Impact

Earthself works with forward thinking teams and organisations, people and communities who know there is a better way of doing business: one that is inspired by Earth itself.

Our financial year benefitted the community in the following ways: Earthself ran ‘The Future Series’: a two-week hybrid conference aimed at catalysing a ‘movement of movements’ with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland and around the world.

This event was run in support of COP26, in partnership with Net Zero Nation whose mission is to mass mobilise SMEs on their journey to Net Zero. It was funded by The Alef Trust; a global leader in transformative education and training in consciousness, transpersonal and spiritual psychology.

In total, 769 people registered for all the Future Series sessions. Throughout the two weeks of online sessions, we had 77 speakers. Over the course of two weeks, we hosted 33 different sessions and 1 post-COP26 event the week after.

This raised the awareness of a number of key organisations that are working to benefit Earth and all its inhabitants and helped created greater awareness of the positive climate action happening with Scotland and beyond.

Following this, we continued to work with the social enterprise Net Zero Nation to help develop and launch their Net Zero Accelerator, a twelve-month group learning programme designed to help SMEs gain SECR standard carbon accounts and expert advice to accelerate their journey to Net Zero.

This enabled the organisation to start generating revenue and create a number of partnerships that allowed the organisation to increase the number of SMEs taking part in their programme and help them explore ways to manage and mitigate their carbon emissions; a necessary part of their transition to becoming a more sustainable business that benefits Earth and all its inhabitants.

We also started working with Shift Bristol, a Community Interest Company, that runs a 12-month personal sustainability course for individuals to equip them with the necessary skills to transition to a more sustainable way of life. We supported their new director to transition successfully into the role as well as mapped the organisational purpose, identified roles and skills required to grow organization and assessed strategy, capacity, resources and impact. This enabled the organisation to develop an advisory board to support continued growth, maintain their services and revenue for the following year and identify next steps to further develop the organisation. We also worked with a small number of additional clients to provide consulting and advisory services related to developing a small area of their organisation helping them contribute more effectively to sustaining life on Earth.

Consultation with stakeholders

Some of our stakeholders are coaches who have previously trained with us. Following consultation with them, we started finalising Earthself's NatureProcess Coach Training Programme so that we could submit it for accreditation with the International Coaching Federation as this would enable our stakeholders to apply for ICF accreditation themselves more easily. We also redesigned our go-to market strategy in light of learnings from previously running the programme due to continued interest from prospective clients who were interested in taking part in the coach training programme.

Directors' remuneration

The total amount paid or receivable by directors in respect of qualifying services was £8,192.64. An additional £2,011.53 was paid to directors to offset existing director loans made previously to the business. There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed.

Transfer of assets

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration

The company received funding from the Alef Trust's Conscious Community Project to run an applied research project, ‘Elf-strength of the Earth' to explore whether it is possible to create a deeper connection to Earth in virtual spaces.

15 coaches and facilitators came together to create an EarthConnected Process. In total, 172 people participated in this research project. We recruited 144 people to take part in the online sessions. 105 people attended one of 11 pilot sessions. 16 countries were represented in the study; Phillipines, Indonesia, Australia, France, Germany, Greece, United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, Japan, Italy, Ireland, Russia, Carribean Islands, South Africa and Sweden.

Additionally, through conversations with one of the project stakeholder’s we ran a separate session using a short film to catalyse an exploration of how to bring nature and Earth into virtual sessions.

Twenty-eight people took part in this phase of the project and a virtual guide to working with Earth and nature online was created during a four-week guided process. The statistical analysis shows that taking part in an Earth Connected Process created a shift the participants relationship with Earth.

One of the key positive changes this project created was a sense of community and connection with others. The majority of participants identified ways they could deepen their relationship with Earth. A number of the coaches and facilitators that took part in the pilot sessions were inspired to do more sessions based around this process and incorporate it into their own work.

Thanks to the coaches and facilitators’ who led the pilot sessions and paid their participation fee forward, Earthself was able to partner with Worldview Impact Foundation and plant 225 native species trees. These trees will be maintained for five years, which ensures a 95% survival rate. Over the next 30 years, these trees will drawdown 225 tons of carbon dioxide.

Through this project, the company actively contributed to 10 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1 – No Poverty; 2 – Zero Hunger; 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing; 4 – Quality Education; 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth; 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production; 13 – Climate Action; 14 – Life Below Water; 15 – Life on Land and; 17 – Partnership for the Goals.

This project also helps contribute towards a wellbeing economy, which is a redesign of our current economic system into one that prioritizes the health and wellbeing of both people and Earth before profit. The evidence base shows that when people are able to receive the healing benefits of connecting with nature and Earth, they experience better relationships with other humans and take better care of the Earth itself. This connection also helps change people’s perspectives and enhance systemic thinking, creativity and innovation. These are essential components of redesigning the way all our human systems function.

Consultation with stakeholders

The company's stakeholders were the coaches and facilitators who took part in the research project as well as a number of other organisations linked to the project; Sutra; Alef Trust and Earthaconter. Meetings were arranged with representatives from each organisation to ensure that the applied research project met their needs. Additionally there were a number of stakeholder sessions with the coaches and facilitators to ensure they were able to contribute to the development of the applied research project. Additionally participants in the applied research project were also considered stakeholders and were invited to reflect upon their experience over the course of a week after participating in a pilot session and sharing any feedback on the project. This enabled us to identify a number of key areas for future development of this project.

Directors' remuneration

The total amount paid or receivable by directors in respect of qualifying services was £15435.63. There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed.

Transfer of assets

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration