Tyndall Sustainability - the consultancy which helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint.

Our Start-Up focus this week is on Mechanical Engineering graduate Ben Richardson who co-created the start-up business Tyndall Sustainability - a consultancy business which aims to help businesses move closer to 'carbon neutrality' through analysis, education and goal setting.

Ben's story: We work closely with companies to calculate their impact on the environment. A company’s carbon footprint can be broken down into aspects such as: Agricultural inputs, transport, packaging, waste & processing. Only once this analysis is complete can a company then focus their resources on making changes in the right ways.

Many parts of sustainability can be misleading and complex. We try and provide companies with the understanding to manage their emissions and reach specific sustainability goals.

How did you come up with the idea and where did it start?

Simply put, climate change needs sorting out and I was excited to dedicate my career to help this missions. My partner (Joe) and I, started with the concept of trying to get emission data on as much packaging as possible. We really thought (and still do), that it is compatible with the boom in the calorie and how people change their habits as a result of numbers on the back of packaging

From there we have started working with companies to calculate their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions to see what they can change to have a better impact on the environment

We are majorly thankful for their ongoing support and help with the confusion and complexities of starting a business! The money raised from the B-Enterprising team was the first step to helping develop a website. It also took the pressure off two (very) recent grads to be able to give it a shot

What are the best and worst aspects of running your own business?

I have zero business background and it has been a steep learning curve from the business / financials / sales side of things. Trying to contact companies and getting rejected constantly was a bit rough on the motivation but now we are finding ourselves in a position where companies are coming to us as our portfolio builds.

Seeing a company's emissions reduce and educating them on how they can further head towards Net-Zero is genuinely rewarding! We are seeing that companies are actively searching for ways that they can reduce their footprint and see it as good for business. As long as this ball keeps on rolling I am
optimistic about the future of the planet! 

Name one thing you wish you knew before you started out

Python. I have been working hard on coding courses as soon as a left university but if I learned the skills a couple of years ago, I could have saved a lot of time!

The biggest takeaway (and it is a classic) is that communication is so important.

I think it is not just speaking to colleagues or pitching to a potential client, it's everything from your ability to write to suit your audience to be able to layout data in a visually appealing and clear way.

If you can get all different aspects of communication correct in a business, you're probably in a good place! 

Visit the Tyndall Sustainability website here for more information.

With thanks to Ben Richardson

Edited by Kerry Brunn and Bob Lee (B-Enterprising)