Welcome to our quarterly newsletter! In this newsletter, we’ll give you the highlights of what we’ve been up to over the last few months, including our progress on the Innovate UK theArena17 project, changes to our team and our experience with the IEMA 2019 Awards.
| TheArena17 project update Our theArena17 project will transform financial data into affordable and reliable dashboards for sustainable Small and Medium size businesses (SMEs). Funded by Innovate UK, the Software-as-a-Service platform will integrate with cloud accounting systems, to provide streamlined and verified sustainability metrics in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. |
| Accountancy engagement With our founder being a Chartered Accountant, we decided to engage with fellow accountants on a one-to-one basis; working across the profession has proven challenging due to the innovative and fringe nature of theArena17 and the need to start the conversation. New regulations, political uncertainties and new technology threatening the sector clutter the space for more innovative solutions. To reach out to the profession, we designed a short video to explain why we are building the app. We are now having conversations with forward-thinking accountants to work closely on shaping the app; we are hoping to entice more accountants to collaborate with us. IUK market research For our market research, we used the publicly accessible data on hospitality occupancy rates from Visit Scotland to get an idea of what we are working with. Still, it is a challenge to narrow down our target audience and find the place the theArena17 can do the most good. Statistics and reports alone can’t give us a full picture of what accommodation providers need to feel confident in the theArena17, so we are reaching out to hotels, B&Bs and self-catered accommodation to get opinions on what they are most worried about and how we can help them. |
There are several ways you could help us bring theArena 17 project to life:
- share our video and spread the word
- if you are an accommodation provider or know of one who may be interested, please get in touch with Oliver Byrne.
- If you are an accountant or know of one who may be interested in giving feedback, please get in touch with Oliver Byrne.
Team changes
After 5 years working at Beyond Green, Operations and Communications director Lisa Bertrand decided to relocate closer to her French roots. Her journey with Beyond Green started working as a sustainability advisor for Paul Adderley at Sustainable Opportunity Solutions and continued with her becoming co-director at Beyond Green. As her journey with Beyond Green comes to an end, she is proud of the company’s growth/progress where the organisation has come to, wishes all the best to Beyond Green’s collaborators and is excited for the challenges ahead!
IEMA Sustainability Impact Award 2019 finalist
We are delighted to have been shortlisted in the Consultancy and Collaboration category of the IEMA Sustainability Impact Awards alongside our friends at Resource Futures. We had a great time working with them on the Zero Waste Scotland Construction support framework. Launched by IEMA, the professional body for people working in environment and sustainability, the Sustainability Impact Awards recognise organisations that are transforming the world to create a sustainable future. With the awards honouring those who are working together to make our economy, society and environment future-proof, using innovation, creativity, collaboration and expert knowledge, we are thrilled our commitment to achieve change is being recognised. We are delighted to be able to attend the ceremony in London to celebrate with the other finalists; and we’d like to thank IEMA for their support in order to allow us to participate as a small business based in Scotland.
Lawyers, a wee dram and a play (there has to be a joke in there somewhere)
The end of this year marks the deadline for complying with phase 2 of ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme). These regulations require large organisations to ensure they have either implemented a formal Energy Management System, or conducted site assessments to identify energy saving measures.
We are currently working on this process with several clients by conducting analyses of their energy consumption and energy assessments at their sites. With these clients including a large theatre company, a whisky and gin distillery and a large legal firm, the variety is certainly keeping things interesting. If you would like to know more about the requirements, or are still to arrange your organisation’s route to compliance with ESOS phase 2, let us know and we can explain more.
