I am sure like many people the recent global events have led me to question how best I personally can make a positive impact. Eighteen months ago I left leading Hubbub to set up Sizzle – was it the right decision?

A key message from the US election is that if people feel things aren’t improving, they are less likely to vote for you. A ground-breaking report suggests that tackling inequality is essential in addressing social and environmental challenges. Will anyone be brave enough?

Extreme weather, recent political events and hard-hitting reports can make it hard to remain optimistic. Perhaps one response is to celebrate the amazing range of local community initiatives driven by passionate people intent on improving their locality.

Can a different approach to policymaking remove some of the barriers that have prevented successive governments from introducing a ban on the use of peat in growing?

After years of experimentation is the Circular Economy about to hit the mainstream?

Delivering systemic change is complex and time-consuming.  Here are five things I have learned and how they have changed the way I think and work.

Our first attempt to creating systemic change has proved highly challenging. Here are five key findings from our initial independent evaluation.

Getting a rejection from a potential funder is a regular occurrence and can be demoralising. This is how I have learned to react.

Creating effective behaviour change campaigns is complex, here are five techniques that can help.

Having created four social enterprises, I am increasingly asked for guidance from existing and perspective social entrepreneurs. Here are five frequent questions and my thoughts based upon my experience and way of working.

I was one of the judges of the first Business Green awards way back in 2010. Fourteen years later, I am somehow still on the panel and looking forward to what will be a celebration of the very best sustainability initiatives at a packed and prestigious London venue. Looking back, I thought it would be interesting to consider what have been the significant changes in the award entries. Here are my views and alternative awards. 

I have long held the view that the complex language used to describe climate and environmental challenges has made it difficult for people to comprehend the impact it will have on daily lives. Similarly, those working on supporting a better quality of life for people can sometimes take insufficient account of the profound and long-term impact that developing environmental change will have on their work. This is why I am delighted to announce that I have been appointed as a trustee for Carnegie UK, an independent charitable foundation whose purpose is better wellbeing for people in the UK and Ireland.

Two years ago, I stepped away from being the Founder and CEO of Hubbub to create Sizzle. I felt the time was right to hand over to a new leadership team and decided on a clean break, as I didn’t wish to hang around like a bad smell in the room scrutinising the decisions of the new regime. I also wanted to return to my real passion which was the creation of new collaborative initiatives creating systemic change. So how has it gone?

The Enrich the Earth campaign, developed by Sizzle, has been running for around 15 months. For me, it has been a crash-course in learning about an entirely new sector. Through this insight, my view of gardening and growing has changed. My previous view was that it was a wholesome activity delivering some environmental and health benefits. But when I have dug deeper behind the headlines, I have realised that the picture is not quite as rosy…

I have spent 35 years creating and running three charitable organisations. There’s always one constant question: Are we making a difference and how can we demonstrate our impact? You would have thought after all that time and with Hubbub twice winning a Charity of the Year award, I would have the answer. I don’t.

Soil is the source of 95% of our food and holds about three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. The UK’s soil stores the equivalent of 80 years of annual greenhouse gas emissions. So, where is our strategy to protect it?

This month a multi-national company and an influential public body asked me to review their forthcoming sustainability strategies. They are both at the leading-edge of the sustainability debate, so it was interesting to compare their thinking and to reflect on how strategies are evolving. It struck me that both organisations have realised that significant change is essential but is made increasingly more complex by environmental and political uncertainty. Given this recognition, I was surprised about what was missing: neither organisation felt like they have truly grasped the scale of new thinking required.