material change

Progressive Action.
Positive Impact.

We are a specialist consultancy in social and environmental sustainability strategy and communications.

In the transition to a net zero world, our ambition is to empower every client to step up and step forward with confidence and optimism to make a meaningful difference to society and the environment.

What We Do

We work with progressive businesses who want to contribute to a sustainable future, bringing clarity to the complex challenges faced in the transition to a net-zero world. From global sector leaders to ambitious SMEs, we help identify the spheres of influence where every business is capable of delivering meaningful impact. We work with you to embed effective social and environmental strategies in your business and communicate your actions with confidence.

Proudly a Certified B Corporation

Material is a certified B Corp, cementing our commitment to realise the positive power of brands and businesses, not least our own.​

​Being a B Corp drives us to maintain high social and environmental standards, but also inspires us to break new ground – for our people, our community and in the work that we do with our clients.​

It’s a case of progress not perfection and we’re all excited and inspired for the journey that lies ahead.

Approach

Progressive

We help you step up and step forward with confidence and optimism to achieve impact where it matters most for your business.

Empowering

We share our knowledge and expertise to inspire and empower you to make a meaningful difference.

Purposeful

We focus on clear social and environmental sustainability strategies and communications that have a measurable impact.

Connected

We work with you to integrate your internal credentials and initiatives with your external communications.

Expertise

Climate change is the defining issue of our age and every business has a critical role to play in taking the urgent action required. Whether planning on how you will meet net zero targets, or future-proofing to ensure continuity in the face of climate impacts, or creating initiatives to support a thriving society, our goal is to support you in driving positive change.

Building Reputation & Trust

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Sustainability communications are a powerful opportunity to enhance your brand or business reputation and build trust. We will help you share your actions and progress to engage and inspire your audiences.

Communications Compliance

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Environmental communications are subject to close scrutiny by regulators and consumers. Our knowledge of evolving regulations and best practice will help you execute your social and environmental communications with confidence.

Strategy & Communications

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Using our trusted appraisal and planning framework, we will work with you to build a social and environmental sustainability roadmap specific to your business needs.

Campaign Creation & Activation

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We build inspiring and motivating creative ideas, executed as impactful communications, campaigns, partnerships and events. We will help you share your sustainability journey through compelling content and experiences that demonstrate your actions and commitments.

Internal Learning & Development

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Improving the understanding of social and environmental sustainability throughout an organisation is crucial in delivering your strategy. We provide a range of workshops offering planning tools and best practice guides to support your team training and development needs.

Services

CONSULT

Insight

• Social & Environmental Sustainability Audit
• Competitor Benchmarking
• Audience Understanding
• Measurement & Evaluation

Strategy & Planning

• Strategic Positioning Framework
• Objective & Target Setting
• Short and Long-term Planning
• Risk Mitigation

COMMUNICATE

Communications

• Communications Planning & Execution
• Green Claims Code Compliance
• Creative Campaign Design & Management
• Copywriting
• Internal Engagement
• Partnership Strategy & Management

Experience

• Sustainable Event Design,
  Management, & Production
• Immersive Tech (AR/VR)

Studio & Creative

• Brand Identity
• Graphic Design
• Digital Content Creation
• Videography and Animation

COACH

Workshops

• Introduction to Sustainability Communications
• Defining Sustainability for Brands & Business
• Talking Sustainability
• Regulatory Communications Compliance
• Sustainable Event Design & Production

cop 26

OUR WORK / 01

COP 26

Material were appointed as Creative Lead for the Green Zone at COP26 in Glasgow, the only creative agency in Scotland to work on the delivery of COP26. Our team were tasked with transforming the Science Centre into a visually compelling, immersive experience consistent with the COP brand. Our output covered the audience journey, venue dressing, experiential installations, delegate stands as well as digital content. It was a tremendously exciting and inspiring experience to be part of the delivery team for such a globally significant event and despite taking place in the middle of the pandemic, and the challenges that this presented, we remained focussed on delivering the event with the lowest environmental impact as possible. Over the course of the project we accumulated a wealth of knowledge covering sustainable materials, sustainable suppliers and end-of-life planning that we now apply across our agency work.

SERVICES

Communications
Studio & Creative
Experience

OUR WORK / 02

The Macallan

Our ongoing role since 2019 is to help to build and establish The Macallan, the world’s most valuable single-malt whisky, into a progressive best-in-class brand leader committed to achieving meaningful, industry-level social and environmental sustainability impact. Our team leads the development and internal integration of the brand social and environmental sustainability strategy, working with key stakeholders in the global business to establish credentials, goals, and immediate objectives, as well as creating initiatives and impactful communications to engage internal and external audiences.

SERVICES

Insight
Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative
Experience
Workshops

“Material are a highly valued agency partner, at the forefront of the ever-evolving area of sustainability and the team is hugely respected across The Macallan business for their expertise.

Their knowledge, innovative thinking, and brilliant delivery, ensures our business and teams are inspired, well-informed, and confident in our ongoing social and environmental initiatives and communications.”

Elizabeth McMillan, 

The Macallan Head of Insight & Sustainability

OUR WORK / 03

Edrington Group

Edrington is a leading global premium spirits business based in Scotland. We support their business across key social and environmental internal and stakeholder communications, as well as learning & development initiatives. Commissions via the Group Sustainability Direction and Team see our support ranging from leading the creation of the Edrington Supplier and Partner Environmental Guidance, and key supplier toolkit designs to begin aligning their supply chain with the business sustainability goals. We also support employee training and skills development with a bespoke Sustainable Marketing Learning Module for global marketing and communication teams.

SERVICES

Communications
Studio & Creative

OUR WORK / 04

Scottish Event Campus (SEC)

The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) is Scotland’s largest purpose-built conference, exhibition, and live entertainment campus and is recognised as a leading global event destination. We were commissioned to write and publish SEC’s first Net Zero Roadmap enabling the campus to share details around key initiatives and progress to date around their overarching action plan towards net zero. Material also created impactful assets to support the socialisation and communication of the SEC’s Net Zero Roadmap, including a short film, a podium-ready board level presentation and an extremely comprehensive reactive media Q&A response.

SERVICES

Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative

“The Scottish Event Campus commissioned Material to deliver three creative assets to tell the story of how we will get to net zero by 2030. Not only did they create the visual assets, but they also developed the written content. The quality of both the visual and written content was exceptional. We were completely aligned and we are delighted with the results. I would recommend Material in a heartbeat.”

Kathleen Warden,

Director of Conference Sales, Scottish Event Campus

OUR WORK / 05

INVERARITY MORTON

Inverarity Morton is Scotland’s leading independently owned wines & spirits’ merchant, supplying the licensed trade with an unrivalled portfolio of premium wines & spirits from around the world.


Working with their commercial, finance, operations and sales and marketing teams, Material Change were commissioned to support the establishment, development and integration of Inverarity Morton’s Social and Environmental Sustainability (SES) Strategy along with the creation of evolved external SES communications content for use across their website, and beyond.

SERVICES

Strategy & Planning
Workshop
Communications

“Inverarity Morton’s partnership with Material has been transformative for our sustainability efforts. They were instrumental in developing a comprehensive Sustainability and Environmental Strategy, whilst guiding us to prioritise initiatives and implement structured progress tracking. Their holistic approach ensured sustainability has become integral to our operations, from carbon footprint reduction to supplier engagement. Material’s support has been invaluable in aligning our business practices with our environmental values, setting us on a path towards a greener future”

Stephen Russell,

Managing Director, Inverarity Morton

OUR WORK / 06

Highland Park

Highland Park is an award-winning Single Malt Scotch Whisky shaped by the extraordinary contrasts of the Orkney Islands since 1798. Our role is to support the brand and broader distillery and operations team in the evolution and communication of their Environmental Sustainability Strategy. From ensuring the strategy is integrated across the necessary internal teams and reporting cycles to developing meaningful consumer facing positions around Highland Park’s key environmental sustainability initiatives and partnerships.

SERVICES

Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative
Experience
Workshops

“Material have an exceptional understanding of the complex challenges we must tackle in our environmental sustainability strategy for Highland Park.  Our actions in this area are critical to protect the natural habitats of our Orkney Island home, and Material’s accessible and practical approach, along with a real passion and enthusiasm for what we can achieve, mean they are an invaluable support as an agency partner.” 

Paul Condron, 

Brand Director, Highland Park

OUR WORK / 07

DF Concerts

DF Concerts & Events (DFC) is Scotland’s leading live entertainment company. We were commissioned to support the Sustainability Team in organising, developing, and establishing their Social and Environmental Sustainability (SES) Strategy and initial audience engagement communications. We developed a strategic framework for DFC that not only anchored with parent group Live Nation’s global ESG Strategy, but also reflected specific key areas in which DFC have a direct impact in Scotland. Aligning with Scottish and UK live music industry-led charters, initiatives, and standards, our team also supported the creation of DFCs initial audience facing SES engagement and behaviour change campaign We are extremely proud to have helped to bring clarity to DFCs strategic planning and management vision and help them to establish their audience facing voice.

SERVICES

Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative
Workshops

OUR WORK / 08

VIDI

VIDI was developed by our agency to make a positive, practical contribution to the climate change conversation. Our aim was to make the climate emergency more vivid, more immediate and more relevant for all citizens. To articulate the climate emergency as a societal phenomenon. VIDI is a digital platform that harnesses the power of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to present alternate versions of our future through the lens of positive climate action, or inaction. VIDI launched during COP26, showcasing alternate future representations of iconic Glasgow locations, engaging conference delegates, politicians, activists, business, media, students and the general public. VIDI educates and engages people in a unique interactive way, at scale. Inspiring them to follow their own climate learning journey and promoting positive behavioural change.

SERVICES

Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative
Experience

OUR WORK / 09

Scott Group

The Scott Group is an established industrial supplies business that delivers a wide range of goods and services to industrial, public and manufacturing markets in the UK and Europe. We are commissioned to lead the establishment, development and embedding of their social and environmental sustainability strategy, translating this to impactful internal and external communications and engagement across a complex and broad range of brand, stakeholder and customer touchpoints.

SERVICES

Insight
Strategy & Planning
Communications
Studio & Creative

Sustainability Workshops

Social and environmental sustainability can be a daunting prospect for business leaders.

“Where do we start?”
“How do we know if we’re getting it right?”
“What if we say the wrong thing?”

All common and entirely understandable questions, and this is where we can help. We offer standardised and tailored workshops that are suited to businesses who have limited understanding and want to get started, and for those who are in the early stages of developing a strategy who would benefit from guidance and best practice benchmarking.

Our workshops set people on the correct path with confidence and optimism to develop a robust social and environmental sustainability strategy that is focussed on meaningful progress.

Participants to date have included independent UK SME businesses across a range of sectors such as fine jewellery, apparel design and manufacture, leather production, multi-disciplinary design, sculpture and engineering, fragrance, interior and automotive design.

“The sustainability communications workshop content was first class. We found it insightful and it helped cement our understanding while also unearthing some exciting angles and opportunities. We had great discussions with lots to take away to continue shaping our strategy and communications in this area.”

Jim Deheer,
Head of Marketing, Scottish Leather Group

“It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed, but the workshop set things out so clearly and simply, without it being ‘dumbed down’, that we found it enjoyable.  We are now well on our way with our sustainability journey, and they helped us see some really quick changes we can make, but also pointed out what we are doing already, which was fantastic and heartening to hear.”

Frances Desoisa,
Business Development Manager, Hamilton & Inches

“The Intro to Sustainability Communications Workshop is backed up by a genuine passion for change. The workshop is delivered in a relaxed and understandable style with open discussions throughout. Material’s research on our industry meant that the strategy section established a relevant plan we could deliver to our wider business. Anyone taking part in this workshop will leave with the tools they need for confident sustainable communications and an excitement for what can be achieved within their own organisations.”

Stephanie Curle,
Design Director, Transcal Ltd

“Sustainability has been a core focus of our business since we were founded, but the subject matter and solutions are continually developing. It can be confusing and complicated to digest internally, let alone in our public communications. The Introduction to Sustainability Communications workshop helped us to re-evaluate our goals, identify areas where we could do more, organise our internal strategy and fundamentally, gave us the confidence we need to talk openly and honestly with our customers about our journey to be more socially and environmentally conscious”

Alec Farmer,
Founder, Trakke

Realising our own Positive Power

At Material, we’re all about realising the positive power of brands and businesses. And when it comes to social and environmental responsibility, that positive power is more important than ever. But change must start at home.

Our Net Zero Roadmap

We’ve worked hard to put in place mechanisms to help us understand, measure and address environmental impacts across our business.​

As a signatory of Race to Zero – the UN’s global climate change campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions and investors – we have developed an internal Social and Environmental Sustainability Strategy, undertaken baseline emissions accounting and established clear net zero targets as follows (where * is relative to our 2019 baseline):​

  • A 25% reduction* in full scope emissions by 2028​, our own target to ensure we are on track.
  • A 50% reduction* in full scope emissions by 2030, on the road to achieving net zero* by 2045, in line with the Scottish Government’s national target.​

Our approach to net zero is built on emissions and impact avoidance and reduction, rather than offsetting. We allow only 10% offsets for unavoidable emissions associated with our operations.​

Our specific Net Zero Roadmap is now modelled on the learnings from our emissions baseline. For example, we now understand that while our Scope 1 & 2 operations only account for 3% of our emissions, our Scope 3 operations account for 97% and are dominated by purchases we make on behalf of our own and our clients’ operations. ​

As such, our Net Zero Roadmap is focused on the development of a body of internal and client engagement processes and principles relating to service and materials sourcing. ​

You can read more about our emissions baseline, net zero targets and detailed Net Zero Roadmap here

B Corp

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We’re proud to be Certified B Corp, cementing our commitment to realise the positive power of brands and businesses, not least our own.

COP26 Legacy

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As Creative Lead for the Green Zone at COP26, we developed advanced knowledge and experience in producing event and marketing collateral in a lower impact way. This experience has led us to be commissioned in producing, and continuing to update, Sustainable Marketing Guides to help clients to evolve their approach to a wide range of marketing production.

In a fast-changing world, we value meaningful progress, not perfection, and are committed to continually evolve our approach, both for ourselves and our clients.

Our People

We aim to make a material difference in all that we do.

We have a proud work culture and promote an environment which is inclusive, open-minded, supportive and collaborative. A safe space where people are encouraged to express themselves, and excel.

We champion equity and recognise that fair treatment is not a one size fits all approach.  We offer flexible working policies and tailored professional development support for our people, to meet individual needs.

We’re also passionate about nurturing fresh talent and work closely with multiple education platforms to provide opportunities for young people looking to break into the industry.

Let's talk

© Material 2024

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