Published December 2025
Table of Contents
➔ Executive Summary
➔ A letter from the Editor
➔ Our mission & Approach
➔ Our editorial Impact
➔ Our environmental Impact
➔ Emissions 2024
➔ People & Culture
➔ Charity & Community
➔ Looking Ahead
Executive Summary
2024 was a year of meaningful progress for Country & Town House across editorial impact, environmental responsibility, team wellbeing, and community engagement. As a certified B Corp, we continued to embed sustainability into our storytelling, operations, partnerships, and culture.
Key Highlights
➔ Achieved an 18% reduction in carbon emissions year-on-year, lowering our footprint from 1,012 tCO₂e to 829 tCO₂e.
➔ 5.5 million total reach across print, digital, and social media for purpose-led editorial initiatives.
➔ Future Icons Awards expanded to 35 categories with the launch of the inaugural Power List.
➔ 86% employee engagement, placing us in the top 10% of our industry.
➔ Comprehensive partnership with Dirt Charity, including editorial support, advertising, and volunteering.
Executive Summary
Impact should be felt, not just claimed. Throughout 2024, we tried to make ours tangible: in the stories we commissioned, the partners we championed, and the way we run C&TH day-to-day. Being a certified B Corp is the framework for our choices, from paper stock to travel guidelines to who we put on stage and page.
Editorially, we doubled down on intelligent, joyful storytelling. We invited our charity partner founder, activist and model Arizona Muse to guest-edit our July/August issue on nature, soil and regeneration, bringing fresh urgency (and beauty) to the climate conversation. We also expanded our Future Icons Awards Initiative into 35 categories and launched the Power List, celebrating the people who are moving the dial across luxury, design, travel, beauty, politics, nature restoration and culture. These initiatives reached 5.5m across print, online and social media.
At HQ, we continued to focus on cultural change. This year, 86% of our team reported being engaged - a three-point increase from last year and within the top decile for our sector. We also introduced a range of wellbeing initiatives, from painting classes to padel tennis. Furthermore, we began tracking contributor travel under our new guidelines and have already seen a reduction in Scope 3 emissions
None of this is perfect. Nor is it finished. We will continue to cut emissions across our operations; deepen supplier engagement; keep our journalism telling the right stories and championing the right people and platforms – magazine, website, newsletters, podcasts and live events – to elevate those creating a joyful, responsible future.
Lucy Cleland
Editorial Director, Country & Town House
Our Mission & Approach
C&TH exists to inspire our readers to live better, while leaving the world in a better place – through elegant storytelling, thoughtful discovery and expert insight across print, digital and live experiences. We showcase what a life in balance looks like: one that is creative, thoughtful and full of joy, both of the quiet variety and the not so quiet…
C&TH’s impact is built on four pillars:
EDITORIAL
Purpose-led, responsible storytelling
ENVIRONMENT
Reducing our footprint and improving sustainable practices
PEOPLE
Supporting a creative, healthy, engaged team
COMMUNITY &
CHARITY
Giving back through partnerships and volunteering
EDITORIAL IMPACT
Independent Inspiring Passionate
Editorial
Across the luxury media industry, C&TH is now regarded as the standard-bearer of ‘responsible luxury.’ Our editorial director is often asked to appear on or host industry events/panel talks etc around the subject. One of our journalists was awarded winner of the CIoJ Young Environment Journalist of the Year 2025 and won a coveted space on the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, Our storytelling has continued to see the world through the lens of how to live better – and leave the world in a better place.
WHAT WE PROMISED
➔ To continue and enhance our commitment to telling stories that will help change the narrative of what it means to live a good life –with respect and in harmony and generosity to both people and place.
➔ To grow Future Icons to be the preeminent luxury sustainability awards & event in the UK.
➔ To promote our editors as advocates in regular panel discussions & influential events around sustainability.
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
➔ Expanded our sustainable coverage with our guest edited Jul/Aug issue by Arizona Muse.
➔ Expanded the Future Icon awards with more categories and judges and the launch of the Power list.
➔ Award-winning journalism for environmental reporting.
➔ Winning a rare journalist space on the Oxford Climate Journalism Network
➔ Appearing on podcasts and panels thanks to our C&TH ethos & mission.
Stories Matter
Our Columnists – Our Values
TIFFANIE DARKE
A sustainability activist, author and shopkeeper, Tiffanie is highly-regarded for her #RuleofFive campaign. The Stylist column celebrates fashion, yes, but only through the lens of sustainability.
JAMES WALLACE
CEO of River Action, James is passionate about cleaning up Britain’s waterways. Through his charity work and environmental leadership, he leads or transforms progressive enterprises that reconnect and realign people with our planet.
LISA GRAINGER
Lisa is a multi award-winning journalist with a passion for conservation: trying to make readers join the dots between the health of our planet and how we live our lives. She is happiest, she says, ‘anywhere in the wild: where I can see stars, smell leaves and breathe’.
Expansion of Future Icons Awards and Power List
2024 was the third year of Future Icons and marks an expansion of the awards and launch of the Future Icons Power List. We asked all the brands who entered our Future Icons Awards to nominate the people who they felt had had a major impact and influence on their own businesses and lifestyles. Our list is a thank you to those who are changing conversations and having real-world impact. The list was published in our Nov/Dec 2024 issue. The awards where also expanded to include 35 categories spanning Health & Wellness to sustainable Jewellery and Watches. By broadening the scope of the awards, we have offered even more brands the opportunity to shout about the positive work they are doing.
Future Icons 2024 in Numbers
180+ ENTRIES
100+ ATTENDEES
LEADERS INCLUDED…
3
2.5m+ SOCIAL REACH
TITLE SPONSORS…
HOSTED AT MANDARIN ORIENTAL 4th November 2024
Prominently featured throughout speeches, branded visuals, and print & digital editorial pages and social posts, solidifying their association with sustainability leadership.
3m+ ADDITIONAL VISIBILITY ACROSS C&TH PRINT, ONLINE & SOCIALS
5.5m+ TOTAL REACH
2m+ COMBINED SOCIAL FOLLOWING
Lord Deben
Lady Bamford Raymond Blanc
Arizona Muse
486k
Jasmine Hemsley
125k
Lily Cole
110k
Dale Vince 16k
ENVIRONMENT
PRINTING PAPER TRAVEL
Environment
As a certified B Corp with an environment score of 19.6, C&TH is committed to reducing our environmental footprint across print, paper, travel, energy use, and our wider supply chain. We continue to embed sustainable practices into our operations while improving transparency around our environmental performance.
WHAT WE PROMISED
➔ Implement a single-use plastics policy in the office with the aim of eliminating single-use plastics at work.
➔ Sign up to the Pollinator Pathway to provide green space for bees in the city.
➔ Reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 50% by 2030.
➔ Procure 100% renewable electricity on-site by 2025.
➔ Reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030.
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
➔ 18% reduction in total emissions YoY, decreasing from 1,011.6 tCO₂e in 2023 to 829.3 tCO₂e in 2024
➔ Continued to track emissions across all scopes in partnership with Positive Planet, improving the accuracy and transparency of our reporting.
➔ Signed up to the Pollinator Pathway, creating a planter outside the office to support urban biodiversity.
➔ Continued to use PEFC-certified paper across our print products and engaged with printers and suppliers on improving sustainability performance.
Emissions Reporting
➔ Delivered a meaningful 18% cut in emissions year-on-year, driven by targeted action on travel.
➔ Achieved reductions across several Scope 3 categories,
➔ Maintained transparent, full-scope emissions tracking in partnership with Positive Planet.
➔ Data accuracy improvements give us a stronger baseline for long-term climate planning.
➔ Progress this year strengthens our pathway toward achieving a 50% reduction by 2030.
CARBON EMISSIONS tCO₂e 2024 vs 2023
PEOPLE
People WELLNESS MENTAL HEALTH ENGAGEMENT
C&TH’s people pillar covers employee wellness, mental health, engagement, and charity involvement. Our aim is to have a happy and engaged workforce through professional progression, development and communication.
In our 2nd year of certification, we worked on continuing to give our staff the opportunity to spend time together outside of the workplace, team building and building other skills.
WHAT WE PROMISED
➔ Maintain high levels of employee engagement and improve satisfaction scores in the area of office environment.
➔ Schedule at least four annual wellness sessions with the result that 80% of staff participate in at least one activity over the course of the year.
➔ Give all employees the opportunity to participate in career development.
➔ Listen to our team and implement improvements to workplace policies.
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
➔ Our overall employee engagement increased by 3% compared to 2023.
➔ All staff had opportunity to attend a wellness activity which ranged from painting classes to playing padel tennis.
➔ From our annual employee survey we highlighted areas in which we could improve and have actioned a number of initiatives.
➔ The editorial team participated in a working lunch session in which they workshopped new strategies and ideas for the direction of the magazine.
Employee Engagement Survey
HOW DOES C&TH COMPARE TO THE CREATIVE & MEDIA INDUSTRY AVERAGE?
➔ Overall engagement is up 3% from 2023 to 86%. This is 21% higher than industry average and places us in the top 10% of companies in our sector.
➔ C&TH is outperforming industry benchmarks in all 5 main areas.
➔ We have also increased or maintained satisfaction in 4 out of 5 areas
COMMUNITY & CHARITY
Charity
C&TH’s commitment to an annual charity partner sits under the people impact pillar. Dirt Charity, founded by model and activist Arizona Muse, was nominated for the year 2023/24.
C&TH made the following commitments throughout our partnership:
AS WELL AS OTHER NON-TANGIBLE ELEMENTS, C&TH OFFERS DIRT:
➔ Complimentary advertising in every C&TH edition and its associated supplements –School House, Great British Brands, Country & Town Interiors, Great British & Irish Hotels.
➔ Ongoing editorial support across print, online, social media and live events.
VOLUNTEERING:
➔ As a company, C&TH takes part in volunteer work. 10 team members spent the day at Rhubarb Lodge, a foster home, working on a garden which would be enjoyed by the children who lived there.
Print Advertising & Editorial Support
➔ July/August 2023
Single page advert
➔ Sept/October 2023
Single page advert
➔ Nov/December 2023
Single page advert
➔ GBB 2024
Single page advert
➔ Jan/February 2024
Single page advert
➔ March/April 2024
Single page advert
➔ Hotel Guide 2024
Single page advert
➔ May/June 2024 Single page advert
➔ July/August 2024 Single page advert
➔ September/October 2024
Single page advert
Throughout the year C&TH has provided support to Dirt Charity in the form of print advertising in all our issues.
In a C&TH first, the July/August 2024 issue invited Dirt Charity founder, Arizona Muse, to guest edit the issue which was focused on nature, soil, the earth and regeneration.
C&TH also offered support through a number of online inclusions:
DIRT Charity Has Been Nominated For The Earthshot Prize
Save The World In 2024: Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions
Earth Day 2024: Arizona Muse’s Top Culture Picks
The Rurbanist Q&A: Arizona Muse
5 Women Doing Amazing Things For The Climate Fight
Volunteering at Rhubarb Lodge
Rhubarb Lodge is a semi-detached home in leafy Purley, South London. It has been purchased by Integral Care Group to provide a home for children aged 10-18. The home is designed to provide comprehensive care and therapeutic support for children who may have encountered challenging life circumstances. The founders’ ethos revolves around treating each child as an individual with unique potential, irrespective of their past experience.
C&TH VOLUNTEERING
The founders have worked incredibly hard to create an environment which is welcoming and comfortable for the children. To help reach this goal, C&TH staff spent a day helping to create a beautiful garden environment by building raised beds for growing vegetables, washing down decking, painting outside walls, planting flowers and tomato plants and clearing debris.
LOOKING AHEAD
Looking Ahead - Future Impact Priorities
PEOPLE
➔ Maintain high engagement through development opportunities, wellbeing initiatives, and collaborative culture.
➔ Continue delivering carbon literacy and sustainability-related training.
➔ Build an environment that empowers teams to contribute to long-term positive impact.
CHARITY & COMMUNITY
➔ Strengthen charity partnerships through impactful storytelling, meaningful volunteering, and consistent visibility across our platforms.
➔ Expand our contribution to the local community by leveraging our new Events Division and the Chelsea Arts Festival to create accessible cultural programming, learning opportunities, and community-led initiatives.
➔ Encourage greater staff engagement in local projects and volunteering, ensuring participation is meaningful, supported, and aligned with community needs.
EDITORIAL
➔ Strengthen our role as a leading voice in responsible luxury by championing stories that inspire positive environmental and social change.
➔ Elevate under-represented voices, pioneers, and changemakers whose work aligns with our mission to promote joyful, responsible ways of living.
➔ Expand our digital storytelling to increase reach and accessibility, using formats that bring impact narratives to life.
ENVIRONMENT
➔ To meet our long-term target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030, we need to decrease our footprint from 829 tCO₂e to 540 tCO₂e - a further 290 tCO₂e reduction. Given that print, paper, and distribution make up the majority of our emissions, deeper supplier collaboration and strategic innovation will be essential.
➔ Improve transparency through enhanced emissions reporting and annual progress updates.
➔ Prepare robustly for B Corp recertification in 2026, with a focus on environmental performance.
Country & Town House made meaningful progress across all pillars of impact in 2024. As we look ahead, our commitment remains the same: to deepen our positive influence through responsible storytelling, reduced environmental footprint, support for our people, and meaningful community engagement. Our focus is on continuing to build a business that leads with purpose, transparency, and integrity.
Appendix 1: Our B Corp Score
