Impact Report
2023
Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same.
Dear Reader
Understanding the way we impact the world has always been important to me, although not always obviously so. When we started making commercials and branded video content twenty years ago, I was excited by the creative aspects of what we could do. But I always felt like something was missing for me. What did these companies really stand for? How were they impacting societies? What mark did they want to leave on the world?
Along side this content we also started telling what then were 'CSR stories'. From ex-Soviet mines in Kazakhstan to smallholder farmers across India to the mountains of South America. We met the communities who were being impacted by business firsthand, and heard directly how their lives were being affected. It left us with a very clear view about business and its power to impact change in the world. It warned us what could happen when things go wrong, but also, what we might achieve when things are put right.
We don’t have to submit to a narrative that villiainizes business. We can recognise its unique power to have a positive impact – on an individual, business and world basis. But unless we redefine businesses’ relationship with the environment and society, people don’t know where to go; they don’t know what ideals to hold. That’s why we set up our consultancy, tbt, to help organisations understand their impact, and communicate it in an authentic and inspiring way. We also have a magazine, which is filled with stories of hope, exemplifying what we can achieve when we self-reflect; what good business can bring to the world. Because if we’re going to act of hope and not fear, we need to remind ourselves again and again what to be hopeful for.
And this is what makes me so proud to be a B Corp – we are joining a community of individuals who believe that we can do better. Being a B Corp provides us with a framework to hold ourselves accountable; to tangibly measure what benefit we are bringing to the world and where we can improve. It’s a hopeful vision for what business can be.
Adam Penny
Co-founder and CEO
The Beautiful Truth Group
B Corp impact score
Business needs comprehensive, credible, comparable impact standards to support economic systems change.
The B Impact Assessment is a digital tool that measures, manages, and improves positive impact performance for environment, communities, customers, suppliers, employees, and shareholders. All B Corporations must have a minimum of 80 points on the assessment. Receiving a minimum verified score of 80 points on the assessment is also the first step towards B Corp Certification.
The B Corp impact score is broken down into 5 key areas. These are:
Governance - A company’s overall mission, engagement around its social/environmental impact, ethics, & transparency.
Workers - A company’s contributions to its employees’ financial security, health & safety, wellness, career development, & engagement & satisfaction.
Community - A company’s engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, & sources from.
Environment - A company’s overall environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, & biodiversity.
Customers - A company’s stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products & services, ethical marketing, data privacy & security, and feedback channels.
We have incorporated these impact ares into the three core pillars of our business
People - Our impact on our people (Workers, Community, Governance)
Organisations - Our impact on the businesses we work with (Customers, Community)
Planet - Our impact on the wider planet and society (Environment, Community)
Improvements since our last score
- We have launched our environmental policy statement
- We have a full time mental health first aider in the office
- We have increased annual volunteer day allowance to five per annum
- We have introduced an enhanced maternity pay scheme
- We continue to purchase recycled and environmentally preferred products for the office
- We continue to share our success; all employees receive financial bonuses related to company performance
- We continue to share financial results with all employees once a quarter
- We have become London Living Wage accredited (one of only nine creative agencies in the UK)
To nurture better narratives - spurring the brilliance of people, business and planet.
We envision a world where people’s values, ambitions and business align - creating lasting benefit for all stakeholders, and overcoming the challenges of our world.
We stay open-minded, seeing things from all perspectives.
We believe every business has a duty to benefit its stakeholders and the world; ours is no different.
We believe in acting with integrity in all our business dealings – with suppliers, partners, clients and all our stakeholders.
Our purpose
To nurture better narratives - spurring the brilliance of people, business and planet.
Our vision
We envision a world where people’s values, ambitions and business align - creating lasting benefit for all stakeholders, and overcoming the challenges of our world.
Our values
Explore
We stay open-minded, seeing things from all perspectives.
Our values
Be beneficial
We believe every business has a duty to benefit its stakeholders and the world; ours is no different.
Our values
Be true
We believe in acting with integrity in all our business dealings – with suppliers, partners, clients and all our stakeholders.
Part 01
Our impact
Approach to our people
Human first, company second.
These are words we live by.
A company is a group of individuals, inspired to achieve, through a common cause and set of values.
Uncovering what’s meaningful for individuals is our first step in driving positive change in business, and we practice what we preach. We know that an understanding of personal purpose leads to a happier, more fulfilled worklife, and this is the foundation of our culture, underpinning the way we work with each other.
We have a number of multi-disciplinary teams across the editorial, consulting and creative production aspects of the business. We work hard to bring those teams and individuals together, be it socially or operationally – we value opinions and input regardless of role or seniority.
We are proud to pay the London Living Wage to all interns, and in the event we take on an unpaid work placement (as part of their studies), we cover their transport. We don’t believe internships should be only available to the few.
Our core values – the principles we stand by – reflect how we hope our colleagues feel in their work with us. We encourage each other to explore – to stay open-minded and to challenge their personal perspectives and intentions. We encourage our employees and clients to think about being beneficial – considering their impact beyond making profit. Finally, we remind them to stay true – to have the courage to find their voice and listen to it.
Our gender and salary balance
Our Bi-annual Pulse Check
Twice a year, we ask employees how we’re doing. Here’s what they said in 2022.
Sharing our profits
Every year, we donate a proportion of profit to a hand-picked selection of charities and purposeful causes.
What our people think
The view from an old timer, a new face and a friend of tbt.
Georgia Sanders
Senior Producer
Georgia joined The Beautiful Truth Group as an intern in 2016. She has since had four promotions and is now a Senior Producer.
What initially excited you about The Beautiful Truth Group?
The first project I worked on here was a film about polio for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It was a fascinating project, and I found it so much more fulfilling than projects I had worked on previously like music videos. It paved the way towards my own personal purpose: providing a platform for people who don’t usually have that space, and allowing them to express themselves passionately and authentically.
What has evolved in the company's mission and vision since you first joined?
We’ve gone from being solely a film production company to growing into a consultancy and an editorial magazine. Our cohesive approach allows us to create films that aren’t just functional, but also have sustaining longevity. We work with our clients like partners so that we can really help them understand their purpose.
What’s kept you working here for such a long time?
The projects we work on have integrity. We make strong judgments as to who we work with and why, and we make sure to not produce propaganda or greenwashing material. We hold our clients accountable to what they say, so each project feels authentic and meaningful.
Do you have an example of this?
We made a long-form documentary for a client and along side it produced an internal report that identified issues local communities were having. Because the client was passionate about creating meaningful change he took the concerns seriously, and liaised with the relevant teams to fix them. I’m really proud that we played a part in actually changing things for these individuals beyond making the documentary.
Malini Rao
Design Intern
Malini joined The Beautiful Truth Group in 2023 as a Design Intern. Coming from an engineering background, she taught herself visual design and has since worked at John Knowles Richie and freelanced with a variety of brands, from startups to global businesses.
What initially excited you about working at The Beautiful Truth?
The way that design is integrated with purpose. The first thing I saw when researching the position was the editorial website. It was so beautifully designed and the content was so refreshing that it immediately drew me in. A lot of other organisations don’t talk about the same topics, so it was really refreshing to see how The Beautiful Truth reflected on concepts of purpose and meaning and on the clients that they work with.
What has surprised you about joining The Beautiful Truth?
I think the most surprising thing has been the way that people work together and connect with each other. In previous organisations, my experience was defined by much bigger teams who worked in very separate departments in a more limited way. But here, there is so much collaboration and interaction – from entry level right up to the leadership team. Everyone works together and so it feels like we are all equally valued within the business.
What do you enjoy most about working at The Beautiful Truth?
I am really enjoying developing new skills – for example, I have been learning how to use Shorthand – while also learning about the company on a deeper level. I've always wanted to be a part of a team where I can develop hard skills alongside a higher level of understanding of the business.
Anna Butler
Personal Development Coach
At tbt it is important that our employees find their own personal purpose (or are walking the path to create meaning in their own lives). We provide all employees with monthly confidential one on one sessions with Anna Butler, a qualified coach, in order to help them do just that. Initially we asked Anna Butler to conduct these sessions during lockdown 2020, to ensure that everyone remained mentally healthy. Since then the sessions have developed, to career and personal guidance.
I’ve always been fascinated by people. My career got started doing consumer research for numerous global brands.
While I liked learning about what makes us tick, after a while, I found myself at a crossroad. I realised I wanted to have a more direct impact on people’s lives – to help people flourish so that they can reach their potential. Then I discovered coaching.
The Beautiful Truth’s purpose is ‘nurturing better narratives’, and in a way, that’s exactly what coaching is, it’s looking at someone’s personal narrative and asking: what stories are you telling yourself? What are you carrying which serves you, and what are you carrying that doesn’t?
Something I really admire about The Beautiful Truth is their emphasis on caring for the individual – supporting them as they navigate their unique life path.
In my sessions with employees, I’ve been impressed by their determination to change the narratives of their own lives. It’s given them space to step off the treadmill. To take a breath. And then to move consciously. But changing a narrative isn’t easy. We aren’t just looking to rewrite the wording on a piece of paper; we’re here to do the deep work, and to make an actual change. It requires self-reflection. What do you care about? What motivates you? What gives you that spring in your step?
Purpose for me is that North-Star. It's the thing that gets you out of bed in the mornings, that keeps you motivated on tough days. Your purpose might be revolutionising the way the world works, or it might be being a great mother, or a great father, or a great role model for people in your community. But whatever our purpose is, when we discover it, we gain clarity. We become more authentic and confident, as well as more courageous and daring.
On a company level, this equates to pushing boundaries, and inspiring others. It's been gratifying to see how tbt employees have flourished on a personal and professional level as they have each embarked upon this journey of self-reflection.
Part 02
Our impact with organisations
We believe in business as a force for good.
In a world where people’s values, ambitions and business align we can create lasting benefit for all stakeholders, and can help to overcome the challenges of our world.
We work with companies who want to create lasting benefit for all stakeholders.
By identifying and expressing where common values lie, we give people the motivation to act in more beneficial ways through their organisations, not because they should but because they want to.
We work with businesses to explore and express this possibility. We uncover where people’s values connect to the businesses that they are part of and we turn this understanding into meaningful impact.
By using inspirational storytelling and creative formats we shift perspectives, uncover, express and demonstrate values and purpose.
"The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor."
- Jonathan Haidt
Impact of our work
Our work focuses on impact areas that we believe are key to creating lasting benefit for all stakeholders, and overcoming the challenges of our world. Below, we summarise the types of projects completed in 2021.
What our clients say
Since 2020, tbt have been our partners of choice for story telling using visual imagery. This year, they recognised the importance of the BSH 25in25 initiative and brought not only the generosity to support but sentient and intellectual consideration of the subject distilled into a compelling narrative that has been shared across the world and engaged our global community.
- British Society for Heart Failure
tbt draws together people seeking positive stories and creative change with cheer … [the magazine] is a beautiful, upbeat biannual to cheer the heart and offer some sunny stories, solutions and suggestions for a world that needs them.
- Monocle
TBT is an incredible organization to work with. I could not imagine doing my role and not working with them on the wide range of projects and challenges that they get involved in. They are responsive to my business asks and are credible thought partners. The people that work there, live their values and are very skilled at what they do.
- Pfizer
Projects we're proud of
Throughout 2022, we've helped clients nurture better narratives to drive a positive impact on stakeholders and the world at large.
Part 03
The impact we have on the world
Approach to the planet and society
Every company affects the world, regardless of whether they are conscious of it or not. We encourage our employees, readers and clients to think about the benefit they bring beyond making profit.
Our editorial platform, The Beautiful Truth Magazine, helps us spread this message globally through insightful, thoughtful and timely content and subscriber emails. Despite our relatively small size as a business, we strive to tell big stories, and produced our first feature-length documentary last year to showcase what we can learn from Japanese business.
We proactively work to constantly audit and improve our own impact, down to every last supplier we use. We believe every business has a duty to benefit its stakeholders and the world; ours is no different.
Our carbon footprint
Measuring our emissions and setting a reduction target.
01. Measure
You can't manage what you can't measure. So since 2019, we've measured our carbon emissions every year:
2019
53.91 tCO2e
2020
54.25 tCO2e
2021
55.43 tCO2e
2022
73.41 tCO2e
Pro bono
We think we have a duty to tell stories of hope and purpose, regardless of affordability. We have been privileged to work with a number of not-for-profit organisations, both free of charge or at cost, to help them communicate some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Our Magazine
Our biannual, 120-page print magazine celebrates the individuals and businesses who are embracing life with purpose to create a kinder, greener and more equitable world.
Future commitments
01
We're developing a framework to measure and minimise our carbon emissions more precisely. This includes:
- Introducing sustainability checklist for all shoots to measure and minimise emissions.
- Incorporating the carbon footprint of suppliers into our emissions measurements.
Using this data, we will continue to reduce and offset to bring us closer to our target of Net Zero by 2030.
02
We have partnered with Matchable to increase volunteer opportunities for staff.
03
We continue to purchase recycled and environmentally preferred products for the office.
04
We continue to share our success; all employees receive financial bonuses related to company performance.
05
We continue to share financial results with all employees once a quarter.
Change starts with a conversation
If you have any questions about this report, or want to learn more about what we do, please get in touch with elizabeth@wearetbt.com
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