We wanted to share a little about the day and introduce you to some of the great people we spoke to and heard from. Before we do, a big shout out to Future Leap and YTKO for hosting such a great event covering such a variety of views and perspectives. This was our first year attending but was full of great insights and surprises (even our Social Media Manager Callum rocked up on his birthday!) and we will certainly be back next year.

One of the first things we did—and something we would highly recommend to others—was to take YTKO’s sustainability assessment which is a tool designed to baseline your environmental impact. The questionnaire (which takes no more than 5 minutes to complete) asks a few basic questions about your business operations covering topics from travel to your supply chain, and produces an automated score to show you your strengths and opportunities for development. We were pretty happy with our modest score of 20/150 (which is apparently pretty good—the lower your score, the better) and we promptly received a follow-up email offering free resources including e-learning tools, workshops, events and 1-1 mentoring which we can access to help us further improve. Although not a like-for-like with the B-Corp process, YTKO’s set up offers a refreshingly simpler and easier framework to identify early opportunities and get you started on your quest for operating a more sustainable business—a common theme found throughout the day.

A little later, we got to speak to the guys from Whale and Dolphin Conservation who were displaying some pretty amazing graphics. Thanks to a recent jump in ocean-based documentaries (including hits like Seaspiracy and Blackfish), awareness of the giants that grace our oceans has been on the rise, yet there is much to be done to help further aid their conservation and importantly, to understand the incredibly important yet misunderstood natural role in trapping carbon that would otherwise be adding to the rise in GHGs. Another company worth checking out.

As a marketing agency, we couldn’t do a write-up without mentioning our new friends at JUMP: one of only three printers in the country to achieve B-Corp certification. Headed up by Managing Director Tony, the printing innovators are continually evolving their business to find new, more ethical methods of printing and innovating in a traditionally high-waste industry. They also do fantastic community work, including beach clean ups (both urban and coastal) and are teaming up with other environmental businesses to push the boundaries of print beyond traditional lookbooks and collateral. As self-admitted fans of any kind of stationary, we were all pretty enamoured with the quality of their products and even bagged ourselves some freebies. Thanks guys!

Switching over to some of the speaking slots, the festival wasn’t short of talent and expertise both in terms of businesses setting out on the eco-journey and organisations supporting them. There were so many incredible individuals and representatives we could name, however we wanted to highlight a couple of our favourites.

One of the later afternoon sessions which we caught saw an impromptu appearance from Rosina & Miss Divine who spoke about their experience at the Black & Green Ambassadors programme. As part of the scheme, each ambassador selects a community research project to raise awareness of environmental justice issues and inequality. This years projects include:

• Miss Divine - A look at street pollution and the divide between north and south Bristol;
• Rosina - Focusing on the lack of green spaces / exposure to nature that black and brown communities have access to;
• Ruth - Understanding the impact on single mothers of colour with young children who have disabilities and their struggles in community.

We also listened to a super interesting panel on “How to become a sustainable business, key learnings carbon neutrality, and overcoming barriers” featuring Phill Stott (Head of Construction and Sustainability, YTKO), Katherine Piper (Director of Partnerships and Sustainability, FutureLeap), Meera Pandya (CEO and Founder, MojaKid) and Ben East (Founder, Earthwise Construction).

It was great to hear first-hand the challenges (good and bad) each has faced, and how they have shaped their respective businesses and organisations to help address the topic of sustainability across their respective sectors.

As a young business ourselves, we really resonated with a point made by Meera about how the journey to becoming a sustainable business is one of ongoing processes rather than an immediate thing. She advocated for making small, incremental changes over time that point towards a bigger end-goal and continually checking back against your core mission to ensure you remain accountable. Wise yet crucial words from such a young brand!

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Ubuntu write-up if we didn’t mention the food on offer. Our lunchtime top-picks included some delicious food from Future Leap’s sustainable food cafe—we would highly recommend the Vegan Chorizo Mac & Cheese or the Chilli Non Carne for those looking for a hearty yet healthy lunch option. As far as we know, they’re available every weekday from the FutureLeap cafe in town, so get involved!

All in all, it was a very enlightening experience and we’ll definitely be back next year! To find out more about 2023’s event, or to discover other upcoming events, head over to Future Leap’s event calendar here.