How ethics can make “boring” business activities exciting

Written By PACT Dogs Ltd

By Jason Light

In my view ethics in the sector is about so much more than the training methods used or promoted by businesses, it’s about fairness, transparency, honesty; As a bare minimum business ethics is about abiding by laws, paying people a fair wage and paying taxes which support the services and infrastructure (like roads, police..etc) that your business relies upon. At its best business can be about being a great “corporate” citizen and this is when business starts to become more creative and dare I say fun.

At PACT Hq we love exploring new ways that we can have even greater positive impact through our business activities. We are incredibly proud of the impact we have had so far beyond the direct services we deliver, over the last few years we’ve donated, given discounts to charities and supported diversity in the sector through scholarships to the tune of £70k. Once we’ve tested it out, it’s even more exciting to share these ideas with as many people as possible to hopefully magnify that impact, thats where this blog comes in.

Making Banking Exciting

This is the boring bit; but being financially robust is important to us, it’s hopefully valued by our students and members, but is also crucial for our developing relationship with Ofqual. As part of our approach to educational and business best practices we have set aside the equivalent to a whole cohort of course fees in a reserve account.

From day one we purposely chose to bank with the UK’s first bank created by a woman, whose progressive social and environmental policies ensured that our business’s funds would not be used for things like arms sales or environmental degradation. We are now a few years down the road and its time to take our ethical approach to banking to the next level, not just ensuring our reserve funds are “divested”, but that they are being proactively used for good including directly within this very community.

To do this we recently moved our course reserves to the Charity Bank, a UK institution led by charities and whose entire focus is to invest in social and environmental good in the UK. They are also a fellow B Corp like PACT, so are committed and assessed to operate via the highest possible ethical standards.

Image: Screenshot from Charity Bank website case study, image of two people holding two dogs outside kennel.

Our investment, however small with the `Charity Bank will have a direct link back to the sector we are so passionate to support. In talking to them the bank representative told us that they lend money to support projects like village halls and scout huts (a mainstay for puppy classes up and down the country), help finance sports activities venues (perfect for recall classes) and help hundreds of larger charities (most likely many in the sector). Here are a couple case studies from their website which come from our sector:

We would be lying if we said we weren’t telling you about this as we are very proud to do it, but mostly we are sharing this information as we are passionate about sharing best practice across the sector.

Please Note: We are not regulated financial advisors, this isn’t advice or a recommendation to use certain products, we are just us sharing what we do to try and inspire people. We teach our students about the importance of understanding professional boundaries and when to seek expert support. Before taking these steps we to sought professional financial advice.

You can find out more about the bank here: https://www.charitybank.org/our-impact/

PACT Dogs Ltd https://www.pact-dogs.com
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