A landed Estate owned by a family through many generations wanted to integrate sustainability into their overall strategy and make sustainability explicit in “the way we do things around here”. They had diverse interests covering farming land, forests, moor management, a leisure portfolio, events and rental cottages. They had established a biomass boiler for their heating, an inhouse vegetable garden to serve the kitchens, were in relationship with Defra and the Forestry Commission around long term plans and looking into and engaging with other businesses around the idea of “Eco-services” and how this might work for them now and into the future. Defining and designing sustainability into any organisation where it is currently unregulated is a forward thinking and committed plan from the Owners and the Senior Team. There are benefits in being able to begin the journey in a way that makes sense to the organisation and where it finds itself today. It allows for refinement over time and if/when regulation also comes to bare, the organisation will hopefully already be several steps along the journey. The downside can be that there are no rule books for many organisations at this stage and choosing a path that feels right for the organisation as well as remaining relevant over time can be daunting.

Appleshed was asked to run a series of workshops for the Owners and the Senior Team (CEO, Finance, HR, Estates, Marketing, General Manager) to raise awareness of Sustainability as a concept, consider the application for the Estate and through collaboration, design a way forward. In addition, a desire to understand the degree to which their sustainability journey was to be an internal process versus an intention to share the journey more publicly was a key aspect for consideration. With the Estate’s many diverse businesses, the fact that a standard accreditation or methodology was not the first fix for an overall Estate view was a disappointment. However the team were guided to consider standards and frameworks that were applicable elsewhere and ultimately decided they would need to design their own. This team grappled with many ideas and in collaboration, we found a way to the first stages of a solution.

The Estate came to realise that they had already undertaken and were continuing to undertake projects to support a sustainable organisation and future. They also acknowledged that if they wanted Sustainability to be a part of “the way we do things around here”, being open, public and authentic about the journey (both good and bad parts) was an element they wanted to work with. A strategy to 2040 was created with three core values of Service, Stewardship and Financial Resilience which were surrounded by 5 Estate commitments. They also linked objectives to the UN SDG’s and are now considering how they want to communicate their journey, how they consider keeping track of progress on their objectives and what their next steps need to be. Appleshed remains as an advisor.

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