Jojo Maman Bebe

Taking the risks, reaping the rewards

A warehouse in Newport and Cheltenham racecourse might not be the first two places that spring to mind for feeling reinvigorated about business sustainability but, for me, they were. The cause was two dynamic women entrepreneurs who have created successful, fast-growing businesses that are seeking to place sustainability at their core.

Their stories are interesting for a number of reasons. They are not the usual suspects that people mention when talking about how sustainability integrates with successful businesses. They are both in highly competitive and challenging sectors, and have limited resources to put towards the sustainability of their businesses. They both show how, once leaders understand and are gripped by a topic, they can have a transformational impact on business. Finally, they demonstrate that there are different routes to creating a sustainable business.

If you ever want to prove that sustainability and business success can go hand-in-hand look no further than Commercial Group . The company operates in the highly competitive office solutions space, where margins are tight and sales and customer relations are key. Last year the company financially out-performed its market in every sector where it operates. At the same time it decoupled carbon emissions from growth, achieving an amazing cut in emissions of over 50%.

The co-founder of Commercial Group is Simone Hindmarch who has clearly embedded into the £29m company a set of values, along with a commitment and energy that is infectious.

Her transformational moment was an invitation from Sky to see Al Gore present the Inconvenient Truth slideshow. She told me that she went into the event thinking that she was running a highly successful business, and came out realising the opposite. The Bentley on which her deposit had already been paid remained uncollected, and instead she persuaded a bemused board that a new agenda of sustainability would be central to the business.

Hindmarch admitted that she had no idea what that really meant at the beginning, or where the journey would lead, but from what I saw of the company it has been transformational and integral to her business's success.

Most important, employees are engaged and motivated by the sustainability agenda. I particularly liked their internal "green angels" campaign where the angels are encouraged to "pass their wings on to others" to spread sustainability through the company.

The concentration on resource efficiency has enabled the company to be highly cost-efficient which has given it a competitive edge during tight financial times. The agenda has clearly captured Hindmarch's imagination and has provided an even greater source of energy and creativity within the business.

Laura Tenison, founder JoJo Maman Bebe, winner of Veuve Clicquot ...

JoJo Maman Bébé has won numerous awards over the years including the following in the last couple of years:

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