LEADERS

Commercial Group

GREEN

EVERYTHING’S GONE

Commercial Group has a reputation for tough environmental standards and investment in areas of the company requiring most improvement. Co-founder Simone Mann tells Tom Idle how the targets are met and how the company has grown

Office supplies firm Commercial Group is at the forefront of sustainability, and the company’s recent success reflects that commitment. Above right: Simone Mann

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stablished in the early nineties by brother and sister team, Simone Mann and Arthur Hindmarch, along with their university friend Alastair Adams, Commercial Group is now one of the UK’s leading office supplies and IT services companies, winning big contracts thanks in no small part to its tough environ- mental commitments. The company is the largest independently owned business of its kind in the UK with a turnover of £28M. But Commercial’s sustainability story didn’t start until 2006 when Mann was invited by her biggest client, BSkyB, to attend a lecture by Al

Gore and a screening of his infamous docu- mentary An Inconvenient Truth. It was “a bit of an epiphany moment”, and she came back to the business invigorated and convinced that tackling the environment was something her company had to do. “I felt good about the way we ran our business – high staff retention, looking after our staff and customers – and felt we were not doing our bit on the environ- ment,” she admits. Gore had instilled confi- dence in his audience; Mann felt a responsibil- ity to do the right thing, but she also recog- nised that if Commercial could put the envi-

20 May 2010 ❘ Sustainab le Business

ronment at the heart of the business, the busi- ness would grow. “There are two key drivers for buyers right now: the first is about cost. And the second is about environmental impact. If you can do those things really well – and really understand the environment – you will be successful.”

Commercial set about its sustainability objec- tives by opening up a new position of environ- ment strategist – almost unheard of for a com- pany employing just 130 people. Then 200 of its top clients were invited to a summit at which Gore’s film was screened once more. “It’s only Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36