Demand for our earth’s resources has skyrocketed in recent years, posing a significant issue considering our resources are finite. 28th July marks Earth Overshoot Day for the year 2022, i.e., the date on which researchers have determined that humanity has used all the planet’s biological...
This week marks the start of the UN’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF), 5th to the 15th July. The HLPF is the UN’s central platform that tracks and promotes progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This event will acknowledge the impacts COVID-19 has had...
Skating Panda has always been recognised by our clients for being ahead of the game when it comes to driving positive change, and the decision to apply for B Corp certification was a natural part of our organisation’s progression. But why are others, from Octopus...
At Skating Panda we enjoy creating campaigns to change behaviour for the better and deliver real impact. Often we work on preventing or reversing things that risk damaging the planet or harming people. How about therefore supporting the creation of a day to celebrate those people...
Just over six months ago the UK’s attention was, for a couple of weeks at least, focused on climate change, Glasgow, and the international Conference of the Parties, or COP as it has become known. It felt like a big deal. It was the first...
Throughout my career working in PR in the health space, time and again I’ve seen women’s health issues pushed to the bottom of the pile. But none has made its mark and captured headlines more than one of the last great taboos in the workplace...
And just like that… 2021 is already coming to an end. It’s been a very eventful year, to say the least, between COP26, the historic malaria vaccine approval, COVID-19 recovery coming more into focus, and the charity sector starting to rebound – to name just...
Women make up 51% of the workforce in the UK and are now working later into their lives than ever before. This means that a greater proportion of women in employment will experience the menopause and its symptoms during their working lives. Around 8 in 10...
2020 will stick long in the memory, having delivered a series of seismic shocks. The global pandemic shook and disrupted every organisation, government and individual. Black Lives Matter became a mainstream force and accelerated the fight for racial equality. There was a rise in awareness...
As part of our 10th birthday anniversary, we’ve been looking back as well as forward, and this led us to the yearly excesses of the winter holiday season. We all aspire for a healthy, balanced and sustainable planet, and we can play a role this month through the choices and decisions we make...
Many charities and brands invest a lot of time and resource into named national or international awareness ‘moments’ to help raise their profile, yet every year the same ones dominate mainstream media. So are awareness days, weeks and months still a great way of engaging new and existing audiences, or an ineffective...
Covid-19 has complicated the way we work and go about our lives, but despite the challenges it has provided the chance to rethink the approach to purposeful business. Skating Panda and Charities Aid Foundation have joined forces to share our thoughts....
We’ve all heard the arguments that individual consumption changes are “futile” since 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to 100 companies. This is true, but only to a certain extent. It is true that industries must take on their role in fighting the climate crisis,...
Skating Panda and Charities Aid Foundation have joined forces to share a series of four articles to help businesses understand the why, what, and how of becoming purpose-led ‘It’s about the journey, not the destination.’ This is, of course, a well-worn saying. But the words are surprisingly...
In the workplace, we want to maintain a professional reputation and create, nourish and build good relationships with colleagues at all levels, but what if one day you’re in a meeting or having an informal conversation and someone says something that is wrong and offensive? In...
Skating Panda and Charities Aid Foundation have joined forces to share a series of four articles to help businesses understand the why, what, and how of becoming purpose-led Photo by Mark Fletcher Brown; Unsplash Around the world, every business’s leadership team is facing the same challenge –...
Skating Panda and Charities Aid Foundation have joined forces to share a series of four articles to help businesses understand the why, what, and how of becoming purpose-led There are two main schools of thought explaining the huge growth in the hype surrounding purpose in business....
We’re currently experiencing what a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world can be like, in an unprecedented way. It comes at a time when so many businesses have been uncovering, articulating and publishing their purpose. We were chatting with the team at Blueprint for Better Business...
Three weeks into starting a new job - and returning to “paid work” - and the world has turned upside down. Coronavirus broke out and within a week our au pair had returned to her home country. But that was okay as the schools were...
'Business purpose beyond profit’ is a bandwagon in danger of collapsing. It’s no longer voices on the fringe, but the mainstay of capitalism that’s calling for change. Especially after the FT and Economist nailed their colours to their mastheads. When opinions swing swiftly, reality gets distorted. The voices of the critical experts become even more important...
It was only last week that I was talking about ‘How can we finally achieve global gender equality?’, a Tortoise Media event. The event talked about the need for strong action. Talk of strikes to highlight the amount of unpaid labour women do. The need for...
The Global Goals. The 17 Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals. SDGs. No matter what you refer to them as the facts are: Sustainable Development Goals logo They were created in 2015 Ratified by 193 countries There is a 2030 deadline to achieve them To quote the United Nations, these...
There’s a bit of chat and it’s getting louder about what it really means to be British isn’t there? Maybe it’s because we’ve committed to and actually now started to leave the EU, just maybe… Listening to the radio on January 31st 2020, the day of...
Last year Skating Panda was invited to speak at the opening plenary of the Charity Finance Group’s Risk Conference. The focus of the conference was risk and our session was called ‘Risk Horizon Scanning’. There was a wonderful irony in being given such a brief as we had just...
With ten years left until the deadline for accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), hope that 2020 will be the year of action – to kick start a decade for delivery. ...
Everyone’s talking about purpose. And it’s not always good news: “the new greenwashy buzzword” or “the preachy new CEO buzzword” or again “the empty buzzword”. And so on and so forth. An early adopter, Skating Panda has spent the last 10 years focusing on increasing social impact, solving global...
You know that feeling when you look at your LinkedIn profile pic and you think, that’s me, that is. Or maybe that’s not me. Or that’s one version of me. What did you choose? The serious or the smiley or maybe the inbetweeny pic? The smart or the smart...
Today marks the start of Fashion Week here in London. This is always an exciting and busy time of the year for any fashion brand. This year, however, I have noticed that there is something peculiar going on – in parallel and often hand in hand with the...
Climate crisis poster by David Solnit “…this is our invitation. Starting on Friday 20 September we will kickstart a week of climate action with a worldwide strike for the climate. We’re asking adults to step up alongside us. There are many different plans under...
Keith Weed pictured. Keith Weed, Unilever’s CMO for nearly ten years, has been instrumental in transforming a packaged good manufacturer into everyone’s favourite purposeful corporate pin-up. Keith, and countless other people at Unilever, made a big dent by being brave enough to challenge conventional business wisdom. Keith is an...
When you’re a global company it’s not always easy to have all your regional counterparts singing from the same hymn sheet. There are even more complexities when you’re picking a charitable cause to support, and are making plans on how to implement corporate responsibility strategies across each and every...
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Gen Z – loosely, people born from 1995 to 2010 - are true digital natives, hypercognitive and globally connected. They value individual expression and believe in the power of dialogue, they avoid labels and mobilise themselves for a variety of causes. By 2020, they will...
The brand challenges – and opportunities - faced by charities increasingly resemble those faced by corporates. Brand visibility In a competitive market for individual and major donor giving, brand visibility, understanding and preference is critical in creating opportunities for charities. At Skating Panda, the...
I've got two sons, last night my wife and I were lamenting the relationship troubles they are having. 'I thought boys were supposed to be easier than girls.' I joked. My wife didn’t laugh because she’s wiser than me. Boys' relationships aren’t something our culture and society...
At three very different events over the past month speakers touched on purpose and social responsibility in business, including the role that government, corporates, charity and entrepreneurs can play in driving positive change. But the volume of words being spoken about the topic far outweighs the actions being taken...
There's no doubt the startup economy is thriving with 660,000 new companies registered in the UK in 2018 – a 5.7 per cent increase on the previous year and a record high. Many startup businesses are built on a founders' passion, and increasingly we're seeing entrepreneurial businesses that...
Headlines in May have painted a pretty dire picture for charities when it comes to fundraising, or lack of it. Last week’s report from our friends at the Charities Aid Foundation showed a decline in regular giving from the general public from 69% to 65%, followed by yesterday’s findings...
Skating Panda is often asked by charities to provide innovative strategies around their fundraising and income strategies. This isn’t a surprise given the challenges in the sector. From GDPR to the decline of traditional ‘supporters’ and the rise of event based giving, through to brand and reputational damage in...
The default belief in nearly all businesses is the same. We're here to make money, fast. What businesses do is the answer to the question ‘how do you make more money, faster?’ Getting an answer isn’t that difficult. You make money by selling something at a...
Happy Red Nose Day 2019! Comic Relief is a British Institution, and as Red Nose Day rolls around again today, the charity continues its incredible work to raise many millions for good causes globally. Skating Panda has its roots in Comic Relief too, with our Founder...
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the word feminism (inappropriately) became synonymous with man-hating, hairy arm-pitted women professing that they are the superior sex. It’s 2019 and as we approach International Women’s Day feminism looks much different. The internet has opened the...
You've watched Simon Sineck's video, heard about Unilever's success and seen the stats about millennials. Purpose sounds like a good thing. Something your business should have. But how do you go about finding yours? That might be you, or you’ve got the sense it’s something your CEO is interested in, or...
Last week as business leaders met at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Paul Polman, former Chief Executive of Unilever is quoted to have said “Trust is key for the future corporation. To be trusted, I believe, is a greater compliment than to be loved.”...
To some extent, we already know what 2019 has in store for us: Brexit and its aftermath; no doubt more Trump; renewed debates around returning Museum artefacts; Glastonbury is set to return; and the Rugby World Cup will take place in Japan. What don’t we know? A hell of...
Last Monday, while Theresa May was telling the House of Commons that her deal was the right deal for Britain, a different debate was taking place down the corridor in Committee Room 10. Hosted by the CIPR, those attending heard well-reasoned arguments both for and against...
Since the early days of the business, Skating Panda has always strove to play its part in the journey towards gender-equality. The team is hugely passionate about women’s issues and female empowerment and this is reflected in the dedication, enthusiasm and expertise we have given...
CEO Sacha Romanovitch’s departure from Grant Thornton is a blow not just for the accountancy world, but for people who believe business can be a force for good. There's obviously a lot going on behind the scenes, a lot we don't know, but there's a...
Everyone always asks, what’s behind the name Skating Panda? First, we want to make a distinct difference – and there’s not much that’s more distinct than a black and white panda. Our aim is always to create real, memorable change where it’s needed most. I’ve loved pandas...
From the very beginning of the discussion around the Sustainable Development Goals, there has been a lot of talk about role of the private sector in delivering them. For some time, however, exactly what that role was lacked definition. The goals were negotiated by governments...
Last month, I was on the panel of a debate hosted by City law firm Taylor Vinters as part of their thought leadership programme the Zebra Project – one of the most visible examples of how the firm is evolving to become a purpose-led business. The...
A year ago, just like every year, summer was wistfully coming to an end and days were getting shorter and shorter. More importantly for this story, a year ago, a new project had started playing on the pandas’ minds. The National Health Service (NHS) was going...
At Skating Panda we believe in the power of purpose and as we acclimatise to the second machine age, it’s time to include the impact technology has on our lives in these bigger conversations. It’s the reason we’ve launched The Technology Ethics Lab (TechE Lab)....
At a time when political culture has become so polarised, brands are reaching out to unchartered territories and taking a position on social issues. We are witnessing the beginning of a new era in how brands interact with their consumers. Shifting from a passive observer,...