Can you tell me about Naturesave and how you've been using One Planet Living?
Naturesave was founded by our Managing Director Matthew Criddle in 1993 to use the insurance industry as a vehicle for sustainable development. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the 80s, he realised that the insurance industry is liable for climate and environmental losses, so why not use it to make sustainable change?
Part of this involved establishing The Naturesave Trust. 10% of our premiums every year are fed into this trust, which then provides funding for conservation and environmental projects. It has supported 100s of organisations over the last two decades.
Another key way we promote sustainability is through our Environmental Performance Review programme, which has been running since 1996. Funded by The Naturesave Trust, this provides SMEs with a detailed analysis of how they can reduce their environmental impact and ensures they comply with the highest environmental standards.
Since its launch, we’ve helped over 150 business operate more sustainably and we started using Bioregional’s One Planet Living® framework in 2011 to guide the process.
What made you choose One Planet Living? What do you like about it?
When I first started doing these reviews 20 years ago, we were using a standard energy, waste and water audit process. It was a very technical format and I had a feeling that things were sitting on people’s computers and not being read!
Our founder and director Matthew discovered One Planet Living through his connection with Pooran Desai, one of your co-founders, and thought it could help us. I took the framework and integrated it into our process, trialling it with a few businesses.
Using One Planet Living makes it so much easier to engage people. The fact that it’s broken down into the 10 easy-to-understand principles means there’s always something that resonates with their business operations – from zero carbon energy to land and nature. Our clients also like that there are clear goals and guidance attached to the framework, so they know what’s expected of them.
Many businesses we meet don’t actually realise just how much they are already doing. One Planet Living’s process means they start to gather this information together and get a much better picture of what they’ve achieved and where they can go next.