded approach to corporate sustainability management education.”

First-hand experience embedding sustainability into an organisation

“Are business schools fit for purpose? Read how a group of sustainability change-makers embarked on embedding sustainability into Cranfield University.”

Embedding sustainability into organisational culture

A model developed by Nadine Exter and taught at Cambridge and Cranfield Universities for embedding, at both group and individual level, sustainability into mindsets, systems, values and behaviours of an organisation.

Employee engagement with sustainable business

“Employees: the missing link in too many company sustainability strategies … but they can be the rocket fuel in successful corporate initiatives. Nadine Exter shows how.”

John Elkington, Chairman Volans, on Nadine Exter’s book

We are a UK-based collaborative sustainability consultancy with an innovative approach to unleashing the ‘power of people’ to create lasting, sustainable change.

With over 40 years of experience between us in sustainability, innovation, health & wellbeing, and organisational behaviour, we each bring our unique specialism to the mix. We have both in-house and consultancy experience, and national and international experience across a wide range of organisations, sectors, industries and organisation size.

Nadine Exter MBA, MICRS

Founder

With over 15 years of experience of sustainability in consultancy and in-house, Nadine has extensive experience running both large scale and bespoke change programmes across strategy, community, zero waste, governance and ethics, employee engagement, people & wellbeing, and embedding sustainability into the 6 Ps.

More experience

She started developing best practice guidance in 2009 with one of the first guides on developing champions networks and since then has codified best practice across subjects including the responsibility of digital comms, embedding sustainability (Cranfield University); gender diversity, the value of family business values (for Guardian News Online); the business case for sustainability (with BITC); corporate purpose (with FT & Coca Cola-Enterprises); and is a published author (Employee engagement with sustainable business, Routledge). Nadine also designed MBA and MSc modules for Cranfield University and the HR module for the eminent Cambridge University MSc in Sustainability Leadership. She has lectured and presented in academia, for collaborations such as BITC, Club of Rome and CSREurope, has been a judge for industry awards, and mentors sustainability and third sector professionals.

My typical day

I am currently developing some people-focused strategies and 3-5 year action plans for a lovely client: diversity, stakeholder engagement, and facilitating new talent. My days are varied, from on-site visit to interview employees, reviewing data, research and writing a performance benchmark against peers, or writing a survey for stakeholders to fill in. I am currently also popping over to Geneva once a month to facilitate an internal group of change-makers on embracing sustainability and getting buy-in to create an ambitious strategy.

Darren Chadwick

Associate

Darren is the Managing Partner at Brite Green and a tutor in sustainability at the University of Oxford. He has substantial experience in low carbon and sustainability business consultancy, in particular in strategy development and implementation.

More experience

He has a background in environmental and sustainability management and has run projects across a wide range of sectors including property, financial services, manufacturing and utilities. Darren has run materiality and strategy development programmes for large corporates and universities and undertaken reviews of innovating technologies and business models. Darren holds degrees from the University of Oxford and Imperial College, London in Human Sciences and Environmental Technology. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and a member of the Institute of Directors.

My typical day

I have just finished the audit season, helping clients prepare for ISO audits, and conducting some of the audits myself. This has required a lot of on-site inspections, reviewing data, and interviewing. The reporting season is about to start for some of my clients, and I act as an in-house resource to drive and deliver these, so lots of data gathering, chasing for measurements and case studies, and reviewing audiences information wants.

Marcin Franke

Associate

For the last decade I have worked with a variety of customers on their wellbeing strategies, for example with groups of busy professionals working towards a shared health objective.

More experience

My experience includes developing individualised and group strategies for improving health mindsets and fitness, and subsequent implementation of those strategies – whether through physical fitness, meditation, or healthy eating and nutritional educational support. I have dedicated my life and time to educating myself on anatomy, physiology and most importantly on nutrition, to have a better understanding of how our body works, with a variety of qualifications and continuous development. Having this breadth of skills and experience in nutrition, weight lifting, yoga, calisthenics, cardio and functional training allows me to pick the best aspects and most effective approach to supporting customers. I am passionate that physical activity and our diet has a profound effect on how we feel not only physically but mentally and spiritually as well. This is critical for Corporate Wellbeing, where we often are faced with physical restrictions of how we do our jobs, the mental stresses of work loads, and emotional pressures of group working. My approach to Corporate Wellbeing is to connect mind, body and spirit.

My typical day

As my area of expertise is well-being, I am leading on the practical delivery of our Healthy Hearts Benchmark. I am validating what interventions – currently looking at nutritional education and engaging group mobility activities – can have what impact, and how that will help clients to achieve business targets. Some of my clients focus on the nutritional education and so I am exploring what their ‘triggers’ are to change behaviour.

Embedding sustainability into the heart of your organisation

by Nadine | Sep 14, 2018 | Uncategorized

The Oxford Dictionary defines management as “The process of dealing with or controlling things or people.” The Collins English Dictionary states “Management is the control and organizing of a business or other organization.” Control. Control of resources,...