Our Focus Areas
We work with organisations of all shapes and sizes to help them be more sustainable in everything they do - from their environmental footprint to people and resource management. Our clients include charities, businesses and local government.
What We Do
We help our clients to make changes, showcase their impact and pursue new opportunities.
People
Successful organisations know that people are their most valuable and precious resource. To be truly sustainable you need strong effective teams and robust systems which are also flexible enough to accommodate the demands of a changing world. We can draw on over 20 years of experience of organsational development and change management, bringing our best practice expertise and understanding to bear on each new project. So, whether its structure or systems, your team or your Board, we can help.
Planet
Sustainability in all its forms is at the heart of Achill Management’s approach. Whether you are at the beginning of your sustainability journey or have been working on your environmental impact for some time, we can help. Audits, toolkits, resources and consultancy are all part of our joined-up solution to helping people and organisations support our fragile world.
Profit
We know that good sustainability equals good business. We can help you develop an approach to running and managing your business that will not only cut your costs but generate income through enhanced engagement and productivity – while reducing your impact on the planet.
Who are you influencing?
In Mind in Society, his seminal book on learning and thinking, the Russian philosopher and psychologist Lev Vygotsky said this: ‘human learning presupposes a specific social process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them’ (Vygotsky 1978, p. 88).
Civilised rebellion – perhaps it can teach our parliamentarians a thing or two
“Humbug”, “Big Girls Blouse”, “Girly Swot”, “nose ringed crusties” just a sprinkling of some of the phrases our Prime Minister has cast about in recent weeks, seemingly oblivious to the inappropriateness and offensive nature of his language. In fact he revels in this carefully cultivated, boyish ‘devil may care’ look at me I am so […]
A silver lining to a No Deal?
For the avoidance of any doubt, I voted remain, and I am strongly opposed to a no deal Brexit. However, as an environmentalist, I am beginning to think that there may yet be something positive to come from all this. I realise I may be clutching at straws, but bear with me…..
We would love to have a chat about how we can help you
The Achill Team
Amanda Carpenter
CEO
Amanda has had a lifelong passion for the planet having been an active member of conservation groups at school and University, she spent time as a volunteer at Friends of the Earth before moving into wider conservation fields and then back into sustainability with her consultancy Achill Management. For the last 25 years she has worked with organisations of all shapes and sizes across all sectors trying to help them be more sustainable operationally, financially, strategically and environmentally. Her commitment to her local community and the causes she cares about are evidenced by her non executive roles which include School Governor, Non-Exec on her local PCT, and trustee roles, the most recent as Chair of Board for Applause Rural Touring Kent. She is also active in women’s politics and an adviser to 50:50 the campaign for equal representation in Parliament.
She believes that a sustainable future will only be possible it we take a pragmatic approach to things and get everyone to take steps however small, everyday forever. While time is running out together we can make great changes happen: it is never too late. Amanda is married to Peter, who is a teacher and poet, and has two grown up daughters on whom she is relying to save the planet for the next generation.
Jim Haywood
Director
Jim is an ex-Royal Navy nuclear submarine engineer with engineering and technology in his veins (as well as a touch of salt!). He also has many years’ experience in the private, public and charitable sectors leading environmental and sustainability programmes. His career has included blue chip multinational corporates, the Environment Agency and Business in the Community (leading that charity’s environmental campaign on behalf of HRH The Prince of Wales). Jim is now an independent sustainability consultant and works alongside Amanda as part of Achill Management. In other roles he chairs the certification Impartiality Committee for the Carbon Trust and sits on the sustainability audit committee for the Royal Warrants Association
As a keen bird watcher and artist, Jim is constantly bowled over by the beauty (and fragility) of the natural world and believes passionately that – appropriately applied – technology can play a significant role in protecting it for future generations.
Andrew Paterson
Associate
Andrew has for the past thirty years worked in management and consultancy in health and social care. He has a particular interest in primary, community and mental health services. From 2016 to 2018, he developed a performance improvement programme for mental health and addiction hospitals across Saudi Arabia. Since resuming work in the UK, Andrew has become particularly interested in the potential that communities have for making services sustainable.
As a consultant, first in a small firm and then a large corporation, Andrew has been involved in strategic health planning at local and national level, has taken numerous NHS and other providers through service reviews, business cases and procurement exercises.
In the past, he has served on the board of a housing association for people with Learning Disabilities and on various school governing bodies and was a visiting lecturer at City University. As a rather unsuccessful allotment tenant, he has grown to respect the power of nature that threatens to overrun him at times.
Stephen Farrant
Associate
Stephen has extensive leadership experience across the private sector, civil society and the public sector. Passionate about the environment, he has a proven ability to combine an ambitious change agenda with practical solutions to global sustainability challenges. As a linguist by training, he has a strong interest in relationship-building, shared understanding and coalition-building.
Previously he was Director of Sustainability and Innovation at Business in The Community (the Prince’s Responsible Business Network). In this role he successfully led ground-breaking programmes including the Waste to Wealth campaign, the Circular Economy Taskforce, the innovation, digital and Purpose agendas for the Global Goals, and the Responsible Business Tracker. Steve started his career in marketing, operations and strategy roles at British Airways, followed by a decade with VisitBritain. Increasingly motivated from the early 2000’s onwards by the unfolding climate and ecological emergency, Steve then worked at the RSA before serving for 6 years as Director of the International Tourism Partnership, where he played a leading role in shaping the sustainability agenda across the global hotel industry.
Steve is as an Adviser to the Board of ITP and a qualified Executive Coach. He volunteers with Thames 21 and the Hardknott Forest Restoration project. He recently became a French citizen to keep up with his bilingual wife and two kids. In his spare time he enjoys singing with a west London choir, climbing mountains and exploring nature on two wheels
Beth Salt
Researcher, Content Development and Social Media Manager
Starting out as a runner in documentary producer 3bm TV Beth spent nearly a decade working on an array of documentaries for 3bm and Brook Lapping Productions, working her way up to Producer/Director. She spent two years as an Assistant Producer at BBC World News, Executive Producing series and commissioning and running the short format content for the channel. Following a career break to start a family, Beth looks after two young boys and works as a freelance social media producer and researcher. She provides programme research and social media support to Planet Pod and tries to spend as much time outside and live as sustainably as she possibly can.
Kim Hay
Communications and Social Media Manager
Kim has grown up in countries where environment and the human community had a visibly detrimental and meaningful impact on one another, be it inland or by the ocean. Later, making the alps her home she watched the seasons change dramatically and the scramble for businesses to reinvent themselves and be more creative with their seasonal tourism (recreational) activities. Businesses are at the forefront of needing to future-proof their existence because of climate change. Her role with Achill communicates how the global business community needs to step-up & work alongside the environment.
A history in magazine and book publishing (sales) – The Ecologist and Phaidon Press – developed into marketing and then social media marketing in the military, mental health sector. Mental health and family welfare in the military is important and something she is passionate about and this also comes down to one’s environment. She continues to travel and work to communicate global goals around mental and environmental impact. Her fear of flying has also turned out to be environmentally beneficial after all!