Company CV

Best Foot Forward (BFF) has helped several hundred organisations to manage and reduce their environmental impact and to tell the world about their achievements. We help businesses and government to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save money and to understand their opportunities and risks in a world of limited resources. We have calculated thousands of footprints for everything from carrots to county councils, from wine bottles to Wimbledon. We are seen as experts and thought leaders in the sustainability and footprinting sector. Our team specialises in different areas including FMCG, agriculture, health and transport; most of our consultants have post graduate qualifications and are CEMARS qualified.

Achievements

2013

• Shortlisted for Guardian Sustainable Business consultancy of the year award.
• Upgraded Footprint Reporter with new ways to view and manage your footprint.
• New leadership at Best Foot Forward as Chris Stanley becomes CEO.
• Launched the UK Dream, a project building a collective vision of Britain's sustainable present for everyone to own.
• Created a suite of infographics covering topics ranging from sustainable fashion to food waste.

2012

• Won the Environment Product/Service Award at the Environment and Energy Awards for its Product Portfolio Footprinting service, which helps multinational corporations to tackle their supply chain footprint.
• Authored the ‘Carbon footprint study’ for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
• Measured the impact of grass-fed beef for the National Trust.
• Embarked on a project with Defra and the industry to tackle the sustainability of soft drinks.
• Launched a version of Footprint Reporter for project carbon footprinting by all Heritage Lottery Fund applications over £2 million.
• Shortlisted for Consultancy of the Year by the Business Green Leaders Award
• Partnered with the CarbonNeutral Company to provide CarbonNeutral© certification through Footprint reporter.
• Began developing software for the Cool Farm Tool.
  • Began calculating Eurostar’s footprint using the new GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard.
  • Commissioned by The World Resources Institute to create profiles of key life cycle data sources which provide information on the environmental impacts of products.
  • Launched new footprinting tools: Dairy Footprint Dashboard and GP Footprint Reporter to enable farmers and GPs to quickly calculate their carbon emissions.
  • Seminal project for WRAP’s Product Research Forum providing insight and analysis of environmental hotspots across the grocery and home improvement sectors. Collated information on more than 250 products to create a live database which WRAP uses to support UK businesses in improving resource efficiency.
  • Piloted Product Portfolio Footprinting with Crown Paints, Pepsico, WRAP, Tesco and Britvic, to help these clients measure the impact of their supply chains.
  • Calculated the carbon footprints of eight UK government departments and their supply chains.
  • Hosted two visioning workshops in Oxford and Brussels for Vodafone’s ‘Future Agenda’ programme for corporate, government and third sector stakeholders.
  • Began advising WRAP on what a resource efficient economy looks like.
  • Started updating the carbon footprint of the London 2012 Olympics, having already calculated the footprints of a number of sporting events; Wimbledon, England World Cup 2018 bid, Chicago Olympics 2016 bid.
  • Key author in Aldersgate group report, highlighting the importance of land as a resource in moving beyond carbon, ongoing advisory role to the group.
  • Co-authored 'The Green Guide For Business: The Ultimate Environment Handbook for Businesses of All Sizes', written by Chris Goodall and Craig Simmons.
  • Became Carbon Trust Footprinting Company Footprint Expert™ accredited consultants.
  • Established Water Strategies in partnership with Tim Jones from Future Agenda to advise businesses on the opportunities and risks around water.
  • Calculated the ecological footprint for the South East Diamonds Area for SEEDA.
  • Provided technical input on revisions to the PAS 2050 Carbon Footprint Standard, trained BSI verifiers on the PAS2050 Product Footprinting Standard (ongoing).
  • Launched Aviation Footprinter™ in collaboration with ETS Aviation, the first tool to provide EU emissions trading scheme calculation services to the aviation sector.
  • Began calculating the carbon footprint for the London 2012 Olympics.
  • Compared the carbon footprint of East Coast rail with alternative transport modes for National Express; our data was used in the client’s advertisement.
  • Launched new versions of our Footprint Reporter tool for offices, events and furniture (with FIRA).
  • Calculated the carbon footprint for Volkswagen’s BlueMotion Polo car, compared this to a similar model and calculated emissions saved in terms of recycling cans, paper and plastic bags – the data was used for the client’s advertising campaigns in digital and print media.
  • Co-authored RIBA award-winning book ‘The ZEDbook: solutions for a shrinking world’, written by Craig Simmons with Bill Dunster and Bobby Gilbert.
  • Launched Footprint Reporter, giving small and medium sized companies a ready made tool to easily measure and reduce their environmental impact. In 2011 it has over 3000 users.
  • Calculated ecological and carbon footprints for Radiohead’s tours, later we footprinted other celebrity events including Jamie Oliver’s American Roadtrip, Liz Hurley’s wedding and Blair Force 1.
  • Advised the Carbon Trust on data and methodology as part of the initial PAS 2050 pilot studies and co-wrote guidance which helped to develop an agreed approach for measuring greenhouse gas emissions from goods and services.
  • Developed an evidence base about global resource use for WWF’s One Planet Business initiative, looking at ecological and carbon footprints for 48 industry sectors across 30 countries. We have worked with many other non-profit organisations before and since, including international aid agencies Oxfam and Trocaire.
  • Calculated the ecological and carbon footprints for Duchy Originals.
  • Awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development for our work on ecological footprinting of businesses.
  • Calculated the ecological footprint of South West England
  • Published Material Health which calculated the ecological footprint of Europe’s largest organisation, the NHS in England and Wales
  • Published Scotland’s Footprint, the first study of resource use in the country
  • Began advising the Sustainable Development Commission (continued until 2007).
  • Produced Lifestyle Stepwise, the first online ecological footprint calculator.
  • Awarded ACCA accounting award for our 2001/02 company environmental report.
  • Advised on the formation of and became a founding member of the Global Footprint Network, a not-for-profit organization created by Mathis Wackernagel, promoting ecological footprinting to help create a one planet future.
  • Our Regional Stepwise project for Angus and Brechin was given the Green Apple award, we then rolled out this approach to numerous local authority regions including Buckinghamshire, Essex and the East Midlands.
  • Published City Limits - the first ecological footprint of a major city: Greater London
  • Awarded Research and Development category and Overall Winner at the Biffaward Awards for our groundbreaking work on the ecological footprint and resource consumption of the Isle of Wight.
  • Authored 'Sharing Nature's Interest: Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability', written by Nicky Chambers and Craig Simmons with Mathis Wackernagel. This has become the standard textbook on ecological footprinting.
  • Began advising on the development of organisational accounting protocols with the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. We have since had an ongoing advisory role including writing guidance on the product protocol.
  • Began advising numerous national and international environmental bodies including the European Environment Agency, European Parliament, European Commission, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, British Council, UK government environment departments (later called Defra and Department for Energy and Climate Change).
  • Produced the first commercial carbon calculator – CarbonCalc (users included Royal and Sun Alliance, Civil Aviation Authority).
  • Calculated our first corporate footprint for Anglian Water Services and used this award-winning case study to produce the first ever guidelines for companies reporting their ecological footprint (in partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).
  • Produced the first ever university campus calculator for People and Planet: CampusCalc.
  • Launched Global Steps, a pioneering educational game which has since sold several thousand copies.
  • Created one of the world’s largest databases at the time which held data points on the life cycle impacts of a range of materials and products, gleaned from reputable secondary sources and from our own primary research.
  • Developed the first regional ecological footprint calculator, ‘Regional Stepwise’.
  • Nicky Chambers and Craig Simmons founded Best Foot Forward, the first environmental consulting practice in Europe to focus on ecological footprinting.
  • Created EcoCal, the first ever personal ecological footprint calculator, for the Government’s ‘Going for Green’ campaign. We calculated the conversion factors ourselves because none existed.

2011

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1995

References

“I have found the team at BFF to be well informed, eager to help and a pleasure to work with. You have delivered on every detail in a timely and efficient way and have been available on the phone whenever I've had questions (even daft ones). Your strategic advice has added considerable value too, reaching beyond the brief to help shift a potentially rather dry piece of work into something I can use to excite my wider team – and hopefully external stakeholders too. My thanks to the whole team.” Katherine Symonds, Head of Sustainable Olympic Games, Coca-Cola

“Best Foot Forward gave us the scientific evidence to substantiate our claim to be the green choice when it comes to ski travel, and helped us communicate this to our target market. They were really easy to work with, and we’re very pleased with the results, both commercially and environmentally.” Victoria Fraser, Marketing Manager, Rail Europe

"The team managed to quickly distil some potent and innovative ideas, many of which have shaped our thinking on the options we have for the future." Mark Barthel, Special Advisor, WRAP

“Since the course, BSI has gone on to deliver carbon footprint verifications to PAS 2050 in several countries as a direct result of this training. I would definitely work with Nicky and BFF again.” Mark Fraser, Global Portfolio Manager, Sustainability, BSI

“We were impressed by BFF’s expertise and their track record of support for London 2012. Footprint Reporter will give us cost-effective access to the data and calculation engine we need to do our own footprint calculations.” Robert Accarino, Senior Director, Chicago 2016 Environmental Team

“Craig did a great piece of technical work on renewables and carbon emissions that we have used an awful lot.” Helen Chadwick, Policy Advisor, Low Carbon Economy at East Midlands Councils

“AMEC Footprint Reporter will be integral in reducing our carbon footprint. It is already giving insight into where our business has both carbon and cost hotspots.” Linzie Forrester, Sustainability Programme Manager, AMEC

“Nicky is very easy to work with - quickly grasping what's required, adding valuable suggestions of her own and then ensuring that her expert skills and those of her BFF team are applied to the task.” Simon Lewis, 2012 Programme Manager, WWF-UK

“Stepping Forward provides a lot of…data for decision makers in the south west...It takes it out of the zone of technical experts and policy wonks, and pitches it directly at all of us, both as consumers and citizens.” Jonathan Porritt, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission