BIG INTERVIEW
DRPG: A CREATIVE FORCE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE ‘In the future you will be judged by how much you put back into the community’. This simple advice has helped Dale Parmenter turn his company DRPG into a global creative powerhouse – and an industry world leader in sustainable working. Meeting sustainability expert Sam Wilson back in 2008 was a eureka moment for Dale. Her prediction - that ‘going green’ would become key to business success – put DRPG on a journey that saw them become the first creative agency in the world to gain international standards ISO14001 and ISO20121. This year, the team also received their ultimate business accolade – the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development. Now they are working towards the coveted B-Corp accreditation. Dale launched DRPG from a garden shed at the family home back in the 1980’s. Today, it’s a highly influential creative
communications group employing over 400 people throughout the UK, the US, Germany and Ireland. The multi-channel teams specialise in everything from video, events and digital, to research and strategy for top clients and brands including BT, ITV, John Lewis and Ferrari. Yet even with this global reach, company HQ has stayed close to Dale’s roots in Hartlebury. Dale explains: “From day one I’ve been passionate about sustainability and supporting the community, but we didn’t have a formal framework in place until I met Sam. She became – and still is – our sustainability consultant.
Dale with sustainability consultant Sam Wilson.
“At the time I was frustrated that green issues were just a tick box exercise for a lot of companies. In fact, there’s still a lot of greenwashing going on, whereby businesses say they have sustainable practices when in reality they don’t. “For me, sustainability has always been about taking action and making tangible change. For instance, we have achieved zero waste for landfill, got rid of single-use plastics in our buildings, and have 100% renewable energy at our HQ.” Dale continues: “Everyone focuses on the environmental aspect, which is incredibly important, but our mantra is the three P’s: People, Planet and Profit. “I use the analogy of three legs on a milking stool. If one is shorter than the others, the whole stool will rock. But if one of those legs doesn’t exist, it will fall over. Large organisations are now being judged on their effectiveness in delivering the triple bottom line. Clients are looking to us and our experience when raising their own profile in sustainability.” DRPG also aligns its working practices with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. However, for the team, it’s also very much about making small, regular changes, whether through better use of resources, reducing waste or carbon footprints, or supporting the local environment.
Founder and group CEO Dale Parmenter.
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Dale concedes that the Queen’s Award application process was ‘gruelling’. “Our previous entries failed because they were too corporate. So we rewrote our whole bid, focusing on what our people were actually doing and telling the stories around our different goals and objectives.
July/August 2022
