2025 Impact Report and End of Year Wrap Up

At the end of the year, I like to take stock of my impact and in years past I usually count my spend with local and diverse business owners as the biggest driver of that impact.

This year, I thought I’d do things a little differently.  As the owner of a certified B Corp company, and now a consultant to businesses that not only want to be more sustainable but to showcase those wins, I have learned a lot about where businesses have an impact and how to measure it.

Looking across the three main areas of sustainability, Environmental, Social and Governance, I reported on areas within each category where I making an impact (or could do better).

First, my goals for last year

At the end of 2024, I wanted to

• Increase my renewable energy usage

In terms of energy usage, our solar panels got back on line so we were able to use a much greater percentage of renewable energy. Pepco puts us in the category of using 87% less electricity than efficient similar homes. (Efficient similar homes are in the Top 20% of energy efficiency and have a similar footprint).

I also offset my air travel again this year through Offset Alliance. It’s a B Corp company that calculates how much CO2 is released by your flights and then offsets those emissions with environmental action.

• Do more business locally

I started counting more of my local spend in terms of meals, coffees, etc and making a conscious effort to go to non-chain local spots.  It did not make a huge dent in my spend percentage but I was definitely more intentional with my spending since I knew I was tracking it.

• Increase my direct spend to 40%

This goal was unrealistic from the start. I got to a total of about 37% with sustainable and diverse businesses and organizations that support them – WBENC, B Corp, NGLCC, etc.  One thing to note is that my spending for this year overall was down – a good thing! – so if I want to balance my financial controls with my desire to spend money with underestimated founders, I need to be a bit more realistic about my goals (until there is a B Corp certified and or women owned airline where I can spend my plane ticket money).

Next year I am aiming for a 5% increase in small and diverse spend and I think I will have to make that up when traveling (and do  better job of keeping track).

New for this year

Environmental

I mentioned energy efficiency and carbon offsets to monitor and mitigate CO2 emissions.   I also use a sustainable web host out of the UK, Krystal, another certified B Corp.

One thing I’m investigating for next year, after an amazing We the Change workshop with Marit Digital and Tonic, is how to decrease the environmental impact of my tech.

• Thoughtfully using AI

The use of AI is shifting so fast that even the experts are not sure exactly how to mitigate the impacts, both environmental and discriminatory, of the tech.  Based on what I’ve learned so far there are a couple of things to note when being thoughtful about using this technology:

• It’s moving fast but small, sustainable businesses will get left behind if they don’t take advantage of the productivity and strategy gains
• Some platforms use more resources than others
• Some platforms are more concerned with accurate and ethical results than others
• It’s a moving targets as the large language models (LLMs) are advancing so quickly

With that in mind, the best thing I can do is follow the experts, use paid services for AI, and continue to adapt with the technology.

• Web Browsing

This blog post by Marit Digital mentions using Shift, a web browser that estimates/ calculates your CO2 emissions with your clicks. I’m in the process of moving my browser over there but since when did switching your default browser become like switching banks? Passwords, apps, links -the switch is not seamless so it will be an ongoing process.

• Advocacy

I’ll be renewing my B Corp certification in the next year and one thing that changed with the upcoming B Corp standards is the need to do advocacy to influence sustainable changes on a large scale.

This year I joined the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN) and look forward to being more involved in the local Sierra Club network.  I met them through the Executive Director, David Whitehead, who is no relation! though I was able to use our last names as a talking point at the recent holiday party.

Social

• Advocacy

Speaking of advocacy, I’ve written about the organizations that support the work that I do. As a former organizer, I know that even small changes can feel hopeless in the face of large interests that fight any change.  The only way to counteract big money and big resources is people and lots of them.

It’s a full time job to keep track of all the laws, regulations, etc. that might impact you, your family, and your business for decades to come. That’s why these organizations are so important. Where special interests bring big pockets, these organizations bring scale.

• Diversity and Inclusion Spend

I said it – diversity!  During the great quieting of diversity this year, I’m still measuring my spend with small, diverse, and sustainable businesses.  This year I also called out my clients who are 100% companies owned by diverse and/or sustainable businesses or the organizations that support them.

• Community Engagement

This is an important metric for my sustainable business clients and one I have only calculated through mentorship hours in the past.  I did make my goal of 100 hours of mentorship this year (unpaid hours with small, local, diverse and sustainable businesses) and between mentoring and my volunteering hours actually logged 118 hours this year.

This was in addition to 14 speaking engagements reaching over 1000 people nationally this year.  I participated on panels for WBEC NY and DMV, I advocated Facts not Fear for NAWBO, and Emcee’d an event to generate funds for women owned businesses through Founders First.  For WACIF, I moderated several panels about how local businesses can STILL get access to the resources reserved for underestimated businesses.

Was there a great quieting on diversity and inclusion – without a doubt. Are there people in this field still working to get these businesses opportunities? You bet.  And I was glad to be a small part in getting the word out.

Governance

Some people are surprised to learn that sustainability also includes running a financially and operationally sustainable business as well.

• Financial

I don’t hear it as much anymore but the term social enterprise always bothered me because it seemed to imply that there are for-profit enterprises and then…this other thing. But if you’re not financially viable, you’re not an enterprise or at least, won’t be one for long.

My goal was to be 10% more profitable this year than last year, which I achieved. I did reduce my expenses while bringing on additional clients.  I’m projecting that I’ll actually come out a bit above that.  This is important because it allows me to invest more in the sustainability outcomes I’m looking for without making it financially impossible for me to do so.

• Policies

Aside from these reports, I don’t write down what my actual policies are regarding these aspects of sustainability. As businesses grow, however, they need to start formalizing so expect to see some relatively simple policies about my sustainability goals in the next year.

• Transparency

For a small professional services business like mine a crucial aspect is transparency. I need to let my stakeholders (that’s you!) know about what my impact is. So TA-DA! You just read all about it.  I hold myself accountable to my clients, my suppliers and you about what my impact is, how I measure, and how I plan to fill the gaps.  Reworking my impact report allows for a much more comprehensive view of what I am and am not doing, and what I plan to do about it.

Whew! One thing that I appreciate about B Corp certification is that I don’t have to go into all this with other companies that care about my values and impact. It’s a short hand for this way too long blog about what I value and what I’m doing about it.

At the same time, B Corp not anywhere near a household name. At the Sierra Club holiday party, very few people knew what it meant, much less in gen pop.

Collaboration is Resilience

So while I definitely have more work to do (always) I am proud of what my business was able to achieve this year.  And I want to be clear, there’s no way I could do it alone.  On a call recently, one of my esteemed colleagues, Deb Shannon said, “Collaboration is a form of resilience.”

Collaborations with Certify My Company, CEI Media Group, Custom Learning Atelier, Directed Action, Diversity Professional, The Fehlig Group, WACIF, SocialLight,  Malloy Industries and WBEC NY and DMV, and We The Change, are what got me through this challenging year and they have me anxiously anticipating what’s in store for 2026.

May you have both collaboration and resilience and see you next year!