Good Growth, Good Business - What Earth Day Means to Us
Every year, Earth Day prompts a global conversation about the kind of world we're building. For businesses, that conversation is becoming harder to sidestep - and for those of us who believe that business can and should be a force for good, it's also one of the most energising conversations to be part of.
At QuoLux™, Earth Day feels like a natural moment to reflect on what we've been working towards and to share our 2025 Positive Impact Report. Our third since becoming a B Corp, it tells the story of a year shaped by one central idea: Good Growth.
What do we mean by Good Growth?
Good Growth means growth that benefits the people inside a business, the communities surrounding it and the wider world it operates in. It's growth that's measured not just in revenue and headcount but in lives improved, partnerships formed and futures made more sustainable.
As a certified B Corp, we hold ourselves to account against those standards. B Corp certification isn't a badge you earn once and forget about - it's a commitment to continuous improvement across people, planet and community. And this year we began our preparation for reaccreditation.
Our 2025 report is organised around three pillars, each tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
People: Over 500 leaders on the journey
Leadership development is at the heart of what we do, and in 2025 we engaged more than 500 leaders across all our programmes and services, with LEAD™, GOLD™, GAIN™ and LEADlight programmes continuing to be our main focus.
LEAD™ Cohorts 23 and 24 graduated, alongside GOLD™ Cohort 12 and GAIN™ Cohort 7. At the same time, LEAD™ Cohorts 25 and 26 and GOLD™ Cohorts 13 and 14 began their journeys, with GAIN™ Cohort 8 getting underway in early 2026.
We also worked with a growing number of organisations who wanted to blend leadership development with technology, designing bespoke in-house programmes that combine our How-To SkillBuild range with in-person workshops.
Several business leaders progressed towards an MBA with the University of Gloucestershire based on learning from our programmes, with work-based projects spanning high-performance leadership, digital transformation and workplace wellbeing. We look forward to seeing them graduate in 2026.
Better leadership creates better businesses. Better businesses create better places to work and live. That chain of cause and effect is what Earth Day is about - and it starts with people.
Community: Investing in the VCSE sector
One of the highlights of the year was the launch of our Scholarship for leaders in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors. Four leaders - from two charities, a social enterprise and a foundation - joined our programmes as scholarship recipients.
The impact has been tangible. Geoffrey Newsome, CEO of ITSA Digital Trust, described his organisation as enormously grateful for the tools and lessons he took from LEAD™. Simon Weaver, Head of Charitable Delivery at Gloucester Rugby Foundation, spoke of being stretched and challenged while always feeling supported - and of learning alongside leaders from a wide range of backgrounds and industries.
This scholarship sits within a bigger vision: Gloucestershire as a county where businesses and charities work together, creating social value and business value side by side, becoming a beacon of Good Growth in people, place, planet, profit and performance.
We've continued to invest in Good Dividends and the SDG Configurator at gooddividends.com - a free tool helping leaders of any organisation identify which Sustainable Development Goals are most relevant to them. The DigiTools underpinning it are now embedded in three anchor procurement groups across the UK, and a major announcement is planned for 2026 that will bring the initiative to Gloucestershire.
We also became a founding partner of the ITSA Digital Trust Social Value Business Club, addressing an audience of 60 leaders on how social value and business value can be strengthened through purpose-led leadership.
Planet and Better Work: Two books, a clear message
2025 saw the publication of two books co-authored by QuoLux™ CEO Stewart Barnes: Developing Financial Leadership in Small-Medium Businesses and Realising Good Growth: a practical guide for business leaders. Launched at two separate events to more than 250 business leaders, both were nominated as Financial Times and Schroders Business Books of the Year.
These books matter to us because they're grounded in the real experiences of SMB leaders - people running businesses with genuine complexity and real stakes. Across the books and a supporting case study, we featured 32 companies. We also worked with The Raikes Journal, spotlighting the progress of four local SMBs.
Realising Good Growth in particular carries a message that feels especially relevant on Earth Day: that the most forward-thinking businesses are moving towards becoming regenerative - giving back more than they take, investing in the ecosystems they're part of, building for the long term. QuoLux™ is proud to play an active role in a community of businesses leading that movement.
Looking ahead
New cohorts are already underway across all our programmes. The How-To SkillBuild and DigiTools ranges continue to expand. Two more book launches are planned - including a rollout of Realising Good Growth to the B Corp community and the paperback release of Developing Financial Leadership in Small-Medium Businesses. And we remain committed to our active roles in B Local Gloucestershire and Bristol.
On Earth Day and every day, we come back to the same conviction: how a business grows matters as much as whether it grows. The leaders coming through our programmes aren't just becoming more capable - they're becoming more conscious of the kind of organisation they're building and the impact it creates.
If that resonates with where you are right now as a leader, we'd love to talk.
Read our Positive Impact Report for 2025
Find out more about our programmes and get in touch here.