Music + Dancing is a combination that has been around since, basically forever, and everywhere that humans have been. Below are some puzzle pieces I'm seeing, although the picture is not yet as clear as this piece of art made with Dall-E: I don't make any secret about my love of music and dancing, and I don't need any scientific eviden...

Six years ago, I invested in more than just a winter jacket; I invested in a belief. This belief was embodied in a Patagonia jacket that I got at a €100 discount. Though the price was still high, I viewed it as a commitment to sustainability and making responsible choices. Image: Stock image of my trusty Patagonia Tres jacket I justifi...

A few days ago entrepreneur Jason Fried tweeted something which still has my attention after ignoring it for a whole weekend. His company 37Signals, who brought Basecamp and more recently HEY.com to the world, pride themselves on being somewhat contrarian. I'm again reminded of just how well they do that. If you've never heard of 37Sig...

Space shuttle launches were a big deal in the 1980s. For many youngsters like me, being a NASA astronaut was the ultimate dream. The space exhibitions at the Science Museum in London captivated me. Watching the 1986 space shuttle Challenger launch on television and witnessing its tragic explosion was an indelible moment. In 2002, Elon ...

"Microsoft will be carbon negative by 2030" If you missed this headline back in January 2020, you're completely forgiven. Despite the incredible level of ambition in this strategy, it didn't really make the news. Here's a quick recap for you: The three pillars to the announcement were clear: 1) Become Carbon Negative by 2030 2) Remove ...

A little over two weeks ago, I was a guest at the Tech.eu summit in Brussels. Beer, chocolate, fries with mayo, and ancient buildings, check check, check and check - but there was more to my visit. 📸 Photo by me - Featuring Robin's kids getting to welcome DHH and their dad to the stage. It had been a while since I attended any startup/...

Scoring for Sustainability: How FC Dordrecht Hosted a Climate-Neutral Football Match As a non-lover of football and living in a city where hooliganism fills the local football headlines, this one is a stretch for me, but it's definitely a topic worth sharing. On Friday May 19th, Dutch football club FC Dordrecht hosted the first climate...

The Scottish Distillery Making Climate Positive Gin and Vodka with Peas I can't quite get my head around products that are manufactured and at the same time, are climate positive, but if you know me and my British roots, you won't be surprised why this company caught my attention. I'd love to know how they end up with a carbon footprin...

The disappearing computer - and a world where you can take AI everywhere. Science fiction often becomes reality. The universal communicator from Star Trek is practically here, with many additional super powers. Imran Chaudhri just gave us the first glimpse of startup Humane whilst on stage at TED. Check the video, it's so much more tha...

Seepje has hit an incredible milestone, but maybe you've never heard of them.... let me tell you more. Have you ever stopped to think about the environmental impact of your laundry detergent? From the plastic packaging to the chemicals, and micro plastics that go down the drain, it's not the most eco-friendly product in your home. That...

It's hard to imagine that you haven't heard of Oatly. Possibly the worlds most loved, and hated, dairy milk replacement brand. Not to mention their fetish for insane outdoor advertising poster campaigns. Oatly just launched a new site called FckOatly*, and frankly, it's a tiny masterclass in impact marketing. Image source: FckOatly. In...

Two tales, neither good, but a great lesson for us to unpack. Just a few weeks ago Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn launched an experiment around the "True Price" of coffee. The experiment is small - just three stores are offering consumers the choice to pay the current price, or the higher "True Price" when they purchase a coffee to go....

I have my dear friend Marloes to thank for this one 💖 As someone who's always on the lookout for ways to help business become better for the world, I was instantly drawn to this book when she suggested it. If you've ever found yourself pondering the intricacies of "doing good" then look no further than Michael Schur's "How to Be Perfec...

It was at the end of summer 2016 when I first learned that I had forgotten how to breathe. Being my usual self, I quipped back, that I thought I was pretty good at breathing. I mean, I'd been doing it for almost 40 years, and it seemed to be working well. Apparently not. In that brief moment, standing next to a barn, surrounded by fiel...

It's pretty hard to comprehend, but the sixteen largest container cargo ships floating across our oceans are responsible for more environmental pollution than all of the cars on the planet combined. The reason for this is that they are, obviously, enormous, with equally enormous engines that absolutely drink fuel in the form of oil. Th...

If you can understand that infinite growth of GDP on a finite planet is a really terrible metric for countries to be using to measure progress, then you might wonder why almost all of the do. The short answer is that we started sort of by accident, it became popular, and we've never found a better way. In 2018 I was lucky enough to hos...

Today is day fourteen. This is article number fourteen. I'm allowing myself to be just a little proud for still being on target. At this point, not breaking the streak is an addition motivating factor and it feels like a habit is starting to form. For today's article, I wanted to do something different. Making better impact is a team s...

Your website. That's it. Your website tells me everything I need to know. If your company is serious about making better impact, then you have to be serious about telling the world. There is no better place than the front page of your website. There are many ways to do this. Examples range from talking about your vision of the future, ...

Imagine for a moment that your company had no competitors. What would that mean for your business and sales? How much energy could you redirect to making impact? When we focus our energy on making impact first and finance second, something magical happens. We move from being in a zero sum game, to a game of abundance. A zero sum game i...

The statutes of incorporation that were signed and put on record when your company was formed, almost certainly say that the goal of the business is to create as much shareholder value as possible. That's a legal obligation. The shareholders who own a part of the company, almost certainly took their stake as position for collecting som...

“"Execution pays your salary. Innovation pays your pension."” I love this recent quote from Steve Blank who wrote *the* book on modern day entrepreneurship. I'd like to add a third line to the mix: Impact makes you immortal. Innovation is the thing that gives our business a future, but it is not a goal in itself. It's a "how" and the c...

So here it I am, day nine, aka late Sunday evening, and I'm kicking myself. I've got plenty of things to write about, but it makes no sense to post any one of them now. I feel like I've trapped myself into a corner. I started this challenge, to kickstart myself into getting this knowledge out of my head, but actually, that's not my goa...

"We need to destroy the competition." Have you ever stopped to think about how the language of business is incredibly violent? "James from sales has been killing it this quarter, but we are still losing ground to the competition." I mean, right down to thinking about your target customers. Really! As if the people that pay for your pro...

Think back to 2012, what were you doing? Even if you are the kind of person who cares more about money than anything else - it's not a question of whether your business will become a force for good or not, the only decision is when. Compare how the generations of BabyBoomers and genX look at the world, with mindset of the millennials. ...

Writers block isn't a thing I have enough topics to write about I'm not scared to publish I wasn't too busy either - but still I just couldn't be bothered I promised thirty articles To make your business better So I thought a little longer - but still Skipping a day would be easy Just get back on track tomorrow Add an extra day on the ...

Most people hate green washing. I love it. Imagine seeing a giant billboard, covered in an advertisement from a major oil company, proudly suggestion that you can fill up your car with fossil fuel and drive CO2 neutral. Just buy planting trees. True story - and you can image it didn't take long for the general public to ridicule them f...

What would Batman be without Joker, or Wonder Woman without Doctor Psycho? Your business can only be a super hero if you are fighting a super villain. Are you familiar with Simon Sinek's three "Golden Circles" model of why, how and what? It's great - but he missed the most important one. His 2009 TEDx talk has been watched more than 55...

If I ask you to think about companies which make impact on the world, what names come to mind? I'm going to assume that a few brands came to mind. Possibly your favourite, or even most despised. In my experience, here's what didn't come to mind: your company. Here's a secret: the company you work for, whether you are a freelancer, star...

Why I will eat my own dogfood by testing ideas in public for 30 days. What would life be like if all business could only be profitable by being good for the world? A place where business priorities are switched: to be a force for good first and profitable second. I don't know what that world looks like, but I do know that I want to liv...

Whether you love her or hate her, Greta Thunberg has done an incredible job of raising awareness of climate crisis across people young and old. And it's working. Increased awareness of Thunberg correlates to an increased likelihood of activism. Click through to the original Guardian report Influencers for a better world will continue t...