As B Corp Month continues, we’re highlighting the many ways positive impact is embedded across Alberts as we work towards our purpose to pioneer a vibrant and sustainable future.
Impact isn’t only shaped in investment decisions – it’s embedded in the systems, data and discipline that sit behind the scenes. As Finance Manager, Rebecca Ingram plays a central role in ensuring Alberts’ B Corp commitment is reflected not just in what we aspire to do, but in how we measure, report and improve.
If you had to explain your job at Alberts to a friend at a BBQ, how would you describe it?
Compliance nerd. Ledger whisperer. Reporting engineer.
Being in the Finance team, we are central to all business operations, and in turn, my role as Finance Manager sees a mixture of accounting and tax requirements for an array of assets: from artwork to property and cattle, to VC to name a few.
I provide leadership support to the Finance team, manage tax, audit and budget cycles, contribute to projects, and prepare financial and impact reports.
People don’t usually associate finance with “impact”. What’s a B Corp-related initiative your team is responsible for that might surprise them?
Helping calculate cattle emissions [from a rural landholding], alongside a wide variety of other emissions (e.g. air con refrigerant, paper, energy, and water).
Fun fact: The best way to calculate herd emissions is to place a cow in a chamber to measure their methane – this of course is so incredibly difficult, so we engage with consultants to come up with alternative procedures.
There are a number of tools just to calculate animal emissions alone, sparking a level of appreciation for how difficult the exercise truly is!
Finance Manager Rebecca Ingram and Executive Director Kirsty Albert with their dual Ted Albert Award win in November 2023 – Alberts’ preeminent service award, presented only in years where significant or outstanding contribution is demonstrated.
Has working on B Corp shifted how you think about the role finance plays in creating impact?
For sure, and what immediately comes to mind is the impact of purchasing decisions. The types of questions we need to consider for B Corp shift your mindset. Supply Chain considerations include: under-represented groups, locality, a supplier’s own impact, and length of engagement. You are driven to make more mindful decisions, and you can carry that into your personal life.
We in Finance can provide data on the Supply Chain, and where there might be opportunities to engage different types of organisations, or alternatively, partner with suppliers to go on a sustainability journey with them.
What’s a good example of where numbers and values really intersect in your B Corp work?
Calculating emissions for the annual Climate Active certification as you have visibility of the quantum of emissions across your organisation and where there are the opportunities to reduce your carbon footprint.
You can prioritise reducing emissions by assessing the biggest contributors, and what options you have. While the emissions results can feel alarming, awareness is key so that change can happen now. Buying carbon credits to maintain carbon neutrality status is not enough – emissions still need to reduce overtime.
What’s one way being a B Corp has changed how we consider impact at Alberts?
We have implemented an impact dashboard which acts as a storytelling tool on what Alberts’ impact looks like across a series of metrics overtime. This dashboard has evolved as we are measuring more impact and obtaining certifications.
Examples of metrics include impact within investment portfolios, DEI, employee engagement, energy and water usage, B Corp certification results, Climate Active results and grants/donations. We can use this information to implement goals so that we can then measure impact overtime.
Rebecca (aka ‘Becs’) with her pug Alfie – a reminder that great work is never done alone.
If someone wants to bring more B Corp thinking into their own work, what’s a simple first step?
I recommend reviewing your working environment and asking: what are the quick wins to lower emissions today? Some suggestions are:
- Looking at waste management and signing up to ReSmart, who can collect and sort through all your recycling
- If you cannot implement renewables, sign up to *Amber so that you can utilise other renewables in the grid or switch to GreenPower
- Purchase all takeaway coffees using reusable coffee cups, you may even get a discount!
- Buy office and kitchen supplies that are in sustainable packaging and/or that are sustainably made (e.g. recycled copier paper, eco-friendly cleaning products, Who Gives A Crap or Yarn’n toilet paper).
When you’re not deep in B Corp work, what’s your favourite way to reset outside the office?
Being in nature, with a cup of coffee in hand, walking and listening to music or chatting to my husband, with our pug, Alfie, on lead.
*Disclosure: Alberts is an investor in Amber. We include this for transparency as Amber is mentioned in this story.
(Feature image: Finance Manager Rebecca Ingram, front right, pictured with members of the Finance team.)
