Our Impact Report – and 6 top tips for doing your own

Our first ever Impact Report highlights how we’ve worked to integrate our values into every aspect of our business. From supporting thoughtful practices with our clients to making responsible choices in our daily operations, we’ve taken concrete steps to live by our values. Even as a small company, we’re committed to showing that every step towards positive change matters.

Still, we know we’re not perfect. But we are committed to transparency and learning as we go. And we’ve done so much (and learned so much) over the last year. Our team is proud of what we all achieved together – and we wanted to take stock of that.

The annual Impact Report is important to us to keep us accountable, but it’s also important to the wider industry. Because, if we, a small but capable team of travel PRs can do it, then so can you.

By openly sharing our practices - like our approach to bonus structures - we want to encourage more businesses and individuals to join us on this journey. This honesty helps us connect with like-minded partners who share our values, fostering a culture of mindfulness, accountability, and intentional growth at every level.

As a B Corp, reporting on our impact is a part of our duty. But it can serve as a platform for change – and we hope you find our experiences useful in the way you operate.

Let’s look at our highlights from 2024 – plus the challenges we faced, and our recommendations to others on a similar path.

Our commitment to sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. In 2024, we took significant steps to reduce our environmental footprint and promote responsible practices across the travel industry.

• 258 new trees planted
• 20% reduction in carbon intensity (CO2 per employee) emissions compared to our baseline year
• 69 out of 174 trips were organised sustainably* (overland by train or electric car or combined with another trip to save CO2)
• Green travel policy launched
• Employee carbon budgets introduced
• Partnered with Train Hugger
• Launched the Lemongrass Green Team
• Tangible carbon reductions logged

In 2024, Lemongrass focused on initiatives that positively impacted our team and the wider community.

• £5,000 donated to 29 charities close to our team’s hearts
• 4 day week at full 5 day pay
• Introducing private health care including coverage for mental health, dental and alternative therapies
• Major team training initiative launched
• Team health and wellness programmes improved
• 170+ hours volunteered to community projects
• Inclusive bonuses awarded to the wider team

In 2024, we made meaningful contributions to communities and strengthened our commitments to advocacy and education.

• 120+ hours of pro bono work completed with The Conscious Travel Foundation
• Client support – with sustainability and accessibility on every agenda
  
• Industry engagement and speaking at key events
• Education through webinars, reports and community engagement
• Becoming a member of Travel By B Corp
• Advocating for Braille menus in hotels and reducing flights

While 2024 was a year of significant achievements, it also brought challenges. We’re sharing these experiences not to dwell on the difficulties but to provide insights and solutions for others navigating similar journeys. By addressing these obstacles openly, we aim to make the process of creating an impact report more accessible, helping others overcome hurdles and feel empowered to share their own progress.

Our challenges underscored the need for systemic change in the travel industry—from rethinking infrastructure to expanding low-carbon options for consumers. Tackling these issues requires collaboration across the board, including policymakers. But the process of producing an impact report also presented its own unique obstacles. Here’s how we navigated them, alongside our top recommendations for creating an impactful report of your own.

The news loves doom and gloom when it comes to climate and sustainability. In contrast, impact reports tend to be… well, long and dull, frankly.

Balancing factual, data-driven insights with engaging storytelling is tricky. We wanted to avoid being preachy or boring and instead inspire the industry with possibilities.

Luckily, we’re a PR agency – and that means we’ve got the marketing knowledge to make our reporting stick like a news story.

• Blend narratives with data: We focused on weaving relatable stories alongside clear data points to maintain accuracy without overwhelming readers.
  
• Engage like a PR agency: Using our marketing expertise, we wrote the report to feel like a compelling news story, ensuring it was punchy, transparent, and engaging.
  
• Learn from others: One crucial step in this process was drawing inspiration from other reports. Each one tells its story differently, and building a "bank" of examples that resonate with the tone, structure and style you aim to achieve is invaluable. Impact Reports released from the likes of The Conscious Travel Foundation and Wild Frontiers inspired us, and maybe you.

Preparing a comprehensive impact report like ours takes time, effort, and expertise. It’s not a task to squeeze into your day-to-day schedule – it needs proper focus and planning.

Here’s what we found worked:

• Assign a dedicated team: You need a small, focused team – ideally two people – who can bounce ideas off each other and share the workload. If possible, work in person; it makes a real difference. The right people are key, so choose team members who are detail-oriented and can commit to the project.
• Block out dedicated report time: Make sure the team steps away from day-to-day operations. Our Green Team did exactly this, setting clear boundaries so they could focus fully. Let the wider team know they’re only to be contacted for emergencies during this time.
  
• Set clear timelines: Timelines can easily slip with so many stakeholders, opinions, and sign-offs involved. Map out a clear schedule in a tool like a calendar, Trello, or Monday.com, and include buffer time for reviews and approvals. Share these deadlines with everyone involved so they know what’s expected of them.
• Keep the team small: Fewer people means fewer bottlenecks. While input from others is essential, keeping the core reporting team as small as possible ensures smoother progress. As a guide, our Green Team contributed five days of focused work to this report, with one additional day from senior leadership.
• Consider outsourcing: If your team doesn’t have natural strengths in design or copywriting, outsourcing these elements can save a lot of time and ensure a professional finish. This can be particularly helpful when trying to balance other priorities or meet tight deadlines. Budgeting this in at the beginning will save any nasty surprises later.

The bottom line? Give the process the time and space it needs, invest in the right people, and stay on top of your timelines to avoid unnecessary delays.

The B Corp Impact Assessment outline is pretty thorough, and adhering to guidelines is the key to keeping B Corp status. Due diligence is required here – and it’s all completely unfiltered… So be prepared for scrutiny.

• Set realistic goals: Be brave but realistic with the goals for the year ahead. Your impact report makes you accountable, so you need to make sure that you’re pushing yourselves – but equally, not making goals that are totally unachievable.

Obtaining relevant and accurate data can be difficult at first – especially when you’ve only been collecting data for a relatively short time. This will be easier over time, but the first year can be challenging.

We also learned the hard way that aligning your reporting period with your financial year is something to think about from the start. Midway through, we had to switch from reporting on a calendar year to a financial year, which added extra work. It’s definitely worth considering this upfront to save yourself a headache later.

Ensuring that the data collected is reliable, especially when working with self-reported information from beneficiaries or participants, is also challenging. Naturally you’ll want to put your best foot forward – but there’s a lot of self-auditing that needs to happen before resubmitting as a B Corp. It’ll all be flagged anyway upon review, so it pays to be credible.

• Build a foundation: We put our energy into setting up solid data collection processes that we knew would get better over time. Partnering with E-Collective or another external expert can make reporting feel a lot less daunting and help you get it right from the start.
• Be credible: Transparency and self-auditing helps to ensure data is reliable, even when working with self-reported information.

It’s all too tempting to highlight successes and avoid the bad stuff. But no one learns from winning all the time. Failure is the best teacher – like a baby taking their first steps, they’ll only learn to walk if they fall down trying.

• Be transparent: Show where things didn’t quite go to plan, and how you will make changes for the year ahead. We live in the real world. It’s not perfect, and neither are we. But people appreciate honesty and authenticity – and they can learn from your failures almost as much as you can.

For example, we set an ambitious target to reduce our total carbon emissions by 11% from the previous year. However, we didn’t anticipate the impact of our growth – more team members, clients, and travel as the business expanded. As a result, we didn’t meet our goal.

Instead of ignoring this, we’ve communicated the shortfall clearly. We’ve also updated our approach to reflect our growth, with new targets that focus on reducing emissions relative to client revenue by 11%. We’re staying ambitious, accountable, and transparent about the challenges we face and how we plan to address them moving forward.

Your impact report is a powerful storytelling tool, so make sure it reaches the right people. Develop a solid communication plan that involves all key stakeholders, both internal and external, to ensure your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

• Engage your team: Host internal sessions to celebrate successes and inspire employees to act as ambassadors for your sustainability journey.
• Share with your wider community: Use owned channels like social media, blogs, and newsletters to highlight key insights and amplify your reach.
• Involve your stakeholders: Share the report with key stakeholders to reinforce transparency and build trust.
• Target the media: Reach out to trade publications and media contacts that align with your brand values to expand your report's visibility. Create press releases for media contacts who are interested in your journey.

Consider past learnings – does the media care about your report, and how can you make it more relevant? A strong marketing plan ensures your report goes beyond just a document and drives meaningful conversations about your sustainability efforts.

Each impact report gets easier if you reflect and document what worked. Track your timeline, save templates, and gather feedback from stakeholders and media to refine your approach. Evaluate the tools you used—did they simplify the process? Host a quick team debrief to capture learnings and note what went well or could improve. By keeping these insights handy, you’ll streamline next year’s report and make an even bigger impact with less effort.

We’ll keep advocating for change, and fighting for better. We’ll focus on strengthening collaborations with other B Corps, raising awareness through speaking engagements, webinars, and industry events – and we’ll continue to find ways of reducing our carbon footprint and our impact on nature.

In 2025, we are proud to announce new roles within the company—Director of Nature and Director of People & Culture—a new partnership with Pinwheel, and a goal to increase volunteering hours by 15%, reflecting our ongoing commitment to both people and the planet.

Our 2024 Impact Report covers the progress we’ve made, the challenges we’ve encountered – and the exciting opportunities ahead…