Category: Blog

Here at Allia, we talk a lot about our mission to create a positive impact for people, place and planet… But what do our team do in their personal lives everyday to play their small part in helping save the planet. After all, it’s all the small things go towards making a big difference.

Ask any founder and they will list the things that make starting a business tough – working long hours yet feeling as though you lack the time to get everything done. Not knowing where to turn for help or advice plus being so busy managing the day-to-day jobs that the strategy gets left behind. We understand. That is why we launched our Amplify programme, which we like to call our ‘founders’ club’.

When we built our first Future Business Centre in Cambridge back in 2013, we knew there were certain organisations that needed to be part of our impact community from the start. And one of them was Cambridge Cleantech. Celebrating its 10th anniversary last year, the UK’s largest cleantech member organisation is growing and expanding its reach well beyond Cambridge – in fact, it has welcomed international members over the years from countries such as Israel, India, North and South America and Japan. Meet the team, as part of our Climate in Focus campaign.

Female founders are on the rise, with female led businesses in the UK almost doubling in the last four years. However, there’s still a long way to go with only 32% of UK businesses being owned by women.

It’s safe to say that most organisations would like to improve their carbon footprint, reduce their emissions, and be more ‘eco-friendly’ and environmentally focused, but many don’t know where to start, or what that really involves. How much difference does it really make if one organisation turns down the heating in their offices, or encourages more staff to car-share on the way to work?

Imagine you are a creative freelancer at the start of lockdown. You have been building your business over the past few years and you know how to meet new market demands, but the dance studios, art galleries and community centres are now entirely closed. What do you do?

The impact field is often regarded as difficult to quantify, qualify, and monetise. Yet as more social enterprises and other purpose-driven businesses continue to emerge and shine, the fact of impact’s real success is becoming impossible to ignore. There may be specific learnings that corporate leaders can glean from the experiences of founders in the impact space. These founders are innovative thinkers who had sustainability in mind before Greta Thunberg walked.

Given the year we’ve just had, it’s understandable to reflect on how far-reaching the economic effects of Covid-19 and lockdown will be, particularly on business and employment. Yet despite that fact, as a Peterborough native, I’m pleased to report the fiery entrepreneurial spirit of the people of Peterborough is burning brightly, with record numbers of business registrations in the last year.

Picture this – you’re in your third or fourth hour of consecutive virtual meetings and fatigue is beginning to set in. Even a coffee won’t hit the spot, you’ve got a headache, and yet another Zoom meeting scheduled for later on. Did we ever think we’d be yearning for a face-to-face meeting?!