Print
A smooth blend of business success and sustainability at Destination Growth
Media centre > News RSS Feed > A smooth blend of business success and sustainability at Destination Growth
A smooth blend of business success and sustainability at Destination Growth
3 August 2009
Building a big brand doesn’t have to cost the world; that’s according to innocent drinks’ head of sustainability Jessica Sansom who will deliver a business master-class on ‘going green’ at the region’s biggest business event, Destination Growth ’09.
In just 10 years, innocent has established itself as the number one smoothie brand in the UK with a turnover of over £100 million, a market share of approximately 80 per cent, and a strong mantra to ‘leave things a little better than we find them.’
“My role at innocent is focussed on ethical purchasing, sustainable packaging and the resource efficiency of the business,” explains Jessica Sansom who, in 2008, was named as one of the Ethical Corporation’s Global Ethical Leaders alongside Barack Obama and Bill Gates.
“We have looked at our whole business, from fruit farms to our office, and asked ourselves one simple question – how and where can we use less? We think it’s a great question as not only does it help to reduce our environmental impact, but it also means that we are forced to be that little bit more creative, and ultimately that we spend less money too.”
At Destination Growth, on Tuesday 3 November, Jessica will pass on practical tips and advice to delegates on how to create a blueprint for turning their business green.
“Business growth and sustainability go hand-in-hand,” Jessica explains. “Yet there is a common misconception that being environmentally-friendly is costly and particularly during tougher economic times businesses probably wouldn’t put it at the top of their priority list. But small, simple steps to improve sustainability performance can make a big difference on the bottom line. After all, resources (like energy and water) cost money, as does waste disposal, so getting leaner and more efficient as a business just makes sense.”
innocent was born when three university friends decided to set up a fresh fruit juice company back in 1999. After six months of developing recipes in their kitchen, Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright wanted to test their drinks with a wider audience.
To do so, they bought £500 of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a music festival. They put up a sign that said, ‘Should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies?’, and put out a big bin that said NO and one that said YES. Fortunately, at the end of the weekend, the YES bin was full so they went in the next day and resigned.
Hear about the ingredients of innocent’s success and more about the praciticalities around Jessica’s role of installing sustainability across their business at Destination Growth ’09 – the East of England’s biggest business and networking event – hosted at AirSpace Duxford on Tuesday 3 November.
- Download press release image 2 (JPG 538KB)
- Download press release image (JPG 386KB)
Related Programmes
Share this page:
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon