Looking back (as far as the late 1980s, I’m afraid to say) I suppose I became involved in PR without really realising, and with cleantech before it was even a thing.
During a gap year placement with a youth charity in Yorkshire, I raised funds to purchase and equip a mobile conservation bus. While studying geology at Durham University I was co-founder of a town-gown “greenprint’ project, based on a campus-wide environmental audit. With hindsight, I’m not sure being told what to do by two spotty teenagers was well received by the whole management team, but it did win a £1000 prize while achieving my first print and broadcast coverage (no social media back then).
The rest, as they say, is history: from in-house utility and energy roles, such as ENGIE; to global communications groups, such as WPP; to a start-up financial PR and investor relations firm.
“Variety is the spice of life” may be a cliché, but it’s definitely true at Resonates. Although we are a small and growing consultancy, Resonates has managed to attract the most diverse team I’ve ever worked for: in terms of our cultures; our ages; our industry backgrounds; our communications disciplines; and our breadth of sector knowledge.
That variety is reflected amongst our client base too, from entrepreneurial scale-ups to established multinationals, which genuinely means that no two days are the same.
Factual:
Fun:
Two words: stability and reality. While the seas around us are so stormy and unpredictable, employees and clients alike are looking for a stable life–raft on a realistic course.
Consultancy-based businesses, such as Resonates, can help cut through current commercial and political chaos with independent analysis, advice and reassurance; based on our cross-sector, cross-cultural and cross-client experiences.
We can provide additional expertise and a safe environment that enable our clients to stand back, take a breath and anticipate the broader context; before plunging back into the eye of their own hurricane.
While innovative technological thinking – of the likes that Resonates represents – is vital, I believe that we can only get close to net zero (or even real zero) with simultaneous behavioural change.
That might be amongst the general public (e.g. smart meters and consumption patterns); within the investment community (e.g. the ESG movement) or at the government level (where current levels of flux are arguably diluting 2030 and 2050 targets).
Method cleaning products – eco credentials and ease of stock control for my two Airbnbs.
Revisit the West and North Yorkshire moors in which my conservation bus operated, to see whether it has made a tangible difference to the ecology and visitor experience since its 1990 launch.
Either way, it would be an uplifting day in some of the UK’s most breathtaking scenery.
