Last year, Findel (parent company of Hope Education) launched a long-term initiative to provide support to the education sector. Jo Rowbotham, marketing lead for ESG and Claire Woolley, head of the Findel Foundation and colleague communications at Findel speak about Findel’s ESG strategy

The Findel Foundation’s ambition is to give back more than £200,000 a year towards children’s education, wellbeing and environment causes and has started by making volunteering support, donations and funding available.

In addition, the company will invest its people’s time spent running the Findel Foundation.
The foundation comprises of six pillars:

• Charities
• Breakfast clubs
• Findel Forest
• Volunteering
• Careers
• Leading positive change.

What is Findel ESG (environmental, social and governance) and what does it means to Findel

Rowbotham: “We’ve been working on the Findel ESG strategy behind the scenes for a number of years. It’s been a main area of continuous improvement and part of what the customer has been asking for, but we haven’t really been promoting it directly to the public until now.
We know that as an education company it is also our responsibility to promote sustainability for future generations and ensure that we do our part in giving children the best possible start in life, which is why we have launched the Findel Foundation

“A lot of Hope customers are now coming to us wanting to do more for sustainability in their settings and many don’t know where to start, this was reiterated in a recent customer survey we completed. This made us realise that we are uniquely positioned to lead that positive change and support our customers. Nursery staff work incredibly hard and are juggling several things at once, so this gives us a chance to take a little weight of their mind.”

Woolley: “I lead the Findel Foundation and as Jo touched on we have been doing more activities over the last couple of years to support children in our community but the launch of the Findel Foundation in November allowed us to create an umbrella bringing all of our efforts together so we can share this with our customers and our colleagues. For us it’s all about listening to what our customers want and bringing them on the journey with us.”

Many nurseries are struggling financially. What can they do to boost sustainability without breaking the bank?

Rowbotham: “From my perspective, which is more the sustainability side, I would say that there is a perception that sustainable materials are going to be more expensive and that’s not always the case. The Hope team have been sourcing materials and products that are very affordable particularly for the nursery segment and we focus on phasing out single use plastics. We also try to focus on recycling through our Hope Blog and craft hub.”

Findel ESG launched with a number of initiatives. Can you explain more about your volunteering programme?

Woolley: “Every colleague can spend 2 days volunteering each year, and the programme has been a massive success since we launched in January last year. We set a target of reaching 9% of colleagues volunteering the first year and we’ve actually finished that year on 25%, so we are hugely proud of this initiative. In the nursery sector, there’s really not a lot we would say no to volunteering for.

“A lot of us, myself included, are parents and we see first-hand the pressure they are up against. So whatever each nursery community needs, we will try to help them, for example with gardens and improving their outdoor settings.”

What is the demand for sustainability?

Rowbotham: “People at home are understanding more about the benefits of being outdoors and so we hear about a lot of nurseries using the outdoors for mindfulness activities and developing soft skills after children had been kept largely indoors during the pandemic.”

Woolley: “As individuals and as Hope/ Findel, it is our responsibility to ‘Lead positive change’ right from an early age and it’s never too late and now there is more talk about early years across society. The work the Princess of Wales is doing is amazing and it’s shining a spotlight on how critical early years is for our future workforce.”