🔍 Spooky fact of the week: Every single species of bat is categorised into two groups; microbats and megabats. Microbats are smaller, can echolocate, eat insects, and are found worldwide, whereas megabats are larger, cannot echolocate, eat fruit and pollen, and can only be found in tropical and subtropical locations. 🦇

This is our biggest campaign yet

October’s been a very busy month for the A&B team. We launched the ongoing #BetterBusinessPioneer campaign in collaboration with The Better Business Network and OPEN Media, celebrating and sharing the stories of those individuals who have made considerable contributions to the world of sustainability.

The best part is that this campaign is open to everyone! If you know someone who you think should be a Better Business Pioneer, you can find out more about the campaign and how to nominate them today via the button below:

We also had our 3rd Birthday celebrations this month, with the team having a day out in London for brunch at The Breakfast Club, The Crystal Maze Live Experience, and dinner at Gloria. Keep an eye out on our socials for an upcoming reel showing highlights from the day, as well as our disastrous journey home. 🤦 

Ever felt like ‘climate quitting’?

A commendable trait of Gen Z workers is unapologetically dropping a job if they experience a conflict of values (reportedly half of Gen Z employees have already done this). It could be for different reasons, but one that’s on the rise is quitting because of your employer’s impact on the climate crisis, or because you’d rather be working to better address climate issues.

This isn’t exclusive to Gen Z though, in fact, some of you might have already had these thoughts before, or even gone through with it yourself. If you think it could be on the cards in the future, this is what to do if you feel like ‘climate quitting’.

If you’re a business leader, you most likely already have an established business vision. Championing it (or even expressing it) can sometimes be hard to approach, especially for the self-aware. You might’ve already asked yourself questions like:

‘Am I too unrelatable?’ or ‘how do I shout about my vision without looking like an egoist?’.

Luckily, there are ways to keep it genuine. Here are 6 ways great leaders can champion their vision without looking like it’s the ego talking.

How we can Design for Planet

The climate crisis isn’t resting in the palms of designers, but they do have the potential to help drive change in ‘redesigning’ the way we live through their skillsets and ability to collaborate. Things like switching the materials used in products and creating an inclusive market are all possible stepping stones. Check out this 3-step process on how designers can Design for Planet.

The Eden Project had its first rebrand in its 22-year history this month. Created by SomeOne, the rebrand is all about ‘transforming negatives into positives’ with a focus on the positive action we can take to fight against the climate crisis. Ditching its old style, the new branding takes its lead from organic shapes and natural colours.

RIBA has recently awarded its Stirling prize to a dementia-friendly London retirement home that has a focus on purpose-led design. Of course, there’s some other great buildings in the prize shortlist, but the John Morden Centre stands out as a project that has mastered the art of ‘biophilic design’ (principles to increase occupants’ connectivity to the natural environment).

Looking for a quick time waster? Drop any postcode into this AI and watch it transform your local street into a ‘Dutchified’ pedestrian and cycle-friendly environment. We experimented with the road outside the office as a tester. 👇

Nearly all our flood defences are useless 😀

More than 4,000 of England’s flood defences have been found to be mostly useless, with many being too damaged or defective to actually defend against anything. Hundreds of defences deemed not up to scratch were also in areas recently affected by Storm Babet. Communities hit by floods have rightly had a go at local authorities for not being equipped enough and for being too complacent in the run up to the storm.

If you’re a longtime fan of ours, you might remember seeing our ‘horror stories’ series a few Halloweens back. Back then, we gave a little insight into pumpkin problems and the waste caused by jack o’lanterns. Sadly, the issue is still ongoing, and this Halloween will see 18,000 tonnes of pumpkin go to waste in the UK alone (considering half go uneaten, that’s £27 million worth of edible food!). Here are 3 ways to stop pumpkin leftovers causing a fright to our planet.

Autumn feels like it’s come a bit late this year, hasn’t it? It’s not exactly an anomaly, as changes in vegetation seasonality such as falling leaves or bud bursts is one of the many noticeable effects of climate change. This is an interesting look into the role climate change has had in making the seasons go haywire.

Each issue of nineteen eighty four, we feature a different Certified B Corporation, to celebrate the brands which are working hard to create a better business world. To learn more about B Corps, click here.

Our featured B Corp this week is…

Bare Kind