Chief Executive’s foreword

2024 was a landmark year for Bioregional: the organisation I co-founded back in 1994 turned 30. We marked the occasion with an inspiring evening with peers, clients and friends. Our focus was on the next big challenges for the sector - the embodied impacts of the supply chain on carbon, resources, nature and people. We celebrated that, in the twenty years since we launched One Planet Living, the UK has reduced its average ecological footprint by almost a third.

What we are collectively doing to embed sustainability IS making a difference!

In the past year, our team continued to support businesses, the built environment sector, local and national governments, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations, to all play their part in tackling the climate and ecological emergency.

Highlights include continuing our transformational work with Kingfisher plc, which saw it smash its emission-reduction targets; launching a brand-new tool to help local authorities make planning decisions in line with the UK’s net-zero goals; and publishing a major new free resource: One Planet Living Goals and Guidance for new-build communities in the UK.

We were delighted to win Consultancy of the Year at the UK Green Business Awards: a fantastic achievement for our whole team.

We’re proud of our rich 30-year history of innovation and implementing cutting-edge ideas. Following in that tradition, in November 2024 we started trialling a nine-day fortnight as part of the UK’s second reduced working hours pilot. After a positive six-month trial, where we met the same revenue targets as the previous year and received overwhelmingly positive staff feedback, we have decided to extend the trial for another six months.

Looking ahead, the challenges we face are immense – but so is our capacity for positive change. Every day, my amazing colleagues and our ambitious clients give me renewed conviction that we can create communities and businesses where people and nature thrive, within the limits of our one precious planet.

Sue Riddlestone OBE, Chief Executive and co-founder, Bioregional