Sustainability strategies

Starting with the entrepreneurial ambition of longstanding client Tau Lotus, he developed the definition of the strategy for both the business and the brand, the technology concept and industrial design for the bike, investor engagement and sustainability assessment.

From Christoph’s early studies in marketing and environmental economics at the University of St Andrews and in Münster, Germany in the early nineties, Christoph’s desire to utilise design as a driving force to advance sustainability has been clear. Clients range from Nokia to British Airways, ecoATM to Spring Bank.

Other projects included the naming and branding of Floreon, a new compostable plastic; designing bespoke reusable packaging for luxury handbag rental platform Catwalk Club; and the re-focusing of material development specialists Lucideon. Christoph is IEMA certified for Carbon Management and GRI certified for Sustainability Reporting. Originally from Hannover, Germany, Christoph holds a degree in Management, Economics and Politics from the University of St Andrews, and an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins, UAL.

Having worked for large multi-nationals like Sony, Qualcomm, Nokia, Tesco, Sunglass Hut and Costa Coffee, Christoph’s work spans many industries and very different types of organisations including start-ups, SMEs and large enterprises as well as non-profits. It is this diversity that informs Christoph’s crisp analysis and innovative work. Christoph loves living at the end of the tube line: London’s inspiration within easy reach and the beautiful English countryside on his doorstep. Christoph has a lifelong passion for travelling with his family, including skiing and surfing whenever possible.

That gave her pause for thought — and she often thinks back to his comment almost four decades later.

In the meantime, she graduated from Brown University with a double major, in visual Arts and with honours in Art History, lived and worked in Italy, and moved to the UK in 2000. In her working life, Madelyn has always focused on business objectives, be it connecting strategy with creativity in branding and design, or building the business case for sustainability.

Grain (and a previous incarnation of it) has been a member of 1% for the Planet since 2008, donating 1% of revenue to environmental charities. Madelyn serves on the 1% for the Planet Board as well as on its UK & Ireland Steering Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Fluo Technologies.

Madelyn believes that businesses need to play a key role in creating an equitable and safe world and must take responsibility for their activities. Her background is in branding and communications, working with a variety of purpose-led brands over the years. She shifted her focus wholly to sustainability after studying Business Sustainability Management at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in 2020.

You may have spied Madelyn on BBC News and BBC World, commenting on branding, business, and communications, and she lectures on sustainable fashion at the University of East London. She holds a BA from Brown University and speaks Italian fluently. In 2019 she received an honorary MBA from the University of West London’s Claude Littner Business School.

She is a published author and has written a short story collection that links memoir with her family history of Chinese and Eastern European Jewish immigrants who converged in California.

At Grain, she helps clients navigate through materiality assessments, set sustainability strategies and successfully communicate progress.

Previously she was Director, CSR & Sustainability, at SITA, a global IT and telecommunications provider to the air transport industry. She was responsible for the development and delivery of the global sustainability strategy, and creation of the ‘carbon neutral by 2022’ initiative called Planet+. It included the first company-wide carbon footprint assessment, an internal carbon levy for business travel, and execution of a verified carbon offset programme that delivered measurable benefits in Borneo, India, Guatemala and East Africa. She also introduced annual sustainability reporting using the GRI and UNGC frameworks.

Her implementation of a company-wide ISO 14001:2015 certified global environmental management system helped to identify and reduce emissions, and she is an experienced ISO 14001:2015 internal auditor.

Amber created the award-winning Air Transport Community Foundation, providing access to IT and education for young people, which has benefited over 90,000 students in five African countries. Before this position, she held roles in communications, marketing and design, and brand management.

At Grain, she has worked with clients in the education, pharmaceutical, engineering and real estate sectors across a wide range of sustainability needs. Amber holds Masters degrees in Integrated Environmental Management and in Marketing. She is a Chartered Manager, a Fellow of IEMA, and a Fellow of the RSA.

She is an experienced sustainability practitioner and advocate with direct experience implementing positive change within organisations. As a B Leader, Laura is adept at helping businesses complete the B Corp certification process with ease and confidence. In 2017, she earned a post-graduate certificate at the Cambridge University Institute of Sustainability Leadership and has been recognised as an agent of change by a UK award scheme. She is the chair of the board of sustainability charity Caplor Horizons, a judge for the annual UK Global Good Awards, and teaches part of the Institute of Sustainability Institute’s diploma in business sustainability.

When not looking after her two young children and two whippets, Laura squeezes in reading, travelling, and trashy television.

Most recently he was Finance Director – Major Projects within Siemens UK. Projects ranged from the financial integration of several complex acquisitions spanning the rail automation, power generation and oil & gas industries, to an international assignment working with colleagues in Germany on developing new business models for Industrial IoT platform services. Each project involved a significant change requirement. From 2008 to 2013, Mark was Finance Director of Siemens UK’s Renewables Division when it was at the forefront of developing the UK’s offshore windpower capability.

His Siemens career also included senior finance roles within their IT/BPO and Logistics divisions. Mark’s earlier career was spent largely at Melrose Plc, gaining invaluable experience both at headquarters level and as FD of an operating subsidiary involved in the light manufacturing of B2C products. He also spent several years at GlaxoSmithKline where he worked within the consumer products business.

Since 2016 Mark has been contributing to the work of The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) initially on the development of the ‘A4S Essential Guide to Finance Culture’ and more recently on guidance to assist businesses on their path to Net Zero. Mark is a CIMA qualified Accountant and holds a BSc in Economics from UCW Aberystwyth. He recently completed the Business Sustainability Management course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and is continuing with further sustainability courses and training. Originally from Nottingham, Mark has been based in the Chilterns AONB for the last 20 years, taking every opportunity to explore and enjoy its natural beauty.

She was a sustainability project manager at SITA, an international air transport industry technology provider. Major projects there included annual CSR report production, ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems) certification management, EMS platform implementation, employee volunteering programme management, and data gathering for annual GHG assessment reports using the CarbonNeutral Protocol. Communications is the throughline of her professional career, and Mary excels at translating the esoteric and jargon-strewn into readable content.

In addition to twenty-plus years of corporate experience, Mary holds a Masters degree in Computing with a research focus on data visualisation, a post-graduate qualification in web publication, and formal training in GRI, ISO 14001, and BREAAM. She has a Masters degree in English from the University of Alberta, enjoys photographing and drawing birds and loves spending time with her very favourite person, her daughter Rosie. 

Monty has extensive experience bringing transformative solutions to market, including the commercial sale and distribution of digital music, the first podcasts, and the ad personalisation and audience targeting techniques that are the de facto standard today. At OwnerIQ/Inmar, Monty helped revolutionise the way manufacturers and retailers interact with their customers digitally, igniting the multi-billion growth of retail media networks.

Based in California, Monty has a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Certificate in Sustainable Business Strategy from Harvard Business School, where he is completing graduate studies in Corporate Sustainability & Innovation. Monty is adept at distilling complex ideas into simple value propositions that drive revenue, create corporate value, and improve organisational resilience.

Nitesh is a Grain associate and founder of Net Positive Solutions. He was previously Group Sustainability Director for Royal BAM Group and a board member for the award-winning Sustainability Supply Chain School.

He believes in collaboration, systems thinking and sound evidence to achieve tangible benefits. Having found that senior executives need appropriate targets, tools and frameworks to achieve tangible results, he regularly uses business cases to demonstrate success.

Nitesh has a thorough knowledge around the application of sustainability and the value generated both from a company and project perspective. Nitesh has been responsible for policy and audits, whilst having had prior experience of working with sustainability certification schemes.

In addition, he regularly advises industry and government on digital, innovation and sustainable solutions towards net zero and circular economy. He holds RIBA parts I, II, and III certification from Leeds Beckett University.

She has worked for digital innovation companies such as Apple and Visa before taking the plunge to align her career to her values by using her skills to make our society more sustainable, in particular for our children.

Adding to her knowledge as an MBA-holding telecommunications engineer, she has recently studied Business Sustainability Management at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and has completed the Sheila McKechnie Campaign Carousel to develop her campaigning skillset.

Before joining Grain, M.A. was WWF’s Food Goal Programme Manager. She continues to work with community groups Sustainable Amersham and Parents for Future UK to raise awareness and action around the climate crisis.

In her spare time, M.A. builds Lego and acts out scenes from the Octonauts with her 5-year-old son. She is passionate about books and reads a few at a time as well as doing a bit of creative writing herself.

She worked as a marketing manager in various organisations after graduating with a BA (Hons) in Business Studies, with a specialism in Marketing.

She started out in an accountancy practice as their first marketing professional, and progressed to IBM and Vodafone, with responsibility for UK, EMEA and worldwide operations. Rosie focused on channel marketing and developed numerous marketing plans and developed strategic marketing activities to increase sales and profits.

After a successful corporate career, Rosie created her own marketing consultancy which aims to assist established and new businesses to thrive and seek new opportunities.

She is also a novelist and has written one book and is currently drafting a second. When she’s not working or spending time with her daughter, Rosie enjoys sea swimming at all times of the year.

She began her career in graphic design but her love for tech led her to retrain as a website developer.

A true cosmopolitan, Nicola was born in London, grew up in Cape Town, and has lived and worked in Australia, Argentina, and Los Angeles. When she’s not immersed in code, Nicola dreams of building an off-grid home where she can be in nature with her family.

They both love to translate well thought out strategies into iconic designs, making sure everybody who contributes to a brand or company communicate as one, both verbally and visually. With this in mind, they create logos, colour palettes, typography and graphic elements and make them come together on different branding elements.

After graduating together from the arts school Academie St. Joost Den Bosch in 2017, they started their studio in ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Since then, they worked for various clients creating online and offline graphic design.

Tim was a designer at Grain back in 2016 and we have kept up the partnership over the years. Within design he mostly works on web design, publications and print. When he is not working, he loves to spend time bouldering (rock climbing) and riding his motorbike when the sun is out.

Anne Roos is more focused on making unique concepts and motion design. Besides work she spends time with her loved ones, including Nox and Nagini (dog & cat) and loves to do different water sports. And not to forget, Anne Roos is an extreme board game fanatic.