What does the network do?
The Sustainable Business Network aims to provide peer support for businesses trying to improve their sustainability. We meet regularly via our quarterly networking events and fireside chats with business leaders.
We share best practice from micro, small, mid and large organisation and the latest funding available to help you realise your net zero ambitions. Our connection to the University of Surrey means innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals are active topics of conversation. We work with pre-existing networks to share our expertise as much as we can and we work with partners to deliver specific projects. We're helped by a fantastic group of volunteers, strategic advisors and supporters.
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The best way to keep up to speed is to join our mailing list, follow our LinkedIn and X.
Core Team
Our Core Team are made up of Ben McCallan, Bex Bolland, David Stokes, Jen Smallwood, and Stuart Cook. We are always on the look out for more volunteers, either as a one-off or to support us on a more regular basis in our core team - tell us if you’re interested.
Ben is one of the original founding members of Zero Carbon Guildford, having brought together a number of local environmental and social groups in 2020 to focus on more collaborative climate action. SBN was born as a collaboration between ZCG and the University of Surrey's Innovation & Research department. In his paid work, Ben is a Senior Climate Officer working on the climate change team at Surrey County Council.
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Bex brings a wealth of experience with a number of award-winning environmental behaviour change programmes under her belt from corporate green teams, to hospitals and supermarkets and action on air pollution. A positive disruptor, Bex joined the team in March ‘23 ready to re-focus on climate action, adaption & resilience, and deliver positive impact for our network.
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Jen has been a part of the Sustainable Business Network’s Core Team since it launched last year. She is a passionate sustainability professional who firmly believes in the power of businesses to be agents of change and is committed to fostering a more sustainable future for all. Jen currently leads the micro-business energy survey project, supports the urban greening project, and is our SBN 'fixer' for all things digital.
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David's career in business included owning the first company to use LEDs as a light source for scientific microscopy. He has been Professor of Entrepreneurship at Kingston Business School, as well as a Surrey County Councillor, and today Chairs HTAG (a town
centre residents association) and the Pewley Down Meadows group, which raised £1m to save vital chalk grassland habitat in Guildford from development. David is a ZCG Trustee and founder member of the Sustainable Business Network.
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Stuart is a chartered accountant with a long career in banking and finance. Over the last few years, Stuart has focused solely on raising debt and asset finance in the sustainability sector particularly for SMEs/mid-corporates looking to transition to Net Zero. As a Guildford resident, Stuart is very pleased to be part of SBN to help local SMEs and mid-corporates take action to meet their goals on sustainability. As well as being part of the SBN core team, Stuart is one of our Strategic Advisors, and joined the Zero Carbon Guildford board of Trustees in March 2023.
Strategic Advisors
In June 2023 we onboarded specialists who could bring their wealth of experience driving sustainability within SMEs to support the Sustainable Business Network's vision. Hannah Keartland, Shelley Lawson, Phillip Kalli, Lisa Dittmar and Stuart Cook.
Hannah is founder of Keartland & Co, which helps businesses to scale up and amplify their impact. She is a bold, strategic thinker who’s spent her career working in and with impact-focused organisations, including Innocent Drinks and Cancer Research UK where she was Innovation Director. She’s spent 20+ years leading innovation and change at director and board level with the unusual blend of having led both Innovation and Finance & Operations functions.
Shelley is a sustainability coach who supports SMEs in delivering carbon reductions and strengthening their businesses for the future. She co-founded children’s bicycle brand Frog Bikes with her husband in 2012, and prior to that she was a strategy consultant at Accenture.
After almost ten years of exploring solutions, in 2020 Phillip launched Fill Refill rinse & returns with Milk & More, the first closed-loop plastic-free household goods in the UK. As Founder and Managing Director, Philip understands all the challenges of running an SME and one that has embraced the circular economy and become a certified Bcorp.
Lisa is Head of Environmental Sustainability for HCA Healthcare UK.
Prior to this, she established and ran the Sustainable Supplier Engagement programme for the NHS. While Net Zero Health lead for Monitor Deloitte, she was a founding member of the Net Zero Transformation Team and led the internal community of practice on the circular economy.
Supporters
The Sustainable Business Network began as a collaborative venture between Zero Carbon Guildford and the University of Surrey, to help local enterprises get future-proofed through sustainability plans. The success of the SBN would not have been possible without the advice and network of our Supporters.
