What it means for Businesses

Following a master’s in sustainability in the mid-2000s, I moved away from accountancy. On disclosing my diagnosis to prospective employees, it was a shock to experience how their attitude changed and diminished me. This, amongst other reasons, is why I founded Beyond Green, which became a B Corp in 2018 and was recognised for both our environmental work and workplace programmes. Over 3 years, our Accessibility and Inclusion programme led to our accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader (DCL), led by Lisa Kaiffer.  

Making Change Together

Working under Lisa’s leadership, I learnt as much about disability in 3 years as I did in the previous 50! As importantly, we transformed how we enacted our core values of Fairness, Ambition and Freedom in supporting mental wellness, inclusion and accessibility. Actions we’ve taken, which I am proud of, include: 

• Implemented a well-being policy that provides two weeks of paid leave that can be taken as a way to prevent mental health issues from building up, and up to 6 sessions of paid professional therapy. 
• Share interview questions with all candidates in advance, along with designing interviews to include various options to share skills and knowledge – it’s not a test, we want to understand your strengths and growth potential.
• Interviews focus on a collaborative session, a growth mindset, instead of skill / knowledge-based questions
• Accessibility and inclusion training on topics like unconscious bias, improving document accessibility, LGBTQ+ and various aspects of mental health and neurodivergent conditions
• After a 1-year pilot in 2024, we introduced a proper 4-day working week, as disabled people will generally expend more energy overcoming the barriers of work and usually face a pay cut to manage energy levels.
• Introduced additional leave for perimenopause/menopause, as well as new parent connection personal connection time.
• Monthly 1-1 check-ins with senior management to talk through the good times and tough times at work.  
• Regular check-ins on workload pressures and taking proactive action to minimise stress.

Above all, our mantra is what can we do to reduce the energy it takes you to fulfil your role and deliver rewarding work to our clients.   

Sharing with Sir Charlie Mayfield – “Keep Britain Working” Workplace review

As part of the disability confident employer scheme in Scotland, I was invited to a round table discussion with Charlie Mayfield in Glasgow earlier this year.  In the session, I shared the points above and responded to the challenge of employers in the private and public sectors about funding workplace adjustments as follows:

“We frame adjustments in the context of energy demand. If we make adjustments to our process, technology, or how we work together to remove barriers, we reduce energy, anxiety, or stress. In turn, this leads to people working to their strengths, enhancing skill development, client service, and productivity.   We don’t see it as a cost, but a way of working differently. Just as we have done with the introduction of a four-day work week, it benefits all, and disabled people do not need to take a pay cut for reduced hours because the unadjusted workplace consumes their energy.”   

Working with the People in Front of You

And we are not alone in caring for our team, as Charlie noted in the interview, that many businesses are concerned about employee wellbeing, recognising the marked shift in employees showing early signs of mental ill health over the last decade.  Working together, mental ill health and disabilities do not need to be life-defining conditions, but we need to deal with the real issue in the workplace.   It is about creating a supportive environment and understanding difficulties, even when you don’t experience them yourself. Businesses need to work with the person in front of them, lean into their needs, and by doing so, create a culture where all the people are able to perform well.  Its fairness, which at Beyond Green means equity as well as equality depending on the case in hand, and the unique needs of the employee – we don’t all need the same help, but we all often need help that works for us. 

Moreover, as business leaders, we need to recognise that the whole person comes to work and brings an ever-increasing set of anxieties about the world we live in, such as the cost-of-living crisis, the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and supporting dependents.   With a supportive and adaptive culture, the employer and employee can ride these waves together as both parties fundamentally want to perform well. 

It may not always work out, but it will mean that employees are better placed to understand the type of work that suits them best, and employers are learning where they can be flexible and where their business model requires a more fixed approach.  Above the legal requirements, employers do not need to have a perfect solution or get it right the first time. At Beyond Green, our approach evolved with each situation, and what sticks with employees is how you made them feel; and they’ll take that with them as advocates of your business and a new way of engaging.  

All the players on the pitch

As Charlie Mayfield noted in the interview and at our roundtable, to improve our workplace wellbeing and create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to flourish, a genuine partnership between the healthcare system, employers and employees is required.  And it is important to remember: those with disabilities are already expending a lot of energy battling to break down barriers in their path, be it housing adaptations, access to transportation or struggling in the workplace, such as taking notes, planning work, or sensitivity to noise in an open plan office. 

They’re on the pitch in work or trying to find work. Now the employers, with the support of public services, need to join them as equal partners because we are only going to win with a full squad playing towards the same goal.  

I chose to write this piece because it’s not about how hard it was for me. After all, lots of other people had/have it harder than me (imposter syndrome coming on); and I could follow our conditioning of just suck it up, get on with it and do your best. it’s about how life could be so much better for everyone and for organisations that are struggling with productivity if we worked collaboratively to reduce the total energy required to bring the change we desperately need to improve wellbeing, the state of the planet and the prosperity for the 99%. 

The post Workplace Wellbeing and the impact of our decisions – Part 2 first appeared on Beyond Green.

Our founder and director Paul Adderley reflected on some recent news around the workplace and mental health, and how it relates to his own experiences throughout his career and the role we as a business play in that conversation.

Strengthen workplace mental wellness, collaboration and productivity; and is diagnosis an enabler?

Two news items this morning that are strongly connected to me and the internal work at Beyond Green:

• Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar
• Sir Charlie Mayfield’s prime time interview on Radio 4  (8:10 – 8:20) about disability and mental health in the workplace

My personal reflections below bring together the two strands of these articles: i) the presumption that the rise in mental health and disability benefits is driven by overdiagnosis (my personal story), and ii) businesses need to work with the real people around the table (how we work at Beyond Green).

Diagnosis- A necessary enabler?

The overdiagnosis narrative is deeply worrying for someone who struggled in school, university and professional qualifications with undiagnosed dyslexia until I was 34.  From clearing out my family home after my father passed away this year, I came across my old school reports, and a consistent theme was very good effort but “careless mistakes”.   This continued at university, with earlier feedback on my essays as good points/insight, but let down by sub-standard writing. This began to sow seeds of anxiety and not being good enough, regardless of how hard I worked.   

Struggles and Survival Strategies

Like many people with neurodivergent minds, there is a determination to develop survival strategies to overcome our struggles and the associated anxieties. For me, personalised strategies in a world with limited support and many barriers enabled me to progress through university and embark on an accountancy qualification with the ICAEW.   Though in the late 1990s, the world of numbers was moving toward report writing and the digestion of a lot of written information.  Despite passing 12 exams, the Final Admitting Exam (FAE) – a case study – was, in my view, the F****** Awkward Exam, as it took me several attempts before I passed. With 10s of practice papers, four exams over two additional years, I realised something after my diagnosis.  The jo-jo marks I received correlated with the volume and density of written information in the exam.  With no diagnosis, a life of strategies means you just get on with it and do your best; there was no additional time, support, or curiosity about why this employee was struggling with the FAE, despite being highly rated in performance reviews.  

The invisible hand of technology

In the workplace, the firm Price Waterhouse (PW) ‘s vision to digitise audit work within the first year of my training enabled me to adapt how I process information, document my work, and use my dyslexic dexterity to connect disconnected information to gain insights.  However, the struggle continued as promotion shifted the focus of work further away from numbers and closer to report writing, email communication, etc. The promotions also enabled my abilities to understand a range of points in a room and to build authentic relationships to flourish.  A childhood strategy to avoid writing at all costs enabled me to develop skills in building trust through better listening and communication. As the saying goes, people will remember how you made them feel above all. 

Needs Key players on the pitch 

So was this diagnosis an enabler as I moved through my career? In short, yes, it was, though it took 15 years to feel it! For non-disabled people, an enabler could be a mentor or a network that opens doors. BUT it needs other players on the pitch to really transform the working lives of neurodivergent people and others, the value we bring to the organisations they invest a huge proportion of their time in, and the broader economy and society.

Read Paul’s thoughts on how businesses can make a difference in part 2 of the blog post.

The post Workplace Wellbeing and the impact of our decisions – Part 1 first appeared on Beyond Green.

This newsletter, we’re sharing a case study on our work with Vegware on the Green Claims Code, and talk about B Corp Month, International Women’s Day, and how we can make a difference as a business for disabled and trans employees and communities.

Vegware Case Study – Green Claims Code

Founded in 2006, Vegware is an Edinburgh-based food packaging company like no other. They specialise in certified compostable ”Packaging made from plants”. With their pre-sales advice and market education, followed by their after-sales support with the Close the Loop service, their passion is to maximise food packaging becoming compost.

We have been supporting them with their certification to ISO14001 and ISO9001 for Environment and Quality Management since 2013 – in 2024, we expanded the depth and breadth of our internal compliance audit of Vegware’s market and customer communication to evaluate compliance against the 13 aspects of the Green Claims Code (GCC). You can read our case study on the project on our website here.

Here is what Kelly Falconer, Head of Marketing at Vegware, had to say on our work together:

“Working with Beyond Green is invaluable in keeping us on the right track with our communications. They help us ensure we’re using clear, transparent language and avoid making bold claims that can’t be backed up. Their guidance gives us confidence that we’re communicating responsibly and effectively. I always enjoy our sessions as they are insightful, practical and a real asset to our work at Vegware.”

B Corp Month

Last month was B Corp Month. This year’s theme was #GenB or Generation B – being part of a generation of businesses aiming to have a positive impact on the world.

The theme of generations of changemakers is a very relevant topic in sustainability conversations, so for this year, we decided to focus on different aspects of the role different generations play in driving change in business and in sustainability. Here are some of our thoughts on the topic:

• “When we forget that our present grew out of the seeds sown by people coming before us, we forget that it is never just on one generation to create change.” (What came before – LinkedIn) 
• “We must all pull on the levers for change.” (A Generation for Good – Blog Post)
• What practical actions to support intergenerational collaboration are we taking as a business to make a difference? (LinkedIn)

International Women’s Day 2025

The theme for International Women’s Day this year was #AccelerateAction. Inspired by the theme for B Corp Month this year, we reflected on how different generations can work together in accelerating action for women’s rights, within our shared space of sustainability work.

We’ve reached out to women in our professional networks to get some of their thoughts on what they’ve gained from working with different generations of people, and on what they’d like to see for the future. Read our blog post for International Women’s Day 2025 here.

Making A Difference

After all this talk about being a business for a good, we feel it is only appropriate to share a couple of the areas where we see an urgent need for action.

Disability Benefits Cuts

As a B Corp as well as a Disability Confident Leader, the news of the planned benefit cuts for ill and disabled people and the huge impact the cuts would have on the most vulnerable populations is difficult to see. The wider conversation is often skewed towards individual responsibility, without accounting for the systemic barriers to work for disabled employees or the role of organisations in addressing them. We’ve shared some of our thoughts on the responsibility of businesses to support our disabled employees on LinkedIn.

It is also on us as businesses to speak up, and to support our employees in doing so if they would like to. Disability Rights UK has pulled together resources on how to take action against the proposed disability benefits cuts.

Support for Trans Women

With the recent UK Supreme Court ruling on ‘woman’ as an identity being based on biological sex, it is now more important than ever to think about how we can support our trans employees, co-workers, and connections in our community.

The ruling and the uncertainties around what comes next will have a significant impact on a lot of people’s lives and mental wellbeing. Staying informed and checking in on your trans contacts can make a world of a difference during a time when they may be made to feel unwelcome and isolated.

In addition, a good first step to making a difference is to share resources, appropriate training materials and opinions from people directly impacted, so these are some of the resources we’ve found helpful:

• This excellent list of support resources for trans people, pulled together by the Good Law Project 
• Disability Rights UK’s blog posts on the connections between disabled and trans experiences
• Biological Science Rejects the Sex Binary (Article) – “The data-driven bottom line is that “man/woman” and “masculine/feminine” are neither biological terms nor rooted exclusively in biology.” 

At Beyond Green, we’ve been focused on accessibility and general inclusion in our social sustainability work over the last few years, but the current situation has highlighted to us that trans rights should be its own theme within our advocacy for responsible business practices.

The post Beyond Green Sustainability Newsletter Spring 2025 first appeared on Beyond Green.

“What happened to my mental well-being when I turned left…

…I’m not talking politically.

What happened is that my well-being received a much-needed boost. A rush of endorphins flooded through me, my lungs filled with fresh air, and my eyes were captivated by the breathtaking views stretching from the Firth of Forth to the North Sea.

The short back story: over the dark winter months of 2023/24, I was absorbed with caring for my elderly parent, who had suddenly become unwell. Long days, coupled with many long journeys from Edinburgh to Worcestershire, the emotional labour of witnessing your parent’s abilities change daily; as well as leading Beyond Green, took its toll on my wellbeing.  I had missed getting out on my bike for my regular remote working “cycle to work” route.      

With my family safe and stable, normality began to return to life in Scotland, and I headed out on the bike, though clearly apprehensive about my lack of fitness. The circular route, which I have taken many times, is always clockwise, all right turns. On my latest outing, I stopped at a junction at the top of a hill and decided to turn left instead, to discover what was down a track. 

Amongst my apprehension, a kind voice inside counselled me: 

• Go as far as you feel comfortable
• You can always turn back
• Take your time; there is no rush, no destination
• There is no need to accomplish something today

With the freedom of not failing, my curiosity heightened. Every new turn a discovery, the vistas grew as I climbed a farm track to be welcomed by Shetland Ponies in a paddock. These ponies took me back to visiting Shetland in January 2018 with a friend, who had never seen such wee ponies. It provided the perfect photo opportunity to reconnect.

Upon getting home, I felt the overwhelming sense of joy of having been out in nature; the physical activity and discovery of small things. In over 15 years passing this ‘turn’, I had never turned left until last week. I would never have anticipated the impact such a simple turn could have on my wellbeing. 

I am now trying to take this forward in my work, so that when faced with new challenges, perhaps, I’ll turn left more often to discover the wonders I could not foresee.    

As Beyond Green’s Mental Health First Aider, I believe it is important to share wellbeing experiences to help normalise the conversation about our mental health, just as we do with our physical health, so we can attend to those little niggles and develop long term resilience. In the spirit of sharing, I am curious about what happens to others when taking a new left turn…

• If you have, what left turn did you take in your daily routine, or would you like to take?
• How did it improve your wellbeing?
• Has it encouraged you to be curious about trying new things?  

Wishing you well, 

Paul 

Founder & Director, Mental Health First Aider

The post Taking a left turn on the wellbeing journey first appeared on Beyond Green.

1. Learn from others to create a rewarding place to work 

We’re very ambitious about what we want to achieve. One way that we measure our success is by learning from our communities and our connections. We’re a B Corp because we want to be a business for good, but also because being part of the B Corp community allows us to share our best practice and learn from others more easily. 

Being a Living Wage employer is one way we ensure that we reward our team in a fair and measurable way – it’s a benchmark to start from. Another way is our Employee Share Option Scheme, set up in 2017; we are grateful for the learnings shared by Vegware and Stoane Lighting on this.

Alongside other financial rewards, we strive to create a culture that allows people to flourish and openly share their insights. We aim to learn from each other internally, through regular knowledge sharing sessions and discussions. Our recent LinkedIn post on the invisible work women are often expected to cover in the workplace was a result of an internal discussion around the topic, which also allowed us to identify ways in which we can better support women and make work more visible. 

2. Think of accessibility as a necessity

Accessibility is a necessity; our company mission is to make positive change easier by inspiring everyone to create a sustainable world, and that ambition can only be achieved if everyone is able to join us in our work in the first place. Even if your company mission is not focused on people, your company relies on the work your team is doing – the more you can support your people, the more of their energy is spent on the work and not on overcoming accessibility barriers.

We’re not perfect when it comes to accessibility; it’s a work in progress, as it should be. But we’ve found that thinking of accessibility as a necessity has helped us invest the time and resources needed to make improvements that have helped the entire team. As an example, sharing meeting agendas in advance is an accessibility concern, but helps everyone stay on track and focused. 

We have an accessibility roadmap of improvements, which is crucial especially for a microbusiness like ours – our next goal will be to pilot our inclusive workshop design framework which we’ve adapted from the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines.

3. Hire in experts

It is easy to think you need to go it alone when it comes to making improvements to your business, but it often means putting yourself under unsustainable pressure. Maybe because we’re a consultancy ourselves, it’s easier for us to realise when we don’t have the internal expertise to meet our ambitions. 

Our partnership with AAB People has strengthened and is now integral to shaping our Learning and Development programme. Last year, we started working with AAI EmployAbility to reach a wider range of applicants through their inclusive hiring practices.

We have been sourcing accessibility and disability awareness training from Purple (Purple365) and AbilityNet (supported by a Digital boost Grant), which has helped us build our skills across the team more easily.

Want to know more about the work we do? Have a look at What We Do, our recent Net Zero case studies, or get in touch here.

The post How to become a more inclusive employer in 3 steps first appeared on Beyond Green.

Read through our annual report below – if you prefer, there is a pdf version below and we’re providing a text only version in Google Doc.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to receive quarterly updates and our annual report sneak peek directly to your inbox.

The post Annual Report 2021 – Highlights of the year and Net Zero first appeared on Beyond Green.

In our autumn newsletter below, we share a few highlights from our project work and our commitment to being a better business. This newsletter, we are celebrating our VIBES Good Practice award, share news of a job vacancy, and introduce some of our new clients.

VIBES Good practice award

We were one of 35 companies chosen to receive a VIBES Good Practice award for 2021. We are delighted to be recognized for our work in helping our clients and collaborators build sustainability into their business practices, and for our progress in our accessibility work.

Anderson Strathern

Beyond Green has recently completed an initial Net Zero carbon roadmap for Anderson Strathern, an entrepreneurial and dynamic firm which cares about its people, clients, environment, and communities. Net Zero is a key component for their strategy. They are taking an ambitious step forward by committing to meaningful carbon reductions in line with Science-Based Targets and by understanding their baseline carbon footprint, opportunities available to make reductions, and the implementation timeline required to meet targets.

This project involved engagement with Anderson Strathern’s board, professional staff and operational teams. Following their public announcement (watch the video here), interest has grown with more staff members joining their Net Zero Group. We are excited to be involved from the beginning and help Anderson Strathern along their journey and look forward to supporting them in the next stage of their journey. We hope their commitments inspire others within the legal sector, their clients, and beyond.

Disability Confident Membership

Earlier this year, we committed ourselves to becoming Disability Confident and shared our first step on this journey with you in a previous newsletter. We’re happy to announce that we have moved to Level 2 of the membership and are now officially a Disability Confident Employer.

New clients

We’re hiring!

We are looking for a Digital Transformation Assistant to join our team!

The right candidate shows initiative and the right attitude to provide support in streamlining our processes. The vacancy is for 6 months and can be remote. Find out more about the vacancy here.

***Please note that this is a Kickstart Scheme vacancy, suitable for young people aged 16-24 and claiming Universal Credit.***

Annual Report 2020

In case you missed it, we shared our annual report for 2020 last month. In it, we celebrated our progress towards the SDGs and our project work over the course of last year. You can read our annual report on our website here.

Would you like to receive updates like this straight to your e-mail inbox? Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

The post Autumn Newsletter – VIBES Award, Net Zero Projects, And More! first appeared on Beyond Green.