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Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Building Purposeful Businesses Impact Report 2025 2

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Letter from Our Founder Simon Milton

“Since Pulse’s early days, nearly 25 years ago, we’ve been navigating how a business can make a profit without losing sight of its greater purpose – the people it is here to serve. And since then, the stakes have only gotten higher. It’s fair to say the last year has seen a monumental shift in the world order. It’s evident in our economy and global politics, and our communities around the world have borne the brunt of it. And businesses, which after all are made up of people, feel it keenly too. With endless news headlines, fear and uncertainty, it can be easy to question what the role of a communications and change agency is today. What is our responsibility, and what can we offer in this moment? The process of getting accredited as a B Corp over six years ago has been a huge learning experience for Pulse. It’s taught us that we exist and thrive in collaboration with others. Now more than ever, we can see that people are the lifeblood of any initiative set on accomplishing a mission. As I often say to my team, we are not here to tell any company what their purpose is. We are here to empower them to make that mission a reality. And this is not something to dial down, as the world gets increasingly fragmented and our politics more divided – but something to dial up. There is no doubt that 2025 has brought on new challenges for our company, as will be the case for many organisations. We’ve had to adapt, ask good questions and leave space for nuance and complexity. Time and time again, we’ve seen how healthy societies require opportunities for all people and businesses that can stay true to what its customers need. We’ve learned that workplace cultures flourish when they are built on a foundation of trust and respect. This period has reminded us of the critical need to put humanity back onto every agenda. This goes for all sectors, and must include investors, government and wider society.

All of this makes me even more proud to share stories and developments from 2025, which reflect how our team faced this period with empathy, commitment and a continued love for what we do. From programmes to support our staff ’s wellbeing and expand our expertise via training, providing work experiences for those getting back into the professional world, to reconnecting with our network and local community through our workshops, 2025 was a year of knuckling down and giving our energy to what really matters. Difficult times can teach us who we are, perhaps more than the easy ones. If anything, 2025 was a call to keep advocating for what we really care about: a fairer, more sustainable and harmonious world. One where people can collaborate in new and exciting ways to build a future that works for all of us.”

We are not here to tell any company what their purpose is. We are here to empower them to make that mission a reality.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Supporting our community

Driving purpose

Encouraging our people to thrive

Building Purposeful Business Ensuring we are a sustainable business

Protecting our environment

Creating impact for our client

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our impact model Central to the way Pulse works is our purposeful impact model. Along with our values and the five SDGs that we are committed to, it acts as a navigation tool to help guide us in our work and the way we run our business. It is based on similar impact areas to the B Corp impact assessment and ensures that we pay attention to key areas in which we believe we can make a difference. As a B Corp since 2019, this model helps us think about our role in society and our impact on the environment as well as the challenges of balancing purpose and profit. And, it guides us in supporting our clients to build highperforming purposeful businesses.

It is important that we maintain high standards in communications. As a member of the PRCA we have been assessed against their Continuous Measurement Standard (CMS) and have been awarded gold which is considered a hallmark of PR excellence. We are also committed to the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative and its principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anticorruption.

These are the SDGs we’ve identified to work towards.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

2025 Highlights

We donated

1% of our fees to charities in London and Iraq. The main beneficiaries were Meshwar Foundation, The Connection, Luminary Women.

We supported

MovingBeyond Newham

for the second year running, working towards accelerating the energy transition and sustainable ways of living.

We hosted a

masterclass for our professional network on Navigating Turbulent Waters.

We supported one of our energy clients on a

safety foundations training programme.

We measured our

Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions and offset residual emissions.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

We volunteered for

a total of 71 days overall at the Connection and other charities.

We supported pro bono clients with

75 days

of design and consultancy support.

We donated

£100 per employee to three environmental charities chosen by our staff.

Our staff benefitted from

718 hours of training and development including a visit to the Isle of Man for our away days.

We supported our

staff ’s health and wellbeing with massages, health insurance and therapy support.

5 people

benefited from work experience at Pulse. We hosted a panel event Empowering our Communities to celebrate

International Women’s Day

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

2026 Goals Celebrate International Women’s Day with a group volunteering session at The Baytree Foundation. Provide pro-bono support to Luminary Women on their new identity and social media channels. Support a new MovingBeyond event in Teesside. Achieve a recycling rate of 85%. Increase our disability awareness with Fair Shot.

Review how our DEI approach is reflected in Pulse’s policies and processes. Publish the 3rd edition of our Purpose Report. Continue to provide work experience opportunities. Deliver on target of 4.5% of our time spent on volunteering and pro bono support. Reach target of 4.5% of our time spent on staff training and development.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Driving Purpose Focus on: Navigating Turbulent Waters Masterclass What we’re doing

Why it’s important

Over the past 10 years, Pulse has hosted masterclasses in the corporate purpose space. Topics have included personal leadership around navigating profit and purpose; the role of the UN SDGs; the increased need for feminine leadership and managing corporate trauma. The masterclasses are aimed at managers leading teams at large corporations, as well as professionals launching innovative startups. social enterprises or community groups.

As a company, Pulse strives to inspire and encourage leaders and managers to achieve positive change. Our series of masterclasses is an opportunity to support leaders across businesses to reflect on how they can have a greater impact both internally and externally. The events are designed to create a safe, open space where business leaders and professionals can discuss key issues honestly and constructively. The issues one person faces will inevitably be similar to those others face. In bringing leaders together in this way, we hope to empower leaders to make change at scale.

In 2025, Pulse hosted its eighth Purposeful Masterclass, Navigating Turbulent Waters. This event explored how to build courage and trust and convene change at a personal, organisational and societal level.

Pulse’s Purposeful Masterclasses aim to inspire and encourage leaders and managers to achieve positive change.

How we’re doing it The most recent masterclass brought together close to 30 individuals operating in the business space to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing leaders today: how to rebuild trust and lead with courage in an increasingly divided world. The session, structured in three parts, opened with research examining why trust is in decline and what might need to be done to get it back. Our founder, Simon Milton, then led an exercise that challenged perceptions of courage and allowed participants to explore some of the personal barriers and drivers to convening change in complex environments. The session closed with an opportunity for attendees to share their reflections and insights.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025 2024

Our impact:

Pulse events always deliver hidden insights and new connections. The Navigating Turbulent Waters Masterclass has helped me hold ‘paradox’ when leading in challenging environments. It also strengthened my ability to hold space for others, to enable them to find their own solutions individually and in community. Russel Smith, Pulse Masterclass Attendee

This event successfully encouraged business leaders and other professionals to discuss challenges faced, hear different perspectives and learn from one another. Leaders were given space to step away from the pressures of their professional lives to reflect on how they may be able to deliver greater impact both internally and externallyat their organisation. Importantly, it was a chance for attendees to forge new partnerships and connections, something essential for progressing positive change.

The most recent Purposeful Masterclass focused on one of the biggest challenges facing leaders today: how to rebuild trust and lead with courage.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Creating Impact for Our Clients Focus on: Building a shared understanding of safety across a diverse workforce What we did Rumaila, in southern Iraq, is one of the largest oilfields in the world, with safety at the core of its strategy. As the organisation continues to modernise, there is an ongoing need to ensure that every individual – regardless of role – has a clear and consistent understanding of what safe working looks like in practice. Working in close partnership with the HSE team, we developed the Safety Foundations Training Course: a self-guided, digital learning experience designed to equip both new joiners and existing personnel with the essential knowledge required to work safely at Rumaila. The course is structured across three core modules, covering the organisation’s safety culture, site safety standards and the Life-Saving Rules, and combines clear, practical content with interactive elements to support engagement and understanding.

Why it was important Rumaila operates with a large, diverse workforce spanning multiple roles, languages and levels of safety maturity. Ensuring a consistent baseline of knowledge across this workforce is critical – not only for compliance, but for embedding a culture where safety is genuinely prioritised.

The Safety Foundations course plays a key role in this by reinforcing that safety is everyone’s responsibility. It connects individual behaviours to broader expectations, including personal responsibility, operational discipline and the authority to speak up or stop work if something is unsafe. Passing the course is a pre-requisite for a Rumaila Safety Passport, which is required for access to operational sites.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our impact: The course contributes to strengthening Rumaila’s safety culture by aligning expectations, language and behaviours across the workforce. Designed in a format that can be maintained and updated over time, it also supports longer-term ownership and continuity within the client team.

The overall flow of the course works really well, and the different interactive elements create a strong user experience. It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into making the content engaging and accessible, which is critical given the range of people it needs to reach across Rumaila. This gives us a much stronger and more consistent way of introducing safety expectations across the workforce. Ian Wetherill, HSE Operations Safety Team Lead

How we did it We began from the idea that safety training should do more than transfer information. It needed to make expectations clear, relevant and memorable for people working in very different roles and contexts. That meant designing the course not as a tick box exercise, but as a shared foundation for how Rumaila thinks about safety. Rather than focusing narrowly on rules alone, the content locates safety within a wider cultural framework, connecting formal requirements such as Life-Saving Rules with the mindsets, behaviours and personal ownership needed to work safely every day. The course was also designed to be flexible and accessible, built with mobile responsiveness and allowing learners to move through the content in manageable blocks and engage more deeply with topics depending on the demands of their role. In the development of the course, we also took the opportunity to agree and translate a glossary of safety terms that was used for consistency within the course but will also be used for other safety materials moving forward.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Ensuring we are a sustainable business Focus on: Listening to our staff

What we’re doing:

Why it’s important:

Pulse was set up 24 years ago with the goal of helping leaders put purpose and authenticity at the centre of their strategy and operations. This remains the ethos by which we run our own business. In 2019, we became a certified B Corp, which consolidated our approach and spurred us on to continue being a thoughtful and impactful organisation. Fundamental to our approach is listening to our staff about what is going well and what could change.

We know that our staff are the essence of our company. Without their voice, contributions and participation in driving Pulse forward we would not have been in business for over two decades. Their experience, knowledge and interests have helped shape Pulse into a kind and thoughtful agency, offering trusted advice to our clients.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025 2024

Our impact: Through our peer group sessions we learned that staff loved away days, the recruitment process, our volunteering, museum visits, strong peer group support, our International Women’s Day panel event , supporting our community and working with new clients. Sharing this helped us know where we were doing well. Listening to their aspirations as well as identifying and paying attention to areas where we could do better meant that we were able to set up a structure to address each of them. Since then, progress has been made on developing our AI expertise, new social media plan, ideas for our next purpose report, and strengthening our volunteering and pro-bono approach.

How we’re doing it: We do this by listening to our staff ’s interests and concerns - through weekly team meetings, management meetings (which include half of our workforce), annual peer group sessions that allow employees to reflect on the year and how to steer our business forward. In 2025 our peer group sessions identified a number of areas that could benefit from more attention and consequently five working groups were set up and led by different people. They addressed issues such as AI use, our volunteering strategy, business development, purpose-led work, client impact and developing our social media.

Hearing colleagues share their experiences, whether in Monday meetings or our annual peer group sessions is one of my favourite parts of working at Pulse. Having different ways for people to contribute is important because not everyone feels comfortable speaking up in the same setting. It reinforces what I believe makes a business truly sustainable: people. Understanding different perspectives, learning from one another and building a better culture together. Andrew, Pulse Creative Director

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Environment

Focus on: MovingBeyond Newham What we’re doing: Five years ago, Pulse Founder, Simon Milton, helped to set up a not-for-profit MovingBeyond (MB). The initiative focuses on helping accelerate the energy transition and addressing rising inequity here in the UK. A three-day flagship event takes place each year to bring together local community activists, business, investors and local government to assess progress and encourage greater collaboration. Our work at Pulse includes building MB’s corporate partnerships and overall strategy as well as providing wider creative and operational support.

Why it’s important: MB was set up to meet an urgent need to help convene all the critical parties needed to accelerate the transition. Much of the work in this space is often siloed and communities feel disconnected or ignored. MB recognised that without trust between all key stakeholders, progress is just far too slow. The initiative also recognised the need to step into some of the most challenged communities where there are willing parties but just not enough collaboration or support. Both the energy transition and the wider move to sustainable ways of living can only take place if all parts of society feel fully empowered and involved. Co-creative session at MovingBeyond.

My mindset was genuinely changed over the three days and I can’t thank MB enough for repairing my belief in change being possible. I don’t understand a lot of the policies and politics, but I do know how to change people’s lives for the better by reusing and recycling. Daniell Hambrook, Founder of Newham Wellness & Scope3CE Project

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025 2024

Our impact: Revisiting Newham had a profound effect on MB’s overall impact. Seven local community projects and initiatives were identified and supported. More importantly, MB is helping to set up a permanent MovingBeyond Newham group led by the community and supported by the wider corporate community. There are now over 200 people and around 100 organisations in the network, with impact at both a community level and within corporate organisations. This is particularly important when the corporate world is under pressure to relax on its Net Zero and ESG commitments.

Applying the ‘hive mind’ to community projects.

How we’re doing it: MB pays considerable attention to building trust with communities engaged in protecting the environment and supporting the most disadvantaged. It brings together major corporates to help fund the annual event but also to provide an opportunity for their staff to learn and deploy their much-needed business expertise. Now into its sixth year, MB recognised that the annual flagship event can only go so far. Trust is everything and building it takes considerable time and effort. Being part of MB is an all-round commitment and attendees across the country stay connected via monthly calls, working groups and social media. In 2025, MB went back to Newham and galvanised some of the old relationships from the year before and created new ones. Each year about 70 people attend.The group is small enough to stay intimate and large enough to encourage real diversity of thought and opinion.

It is so reassuring to know that support and encouragement is available within the MB community and motivating to realise the faith and admiration visitors to my home area expressed in what ordinary people in a local community can achieve. Alison McLucas Local resident and community gardens volunteer

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Encouraging our people to thrive

Focus on: Personal Growth What we’re doing In 2025, Pulse began working with a new client, which allowed us to grow our team and welcome three new members to the business. Being a small company, this gave us a lot of opportunity for staff development, from new roles and promotions, to fresh work challenges, skills development, training courses and leadership exposure.

Why it’s important Our focus on supporting and growing our staff is central to our values and the work we do. This is part of creating a happy and healthy environment where people look forward to coming to work. In addition to a package of health insurance and mental health provision, we provide wellbeing activities such as away days, monthly massages, mindfulness sessions as well as refreshments and fruit.

In 2025, the team visited the Isle of Man for the annual away days – a Pulse initiative that supports staff wellbeing and nurtures team spirit.

With all those support foundations in place and our continuing inclusion programme, it felt both natural and important to focus on growing our people, their strengths and uniqueness, whilst growing our business.

I had the opportunity to be part of an amazing cohort of ‘Women Leading in Transformative Times.’ Having that space and support to challenge myself on what often holds me back was life-changing. Rachel, Pulse Consultant 19

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our impact:

How we’re doing it: Building on the supportive and inclusive culture we have at Pulse, we focussed on fostering courage, learning and self-reflection. We revisited our 12 Purposeful Leadership Principles and reflected on which ones we were drawn to. We amended our annual review process to allow more in-depth feedback and follow-up with colleagues. We increased our practice of leading ‘retrospectives’ and lessons learned on client projects and the way we look at case studies and credentials through our learning about Joint Ventures, Climate Change and Safety Foundations.

Three new members of staff were supported through our induction programme and into new work programmes. Two people attended leadership courses. Overall, our team spent 718 hours on training and development. We attended sessions on recognition, team dynamics and trust with The Circle Line and some of us completed our self development modules and therapy sessions.

Developing our workforce through greater opportunities and challenges has allowed us to continue supporting each other and our clients to the best of our ability. This has helped us reinforce our purposeful approach to business and strengthen our culture so that everyone feels safe, respected and welcome. In turn, this has made us more courageous in our work to support clients facing change and transition, which can often feel difficult and complex.

We continued our weekly team recognition moments, lunch and learn programme, podcast club and visits to galleries. We developed our understanding and position on AI by attending a Copilot workshop, AI in PR courses and co-creating an AI policy.

Staff training continued throughout the year, with a range of courses and initiatives, including a visit to the Design Museum in London.

I joined Pulse a year ago, and since then I’ve taken part in a wide range of training and development opportunities. The supportive environment has really encouraged me to explore my interests and reflect on my growth. Simran, Pulse Consultant

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Supporting Our Community

Focus on: International Women’s Day What we did As part of Pulse’s Inclusion Programme, we’ve taken steps to better understand the needs of our local communities and how we can play a role in uplifting their voices. Our roundtable event in 2024 marked an important step in this journey, bringing women across different generations together to discuss workplace experiences.

Attendees were able to join in the conversation that centred around the challenges facing migrant women and new mothers in London.

In 2025, we held a panel conversation on how cross-sector collaboration can help drive change across London. The evening was attended by leaders and individuals from the charity and corporate sector, and spotlighted the unique challenges faced by groups including migrant women and new mothers in the city.

Why it was important What stood out most from Pulse’s International Women’s Day event for the diversity of women on the panel, and the shared emphasis on the importance of community. This was both thought-provoking and a refreshing change from other IWD events. It was more than an opportunity to listen and learn — the event inspired me to take action in my own life. Aoine Wilson, CEO, Luminary Women 21

The event was an opportunity to hold a safe and compassionate conversation around challenges faced by some of London’s most vulnerable groups. It provided a rare platform for women to share first-hand insights of what their communities need to thrive and help bridge knowledge gaps across different industries. By bringing both the private and third sector together, the panel event allowed common ground to be found and new connections to be made, aligning action in support of London’s female communities.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our impact: How we did it Guided by an intersectional approach, our team ensured the event represented many elements of Pulse’s community and provided a window into a range of women’s experiences. We selected female panellists from both the corporate and charity sector, who shared first-hand accounts of working with business leaders to drive climate change action, supporting migrant women facing trauma and poverty, and assisting new mothers in South London. Reflecting feedback previously provided by our staff, the panel was held in the evening and tickets were free, enabling as many people to attend as possible.

A rich, engaging conversation delivered to more than forty attendees spanning the corporate and charitable sectors. Attendees came away with new insights from a range of industries, drawing expertise that can be transferred and embedded in their own field. By leveraging our skillset and network, we empowered women to share their experiences and encouraged mutual understanding between the private and charity sector, to drive necessary action.

The International Women’s Day panellists shared insights into what their communities needed to thrive.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our People Staff training and development hours

811

679

Training: 295 Learning Edge: 171 Away Days: 345

Training: 290 Learning Edge: 129 Away Days: 260

4.18%

725

Training: 373 Learning Edge: 70 Away Days: 282

3.94%

718

Training: 464 Learning Edge: 54 Away Days: 200

3.48%

of total hours worked

2022

2023

2024

2025

In 2025: A third of our staff worked part-time, to fit in with their caring or personal commitments. The age range of our staff spanned from 25 – 62 years. 70% of our staff were women. 7% of our staff identified as LGBTQ+. 14% of our staff were from ethnically diverse backgrounds. 0% reported a disability. Offering work experience opportunities Five people were offered work experience opportunities of approximately one week each: three young people attending school or university and two women from Luminary Women’s programme. 23

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our People Embedding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Pulse At Pulse, we believe all of us are bound together by something beyond simply our work: common respect for one another and our different lived experiences. DEI values are not just a requirement for building a fair and just organisation where everyone can thrive – they are also a guiding light to delivering meaningful work and unlocking creativity. We strive to acknowledge and celebrate our team’s diverse backgrounds, understanding the unique barriers they may face and championing equity through our work and behaviour. We recognise that we are a small team and we take steps to strengthen our awareness of DEI practices and embed these at Pulse.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to DEI, so since 2023, we’ve been committed to building an inclusion programme that is specific to Pulse and addresses our team’s concerns and interests. As a part of this journey, we promote inclusivity through regularly reviewing our recruitment process, policies and training, in line with DEI principles. We also recognise that some people face additional barriers to entering the world of work and the comms industry, and we remain committed to providing volunteering and internship opportunities to people from diverse and underrepresented groups.

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our community Volunteering

420

The Connection Luminary FairShot and others

294

532 The Connection Luminary Women FairShot and others

The Connection Luminary and others

111 The Connection, Luminary, and others

0.68%

of total hours worked

2.28%

1.63%

2.58%

of total hours worked

2023

2024

2025

2022

Explanation: Each year’s % figures relate to the % of hours worked in that year.

Pro bono hours worked

687

412

MovingBeyond Children’s Literacy Charity Soil Association

2.53%

3.82%

921

MovingBeyond Children’s Literacy Charity Soil Association Changemakers

7.28%

562

MovingBeyond Children’s Literacy Charity Soil Association

5.30%

of total hours worked

2022

2023

2024

2025

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our community Charitable donations – target 1% of fees £18,865

Target exceeded

£13,767

Target met

£12,500

£11,072

Target Met

2022

Target met

2023

2024

2025

In 2025, the main beneficiaries of our donations were: • The Meshwar Foundation in Basra Iraq. The largest proportion of our charitable donations went towards renovating the buildings shared by three schools to protect the roof to prevent leaking, general repairs, painting and decorating. • The Connection at St Martin in the Fields which supports homeless people in our neighbourhood. • Luminary Women which works to empower women who have experienced disadvantage to reach their potential. We funded the women’s childrens’ Christmas presents. • Our environmental donations went to: Surfers Against Sewage, Calthorpe Community Garden and Wimbledon College. 26

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our environment Carbon Emissions Offsetting emissions with Ecologi Total

Total

10.294

11.602

We are proud to be carbon neutral and offset all annual emissions by investing in Ecologi’s programmes. To date, since July 2023, we have planted 528 trees and avoided 42 tCO2e.

Total

5.146

8.631

9.104

2.648

6.366

Scope 3

1.501

1.608

1.607

1.374

Scope 2

0.889

0.891

Scope 1

2022

2023

2024

2025

7.904

Total

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Our environment Recycling Rate First Mile collects our waste and provides a report on our recycling: • We saved 1.33 tonnes of CO2 • 500 kgs of waste was converted to energy • 1290 kgs of waste was recycled • 250 kgs of waste was anaerobically digested • 8.78 trees were saved • 275 kwhs were generated

70%

85% 70%

2022

2023

80%

2024

75%

2025

Building Purposeful Businesses | Impact Report | 2025

Pulse Brands 1-3 Langley Court, London, WC2E 9JY pulsebrands.com