Earlier this year, GECA teamed up with the phenomenal folks at Future Focus to deliver a webinar designed to help accelerate business impact through an authentic, rigorous, data-backed sustainability strategy.
Our CEO, Josh Begbie, with Ellie Moss (Brand Purpose & Stakeholder Engagement Director) and Ellie Field (Sustainability Strategy Director) from Future Focus, explored the latest research demonstrating authentic sustainability as a business advantage and how to leverage this via third-party sustainability certification (access the full recording here).
Our Strategic Communications Manager, Kendall, recently spoke to Ellie Field about Future Focus’s origins and values and asked about the challenges and opportunities on the horizon for Australian businesses wanting to embed sustainability into their company.
What was the initial inspiration behind the creation of Future Focus, and how has that vision evolved?
Our sister agency, Focus Creative, is a strategic marketing and communications agency that works with a range of organisations. Focus Creative was increasingly asked to help clients (in both the public and private sectors) bring sustainability initiatives to life.
In this ‘incubation mode’, we observed organisations that throw themselves into sustainability in a meaningful way unlock more business opportunities. We wanted to set up a separate arm to Focus Creative to bring on more dedicated sustainability expertise, delve into this trend in more detail, and build a practical model to help organisations approach sustainability authentically.
Our core vision around authenticity unlocking potential remains unchanged. Our model is holistic, practical, and designed to bring stakeholders along the journey—it’s just evolved in terms of how we get the word out! From proprietary research to webinars and workshops, our mission is to share what we know and help businesses accelerate their sustainability journeys.
A cornerstone of Future Focus is to help organisations bridge the authenticity gap. In a nutshell, what does authenticity mean to you?
Think of an authentic person you know. You likely perceive them as authentic because their thoughts, words, and actions align. We think it’s the same for business. An organisation’s thoughts are its Culture, its actions are its Commitments, and its words are its Communication. That’s why the foundation of any successful and authentic sustainability strategy is those 3 Cs – you need all three to have maximum impact. It’s not enough to just be doing the right thing; you need to live it and be talking about it.
What kinds of organisations do you work with?
A real mixture! Mostly medium to large organisations across various sectors – from construction and manufacturing to logistics, professional services and FMCG. Some of our clients are only NSW-based; others are Australia-wide, Asia-Pacific or global. Whatever an organisation’s size or speciality, our 3 Cs model can help.
How is Future Focus different from other consulting agencies?
The holistic nature of our approach. Many consultancies do excellent work in ‘Commitments’, or the more technical components of sustainability. However, that hard work sometimes stays in a document that teams don’t necessarily understand or know how to action.
We often find the Culture and Communications pieces are neglected, either through capacity or capability gaps. Our difference is bringing it all together and making a meaningful and actionable strategy so that all stakeholders can contribute and accelerate progress.
What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for SMEs in Australia wanting to embrace sustainability?
We’re seeing challenges converge from all angles, from an evolving regulatory landscape to swiftly changing customer and employee demands. As well as this, we’re aware of the enormous remits some sustainability professionals have without the budgets to match! This is where an approach authentic to the organisation is critical, to help prioritise and make some progress.
Opportunity-wise, growth! We conduct annual research exploring the link between businesses embracing authentic sustainability and their performance. The results clearly demonstrate that authentically sustainable businesses outperform their peers across seven hard business metrics:
(1) talent attraction,
(2) talent retention,
(3) engagement/productivity,
(4) innovation,
(5) resilience,
(6) customer growth,
(7) and profit.
Any business willing to invest in sustainability authentically can reap these rewards and enjoy a competitive advantage.
GECA is delighted to welcome Future Focus, a fellow certified B Corporation, as one of our professional services partners. Stay tuned for future collaborative events.
