The Sustainability Leader's Playbook 101 - Snippet Teaser

Copyright © 2026 Tunley Environmental® www.tunley-environmental.com © 2026 Dr William Beer, Dr Aaron Yeardley, Dr Luan Ho, Dr Tara Garraty, Dr Gareth Davies, Dr Anusha Nawoor, Ellis Clark, Christian Mabey, Benedicta Bakpa, LeeAnne Scherer, Peter Williams, Reuben Maxbauer Cover & graphics created by Sophie Morris ISBN: 9798246232538 First published in Great Britain in 2026 by Tunley Environmental® All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author. Permission requests should be directed to Tunley Environmental® at info@tunley-environmental.com.

CONTENTS FOREWORD 5 CHAPTER 1: LEADERSHIP 7 1.1 What Sustainable Leadership Looks Like 10 1.2 Balancing Profitability and Responsibility 11 1.3 Cultural Change and Board-Level Accountability 12 1.4 Community Engagement 13 1.5 References 15 1.6 Case Study: Optima Products 16 CHAPTER 2: REGULATION 20 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 Key Emerging Regulations and Frameworks 21 2.3 Case Study: Bespak 28 2.4 Closing Thoughts 35 2.5 Case Study: PTI Transformers 36 CHAPTER 3: CARBON 39 3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 Challenges 42 3.3 Practical Insights 44 3.4 Innovation and Future Trends 46 3.5 Closing Thoughts 48 3.6 References 51 3.7 Case Study: Appenate 52 3.8 Case Study: Scruples Research 55 CHAPTER 4: BIODIVERSITY 59 4.1 Introduction 60 4.2 Challenges 62 4.3 Practical Insights 79 4.4 Innovation and Future Trends 83 4.5 Closing Thoughts 87 4.6 References 89 CHAPTER 5: WATER 90 5.1 Introduction 91 5.2 Challenges 92 5.3 Practical Insights 94 5.4 Innovation and Future Trends 99 5.5 Closing Thoughts 102 5.6 References 104

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5.7 Case Study: Levy 106 CHAPTER 6: AI 108 6.1 AI for Emissions Reduction and Resource 109 Optimisation 6.2 Risks and Ethical Considerations of AI 110 6.3 AI for Supply Chain Transparency and Sustainable 112 Logistics 6.4 AI in Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation 113 6.5 AI in Waste Management and Circular Economy 114 6.6 Digital Twins and Predictive Sustainability Models 115 6.7 Conclusion 116 6.8 Key Takeaways 117 6.9 References 118 CHAPTER 7: BRAND 119 7.1 Introduction 120 7.2 Challenges 122 7.3 Practical Insights: SMS Technology 132 7.4 Innovation and Future Trends 135 7.5 Closing Thoughts 136 7.6 References 138 7.7 Case Study: PECO Pallet 139 7.8 Case Study: SMS Technology 142 CHAPTER 8: GENETICS 145 8.1 Genes of the Wild 146 8.2 Introduction 149 8.3 Challenges, Ethics and the Road Ahead 155 8.4 Conclusion 157 8.5 References 158 CHAPTER 9: WHAT HAVE WE MISSED 160 9.1 Circular Economy 161 9.2 Behavioural Change and Engagement 162 9.3 Economic De-Growth 164 9.4 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals 164 THE AUTHORS 166 Collaborators 166

FOREWORD

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Newtons third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I have always been fascinated by this concept and see it as a valuable principle to apply to everyday life; I look at it like this - everything has a consequence.

Consequences can be both positive, and negative. Anthropogenic is a great adjective described by the Oxford dictionary as caused by humans or their activities and it originates from the Greek word Anthropos; this means human and genic meaning produced by. Wow, this is kind of the application of Newtons third law - the consequence of people.

Climate change is the new term for global warming, which, we rightly moved away from as global warming doesn’t reflect how our meteorological systems are changing. Honestly, I am not a fan of the term climate change either, I think this poorly describes anthropogenic activities. Take for example the introduction of invasive species, this could be terrible for biodiversity but have no impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Why does this matter and why should you care? Well, this book is more than one person’s ramblings on climate change, the environment and regulations. This is a book authored by a group of scientists, leaders, experts and change makers who decided to put their collective knowledge down, and whose credibility is not in what they say but what they have done. You will see this demonstrated with case studies at the end of each chapter.

Sustainability is not a single subject, it is a group of topics that when combined give a coherent understanding of our organisations and their products impact on the environment.

This book does not cover all aspects (for example, Soil health is excluded) but instead focuses on key areas that are fundamental in a sustainability strategy. Not wanting to overlook key areas they are acknowledged in our last chapter.

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Sustainability is much easier when pulled opposed to pushed, that is why this book starts with what in my opinion is the most fundamental step – Leadership. It then meanders through Regulation, Carbon, Biodiversity, Water, AI, Brand, Genetics and finally What have we Missed.

I would like to personally thank all the authors who have dedicated their time to making this book a reality with the purpose of supporting sustainability professionals.

As a closing remark, like Newtons Third Law if there is a consequence to every action then there will be consequences from how we treat the environment.

Simply – we need you.

Dr William Beer, CEO Tunley Environmental

CHAPTER 1: LEADERSHIP Dr William Beer, Dr Gareth Davies and Christian Mabey

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The Sustainability Leader’s Playbook 101

This chapter is written by Christian Mabey the Managing Director of Optima Products, a world leading office partition system company, Dr William Beer the CEO and Dr Gareth Davies a Lead Scientist both from Tunley Environmental, an environmental consultancy.

If it hasn’t already happened, at some point very soon one of your customers is going to want to know the environmental impact of your product or service. They may or may not telegraph this need to you, they may simply move on to another supplier who readily provides this data or already has a competitive advantage over you already and you just don’t know it.

It is not our intention to scaremonger, but we can assure you it will happen and hopefully you are reading this book ready to take the next steps, if not already taking them. If not, let me tell you how our net zero journey started. In 2019 we started to detect a shift in our customers’ requirements, our products have always been manufactured from aluminium frames, and we started to see a growing demand for wooden frames. The sales team started to demand we produce a wooden framed product to meet these requirements, but I wanted to know why our customers were switching their requirements. What we discovered was enlightening, we are a supplier into the built environment and construction globally contributes around 34% of all carbon emissions [1]. To put that in context global air travel contributes 2.5% [2]. However, it is important to consider for a moment that most buildings have a typical life span of 65 – 100 years therefore you might consider this impact differently. But our products are used in commercial office fit outs and the life span of this is directly linked to the length of the lease as the tenant is required to return the space in a ‘CAT A’ condition which is construction terminology for an unfinished space at the end of the lease. Therefore, any interiors are ripped out and usually disposed of, this for an outsider might appear shocking however the really shocking part is leases lengths are falling, typically less than five years. Therefore, the carbon emissions

1: Leadership

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of the interior fit out can easily outweigh that of the building itself over the life of the building. Architects are very aware of this issue and were using tools like the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database to assist with decision making in material selection, in fact many had software tools that would assess the embodied carbon of material directly from CAD plans and suggest alternative materials at the click of a button to provide a lower total embodied carbon for the overall layout. As you may have already realised wood as a natural product is carbon negative whilst aluminium is largely energy intensive to produce.

As a result, our products were being substituted for timber alternatives. We had a carbon problem and needed to address this or risk becoming obsolete.

Every journey must have a starting point and in carbon terms this necessitates understanding your carbon footprint. In the UK, large companies and LLPs are required to report their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework. Specifically, this applies to companies meeting at least two of the following criteria: more than 250 employees, turnover exceeding £36 million, or a balance sheet total over £18 million.

Understanding your carbon footprint is like going on a holiday; the first thing you need to know is where you’re travelling from, i.e. your current carbon footprint, often called baseline, the second thing you need to do is understand where you’re travelling to i.e. net zero and then finally how you will get there, often called your plan or reduction roadmap. There are many regulations to help you, including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol & ISO14064, more on these in later chapters.

As with most things, once you start to get into sustainability it quickly grows and incorporates more and more features.

In the first instance we outsourced a Net Zero assessment which ultimately grew to include LCAs, biodiversity and water foot printing. But, understanding our baseline emissions

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was our most fundamental foundation, every other thread of sustainability has been built from this point. Fast forward nearly ten years and I can equivocally say sustainability isn’t a buzz word, it is a thread that passes through every part of our business. We have found a combination of in and outsourcing has worked well for us.

1.1 What Sustainable Leadership Looks Like Regardless of your personal views on net zero the UK committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and this is enshrined in the 2008 Climate Change Act. The UK also has legally binding carbon budgets, which set caps on emissions for specific periods to ensure progress towards the 2050 target. The Sixth Carbon Budget, for example, requires a 78% reduction by 2035. In essence, while the UK’s overall net-zero target is legally binding, the specific legal requirements for individual companies are still developing and vary depending on the size and sector of the business. However, the general trend is towards increased scrutiny and regulation of corporate environmental impact, pushing all businesses towards net-zero strategies.

Therefore, as responsible directors and business owners surely there is a growing impetus to address carbon emissions and wider environmental impacts of your business either from our customers or from legislation.

Reducing carbon emissions is not about making huge steps necessarily but about making the context of carbon reduction key in all decision-making processes. We asked the senior management team to implement this within their silos.

The deployment of which resulted in numerous initiatives; procurement looking at the energy efficiency of products being requisitioned and used this data as part of the scoring system for purchasing decisions. The Planning team established the real cost of running some plant was in utilities and therefore reprioritised the planning for that area on reducing the operating