Business of Sustainability
If you’re passionate about building a more sustainable future and curious about the business models making it possible, you’re in the right place. Join Alex Smith, CEO of FuturePlus, to dive into the world of sustainable business, talking to founders and industry pioneers who are redefining success with the planet and society in mind. This isn’t just another business podcast. At FuturePlus, we’re redefining ESG, Environmental, Social, and Governance, by bringing you data-driven insights and future-focused actions that make a real impact. From breakthrough technologies to bold new policies, FuturePlus explores the strategies, challenges, and innovations driving the global shift toward sustainability. So, whether you're a business leader, investor, or sustainability enthusiast, join us to stay ahead of the curve. Find out more about FuturePlus.Connect on Linkedin.
Episodes
What does sustainability look like when your business builds the infrastructure for the world's biggest sports events?
In this episode, Alex Smith is joined by Paul Berger, Group CEO of Arena Group, the company behind the temporary structures, grandstands, and hospitality venues at events including the Paris Olympics, FIFA World Cup, and Wimbledon.
Paul shares the story behind Arena's first global ESG strategy, why a company al...
Most businesses are already using AI. Far fewer have the governance in place to use it well. In this bitesize episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith and COO, Polly Milne explore what responsible AI adoption actually looks like through an ESG lens.
They cover why governance needs to come before scaling, what safe experimentation looks like in practice, how to think about the environmental cost of AI use, and why human oversight is ...
Sustainability claims in hospitality are under more scrutiny than ever.
A new EU directive coming into force in September means vague language like "eco-friendly" or "green" won't cut it without verified evidence to back it up. And it doesn't just apply to businesses based in the EU, it applies to any business marketing to EU travellers.
In this bitesize episode, FuturePlus CEO Alex Smith and COO, Polly Milne break down what th...
Most SMEs assume sustainability is something to tackle once the business is bigger, better resourced, or more mature. Ray Stephens, Founder and MD of Reuben Digital, disagrees.
In this episode of the Business of Sustainability, Alex Smith sits down with Ray to talk about what it actually looks like for a small digital agency to take sustainability seriously, not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a genuine business strategy.
The...
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 things at the right time, and why...
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 than most businesses realise, and...
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 giving 10% of profits t...
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, why hybrid working is hiding co...
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.
Discover more at https://future-...
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 platform and consultancy team w...
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 and procurement. Tricia bring...
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 Kenton about the visible impac...
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 before making the move to Futu...
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 now.
They cover:
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 across in-house roles, consul...
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.
It's a short, honest conversati...
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 Southbourne, near Chichester,...
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 that accidentally misrepresented ...
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 football. She and Alex discuss th...
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 makes strategic sense even befor...
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