Our ethical policy is all about who we work with and our ethical ambitions.
Here you can see our Enviral LTD ethical policy.
Enviral is a purpose-driven communications agency and consultancy that cares for people and the planet. Our mission is to effectively communicate purpose to the world. In short, we help organisations be better, and communicate their social and environmental stories through our consultancy, communications and strategy skills.
Enviral wants to actively promote positive behaviour change, within the marketing industry, that leads to a cleaner, greener and fair future that we can all be proud of.
The nuts and bolts of who we are though, is that we are human beings wanting to make a difference. We believe that our business practices should be conducted with kindness, ethical integrity, honesty and respect for the planet and the people affected by our activities.
We believe that our activities (our own and those on behalf of our clients) should inspire positive social & behaviour changes for a better world and a better way of life.
Working with you….
A large part of the impact we have on the world revolves around the type of people we work with and the stories we collaboratively work together to tell. We work with a variety of clients from different industries, and have an ethical company screening process before committing to any project. We have a range of questions, including if potential clients currently have (or are committed to working towards) a social, ethical or environmental mission or purpose. Collectively, we will then determine if we feel that there is a good fit between us, and whether we are the right company to serve out that mission through the work we do. Our positive and purpose screening process ensures us that the company, and/or person fits with our ethical values and company mission. We also do a Client Disclosure Report every year showcasing what industries we work in, and whether we take any revenue from ‘high carbon’ or ‘controversial’ industries. This transparency is a commitment to never work with or on behalf of organisations who don’t meet our ethical ambitions.
Positive Purpose Screening
We aim to only work with clients, and on projects that have multiple of these factors:
- Have a social, ethical or environmental mission or purpose
- Raise awareness of important environmental, social and ethical issues
- Promotes positive behaviour changes
- Are teacher brands for positive movements, doing this genuinely without greenwashing to inflate their ethical credentials for brand credibility
- Encourage and supports sustainability and, or healthy lifestyles
- Promotes a healthy natural environment
- Provides customers with positive education on a particular product or service
- Reduces consumption of high environmental impact products & goods
- Highlights ethical problems and tackles injustice
- Promotes fairness, inclusivity and equality in the workplace
- Is a Certified B Corp, social enterprise or non-profit organisation
Negative Purpose Screening
We will not work with clients or undertake projects that directly promote any of the following:
- Fossil fuels or high carbon initiatives, without a true and well-known vision and large scientific backing that the initiative is going to advance our fight against climate change or environmental conservation
- A proven record of lobbying against the environment
- A proven record of lobbying against positive change
- Who work with (or currently support) high carbon clients
- Arms, ammunition and conflict
- Discrimination or extremism
- Gambling, tobacco or unhealthy products aimed at children
- Predatory financial services such as loan sharks
- Any known discrimination towards less represented communities
Finding the Balance
We understand that sometimes sustainability can be hard, and there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ company. Finding the balance is really important and sustainability needs to be taken one step at a time. On occasions, we will find that a client or project can be seen as both positive and negative, where they may be associated with elements from the negative screening list, but are changing their structure to become more positive and ethical. On these occasions, we will consult the board, the rest of our team and the Company to see where we could come to a positive solution. We also believe in a ‘Sustainable Growth Mindset’ (SGM) and believe purpose-driven organisations can always strive for a more equitable and sustainable world. We release our Client Disclosure Report every year and can be seen on www.creativeandclimate.com/disclosurereports for industry transparency.
Here we will notify where there are controversial decisions made and where we’ve made a group decision to move forward on client work which may have conflicting balances.
Our positive and purpose screening process does not just apply to new clients, it also applies to our existing relationships. We will review our current relationships to ensure that they still meet our social, environmental and ethical values and that these are at the forefront of conversation going forwards, including making our SGM mindset known for continuous improvement.
Joss Ford
Founder, Enviral LTD.
12/05/2020