3Keel

Our LENs Company Ltd team had a great session in Cambridge this week with partners. The work focused on reviewing this year's LENs trades, as well as looking at how LENs can continue to improve and deliver impact. Thanks to everyone of our partners who attended - it's alot of time to give and we worked you hard!

Forest-risk commodities are a key area of expertise for our Commodity Supply Chains business unit, headed up by Anna Kitulagoda. We facilitate four coalitions in this sector, the Retail Soy Group, the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition, the Soy Transparency Coalition and the Retailer Cocoa Collaboration. These bring retailers together for pre-competitive collaboration to tackle climate and sustainability issues in palm oil, soy and cocoa supply chains. Each year, we conduct surveys of traders' and importers' policies, actions and progress to eliminate deforestation and conversion. We also assess progress on other environmental and social challenges, such as sustainability commitments, and tackling poverty and child labour. Since March, we have published the annual surveys undertaken for three of these coalitions. These reports are a must-read if your work involves these commodities, as they give a clear view of where progress has been made and the challenges that still need to be addressed. Each one has clear recommendations. You can find them on the 3Keel website: Palm Oil Transparency Coalition: https://lnkd.in/g5vuzHjj Soy Transparency Coalition: https://lnkd.in/g7jFecKy Retailer Cocoa Collaboration: https://lnkd.in/gARvDSPz Will Schreiber, Sian Allen, Róisín Mac Dermott Casement, Megan MacGillivray, Charlotte Williams, Isabella Younger, Freya Chambers, Caitlin McCormack, Rebecca Hamp, Miriam Neale, Holly Cooper, Roser Preuss, Eve Nelson

📰 If you missed the news two weeks' ago, time to catch up! 📣 3Keel has two new appointments, both strategically important to the business. Jonah Grunsell FRSA has become our new Managing Director and Mary Short has joined as our first Finance Director. They are Board Directors and now lead the consultancy’s Senior Management Team. 🌟 Jonah and Mary both have the background in impact and sustainability that the Founders were seeking, to ensure that 3Keel can continue in its mission of making a positive impact on climate and nature. Our four Founder Directors - Simon Miller, Tom Curtis, Richard Sheane and Will Schreiber - haven’t gone anywhere! They remain in core roles. Jonah’s and Mary’s appointments complete a year of evolution, which saw the appointment of three business unit heads: Fran Edmunds, Head of Climate, Nature & Resources; Anna Kitulagoda, Head of Commodity Supply Chains; and Catherine McCosker, Head of Agriculture & Landscapes. Read the full story on our website 👇🏽

♻️ Waste not, want not: can we turn waste into fertiliser? 💬How to capture the valuable nutrients running away down our sewer pipes? How to prevent excessive nutrients causing catastrophic damage to our waterways? These are the questions the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford sought to address in an innovative multidisciplinary 12-month sprint project. 🌿 They focused on how the UK could better keep nitrogen and phosphorus in circulation, as precious resources that are lost in significant volumes in current waste management processes. 3Keel was commissioned as a key partner in the research, bringing combined sustainability, business and innovation expertise. Read about how and why this is a prime space for ‘systemic innovation’ in our latest case study. Julian Cottee and George Hayes

📣We're hiring! It's a busy time at 3Keel and we are currently recruiting for all our business units and for our communications function. We are a mission- and impact-driven consultancy with four core values that we live by: ✅ Friendly: join the friendliest consulting team there is - 3Keelers are warm, welcoming and genuinely open to diverse perspectives, different ideas and new ways of doing things! Joining our sociable team not only means you’ll be starting in a satisfying role - you will also be making new friends and having plenty of fun along the way!   ✅ Curious: 3Keel is a place to ask questions and seek answers. We embrace a growth mindset and love to learn from one another and our clients.  ✅ Practical: we take a practical approach to our work - but we also apply the same to work and life too. We understand people have a life outside of work and while we all want to get the job done well, we also understand the need to find balance. Our staff are supported at all stages of life, from early career starters to parents with young kids, to staff with ageing relatives: with flexible working arrangements, part time options available in many roles, and a range of policies which mean you aren’t penalised when ‘life happens’.   ✅ Ambitious: 3Keel is an award-winning consultancy and a B Corp - we know about ambition and we encourage our staff to channel theirs towards making a real difference within the sustainability field. We continually strive for the highest standards - whether it is with our client-facing work, or with how we run the company itself.     We are committed to offering equal opportunities and to creating a workplace where a diverse mix of talented people want to come, stay and deliver their best work. We encourage applications from applicants of all backgrounds, and from those who represent any diversity of gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and all other characteristics. We want to play our part in increasing diversity within the sustainability sector, recognising that there is some way to go. We take our role in contributing to change in this area seriously. If these values appeal to you, please do check out the roles we're recruiting for on our website. Please share with your network!

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is helping to drive efforts in terms of ensuring the traceability of cocoa supplies, the Retailer Cocoa Collaboration (RCC) has said in a new report, however other areas are still falling short. “With global supply tight and prices exceptionally high, there is real risk that progress on addressing environmental and social issues could be stalled or even reversed in the scramble for high-quality supply," commented Holly Cooper, the report’s lead author. #eudr #cocoa #supplychain #retail 3Keel

We're hiring! It's a busy time at 3Keel and we are currently recruiting for all our business units and for our communications function. Catherine McCosker is looking for both a Consultant and a Senior Consultant to join her in our Agriculture and Landscapes Business Unit. The areas this team covers are rapidly evolving, so you will have the ability and desire to learn quickly, transfer existing knowledge to new situations, and think creatively.  Commodity Supply Chains Business Unit, headed up by Anna Kitulagoda, has a plum role for a Senior or Principal consultant. If you relish working with global clients to drive progress on sustainability, then please do check out the opportunity. Are you a senior consultant with demonstrable corporate consulting experience? Then do check out the senior consultant role within our Climate, Nature and Resources Business Unit, run by Fran Edmunds. Finally, if you're looking for a communications role with meaning and purpose, then look no further. Carole Scott, Head of Communications set up the function in September 2023 and our new Communications Officer will be instrumental in delivering a new communications strategy with her. If you have a passion for finding solutions to complex sustainability, environmental and business problems, 3Keel could be your next 'work home'. For the details of each job, please head to our website and read the job ads. Please do apply and share with your network!

Our latest commodity supply chain report is out today. The Retailer Cocoa Collaboration’s (RCC) latest trader assessment reveals that the incoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is driving efforts on traceability of cocoa supplies. However, alongside this positive finding, the RCC reports a lack of progress on tackling poverty and child labour within the sector. The key takeaway is that indirect supply chains are risk hotspots for environmental and human rights issues. Nearly all commitments and initiatives cover just the direct portion of a trader’s supply chain (i.e. when the trader buys directly from a cocoa farmer), leaving risks of unchecked human rights abuses and deforestation in a significant proportion of supply chains. The report makes four key recommendations: 1.   Include indirect supply chain in sustainability commitments and actions 2.   Ensure that deforestation commitments are adjusted to cover all possible sources and relevant causes of deforestation, while incorporating restrictions on land conversion. 3.   Address and report progress on child labour in supply chain 4.   Ensure all cocoa farmers receive a living income The report has been researched and written by 3Keel consultants, Holly Cooper and Roser Preuss on behalf of the coalition members, 11 UK & EU retailers including Tesco, Aldi and Sainsbury’s. It is based on the results of a questionnaire sent to nine global cocoa traders, assessing performance during 2023 against a range of social and environmental metrics. You can read the full story and download the report on our website.

🎉It’s a good news day for us! 3Keel has two new appointments to announce, both strategically important to the business. Jonah Grunsell FRSA has become our new Managing Director and Mary Short has joined as our first Finance Director. They will lead the consultancy’s Senior Management Team and join the Board. Jonah and Mary bring the specialist skills 3Keel needs to continue its progress. They both also have the background in impact and sustainability that the Founders were seeking, to ensure that 3Keel can continue in its mission of making a positive impact on climate and nature. Our four Founder Directors - Simon Miller, Tom Curtis, Richard Sheane and Will Schreiber - haven’t gone anywhere! They remain in core roles. Simon Miller steps down as MD after 10 years and will be working closely with Jonah during the initial transition period. Jonah’s and Mary’s appointments complete a year of evolution, which saw the appointment of three business unit heads: Fran Edmunds, Head of Climate, Nature & Resources; Anna Kitulagoda, Head of Commodity Supply Chains; and Catherine McCosker, Head of Agriculture & Landscapes. Read the full story 👇🏼

What a fantastic initiative from OP2B, digging deep into how to expand collective efforts to transition to regenerative landscapes. So pleased that colleagues who work on LENs (LENs Company Ltd) were able to take part and talk about progress in the East of England LENs. It is the most mature network in our LENs Company Ltd programme, having grown from an investment of £1mn in 2021 to £3.9mn in 2023. More than 100 farms took part in 2023, positively impacting more than 16,000 hectares of land. It was fantastic to hear what other inspiring organisations and leaders in this area are doing. There is so much we can learn from each other in these collaborative spaces.