The difference we made | Impact Report | 2023

Our values Creating a new normal The difference we made in 2023

What’s in store?

Hello from our CEO.....................

2023 in numbers.........................

How we create change................

Hello from our CEO

Imagine a society where ‘common sense’ meant always making the environmentally-friendly choice. A society where people who might be divided on almost everything else would agree that prioritising a thriving natural world for all is not just necessary, but desirable. A society, in other words, in which ‘the environment’ was treated a bit like ‘the economy’ is now.

Does that sound wildly unrealistic? Maybe. It’s certainly a long way off, with culture wars driving deep divides over issues such as net zero. But it’s what we’re aiming for. When you add up all of our work at Hubbub, the ultimate

goal is to shift our culture in the UK to one that is inspired and enabled to act for a greener and fairer world - and even demands it. Not in 2050, but today.

This report is full of stories and case studies that show how we worked towards that goal in 2023. You’ll find a whole range of approaches here, from insight-led behaviour change trials to community-led regeneration projects; funding for innovation to funny, thought-provoking communications. Through each of these projects we aim to demonstrate the appetite from the public for bold and immediate environmental action, and to use our insights and evidence to give those in positions of power the confidence to make it happen.

This year we’re proud to celebrate a decade of bringing bright ideas and positive action to environmental issues. We hope you can see how far we’ve come. The icing on the cake in 2023? Winning Charity Times’ ‘Charity of the Year’ award (for the second time, but who’s counting?). It’s testament to the work done by our team and board throughout the year, but it’s only possible thanks to the many partnerships we’ve forged with everyone from the smallest grassroots

community group to the biggest businesses, and all sorts of people and organisations in between. You’ll find many of our partners highlighted in these pages; we are grateful to all of them for their trust in us, their appetite to take risks and try out new approaches, and their commitment to using their resources and influence to create change.

As you flip through these pages, we hope you find something that sparks your imagination. Because this report isn’t just a record of what we’ve achieved in the last year; it’s a springboard for the impact we can create together in 2024 and beyond. So, explore these stories, find inspiration and share your thoughts – we’d love to hear your ideas about what we do next.

- Alex Robinson Hubbub CEO

Our 2023 impact in numbers

We delivered projects

together with 816 partners

and awarded £3.3m in grant funds

to support innovative projects and communities

opportunities to see our campaigns in the media

opportunities to see our work on social media

18–34 year-olds saw a Hubbub campaign

Because we’re for everyone

We helped people think differently about an environmental issue

And enabled people to take an action for the environment

And we give a damn about the environment

We created a Hubbub ...equivalent to meals shared!

new or enhanced community-led green spaces

single use items avoided tonnes of food diverted from being wasted... items recycled

awards won in recognition of our work, including Charity Times’

people transformed their lives, habits or attitudes for the long-term, because of Hubbub’s projects

people reported taking an action to reduce e-waste

How we create change

Fast forward to a future where everyone makes choices that are good for the environment.

That’s our vision at Hubbub, and we’re making it happen with partners from every corner. But it’s not just about changing what we do, it’s about changing what we can easily do. This means not only inspiring behaviour change, but also influencing what’s known as the ‘choice environment’: all the things that determine what we’re willing and able to do. We influence what’s available, what’s ‘normal’ and what’s within reach, whether that’s inspiring simple plant-based switches or bringing the circular economy to your coffee run by testing reuse systems in cafés. And once we’ve gathered insights?

We share them. We take the evidence from our campaigns and make it available to businesses and government – so they can make impactful changes everyone can get behind. For that to happen, we need to create a mandate for change that includes voices from all parts of society, especially those that have usually been underrepresented in environmental action.

Our projects tackle all sorts of environmental issues in several different ways but they share a common thread: using a mixture of behavioural insights, clever communication, innovation and community-led action to move us towards that new normal. Here we’re sharing just a few of the highlights from the year.

Spotlight on our projects

From pumpkins to voting bins, community-led green spaces to longer lasting clothing, each of our projects aim to make environmental choices the norm for everyone

Eat Your Pumpkin!

Best risotto ever! It was so lovely to come together with other people to create a feast. New friends and new food! I won’t throw away a pumpkin ever again.”

- Charlotte, attendee of Avon Gleaning Network, Eat Your Pumpkin event.

This was our tenth year of using Halloween to spotlight food waste. Our call to ‘Eat Your Pumpkin’ reached people nearly 18 million times and inspired them to give their gourds a delicious second life.

The campaign, funded by the Starbucks 5p cup charge, enabled over 9,000 people to rescue, cook, and eat pumpkins at community events, saving over 28 tonnes of pumpkin from the bin. The campaign made it onto primetime TV and national radio, whilst lighting up the social feeds of chefs like Sam Holland and Poppy Cooks, who introduced the world to ‘pumplings’ (pumpkin dumplings –try them!). And we teamed up with The Grocer to nudge retailers towards selling smaller and tastier pumpkin varieties, so carving wasn’t the only option.

And guess what? It worked. People who heard our message were twice as likely to decorate their pumpkins and three times more likely to eat them. And we saw the number of pumpkins left uneaten reduce from 22.2m at Halloween 2022 to 12.2m at Halloween 2023. That’s still too many but we’re making big progress.

18m

times people reached and inspired to Eat Your Pumpkin

28%

increase in reach from 2022

9,000 people at community events rescued, cooked and ate their pumpkin

Behaviour: more people eating their pumpkin at Halloween (and conscious of their food waste at other times too).

‘Pumplings’ anyone?

Making reuse everyday

In 2022, our ‘Reuse Systems Unpacked’ report uncovered ten key insights to help build and scale successful reuse systems, from convenience factors through to incentives and smart packaging design. This year we turned our research into action, designing

Without the funding we would never have been able to undertake a pilot of reusables in Bradford and spread the word as we have done. The pilot has provided a strong foundation and

on this expertise and take Borrow to more locations.”

- Green Street: Bring It Back fund grantee

and funding new initiatives to help make reusable food and drink packaging the norm.

In 2023, Hubbub’s £1.4 million “Bring It Back” fund fuelled six innovative projects across the UK, involving 100 businesses. So far, they’ve prevented over 200,000 single use items from going to landfill. The learnings around setting up and running successful re-use systems were published in January 2024. One of the funded projects was filmed and used by DEFRA as a case study as part of their communications to support the introduction of the ban on single use plastic items (1st October 2023).

Our work on reuse and the circular economy has been making waves in Scotland, influencing the Circular Economy Bill, being considered by the Scottish Parliament at the time of writing. Finally, we’ve supported Asda, Aldi and M&S to trial in-store and online communications and behaviour change solutions to increase usage of their in-store refill offers.

£1.4m grants awarded to six projects

200,000 single use items prevented from going to landfill, during the initial phase

Behaviour: more people reusing food and drink packaging reguarly.

Green Street: Bring It Back Fund grantee

Viral voting bins

I’ve honestly loved [the bins]. I take pictures of them all the time, I put them on my Twitter, and it always generates a bit of a conversation.”

- Southampton resident

Our cigarette butt Ballot Bins have been asking the important questions since 2016. Ronaldo or Messi? Pineapple on pizza? Cats or dogs? But here’s a couple more: could the idea of voting with rubbish work for general waste as well as cigarette butts? Could they tackle litter while acting as a playful conversation starter?

This year, thanks to the support of KFC, we looked for answers. Our #PickYourSide campaign introduced newly designed Big Ballot Bins for general waste to the streets of Manchester and Southampton. Punters voted with their rubbish on questions like Barbie vs Oppenheimer, while solar-powered electronic displays kept score. They were a hit.

The bins went viral: brands like Heinz made memes out of them, a post about the bins by the Archbishop of Banterbury gained 200k likes and they even featured on the BBC News homepage. Nationwide polling in October 23 found that 15% of people in the UK recognised the bins: that’s 10 million people! And independent measurement by environmental tech company Ellipsis Earth found they reduced food and drinks litter within their 20-metre radius by 60% and 70% respectively.

15% of the UK recognised the bins

60 - 70% reduction in food and drinks litter within 20m radius

Behaviour: fewer people littering, more people binning their rubbish.

With lots of interest in our idea, we’re exploring whether we can produce Big Ballot Bins commercially and bring more fun debates to the streets in the name of cutting litter.

BarBINheimer got the nation talking rubbish

Loving our clothes for longer

Looking after our clothes and keeping them in use is one of the most impactful things we can do to reduce our ‘fashion footprint’.

Hubbub, supported by Primark, worked with the University of Leeds to test whether there is a direct link between the cost of clothing and garment durability. The results across a range of everyday garments were mixed. Both high and lower cost brands performed both well and poorly across a range of everyday garments, demonstrating the need for better garment durability to give shoppers confidence that their clothes will last if well looked after. Using the evidence gathered through our partnership, Primark is leading the call for a sector-wide durability standard.

140m

opportunities to see our study findings in the media

Behaviour: people wearing their clothes for longer, and buying fewer new clothes.

The findings sparked a wave of debate and prompted You & Yours, the BBC’s consumer affairs show, to dedicate an entire programme to extending the life of clothes. The results of the study received significant coverage –in total, there were 140 million opportunities to see our study findings in the media.

Growing our connection to nature

When I go outside and see someone, we say hello now. It’s brought the community together and we’re not out of sight out of mind, we’re all involved. Everyone is busy, but we take time to be together as a community.”

- Breaking Ground community volunteer

We’ve been testing the idea that communityled green spaces are a kind of multiplier: valuable for nature and biodiversity while offering all sorts of co-benefits, from health and wellbeing to community resilience.

Those most affected by the climate crisis are often excluded from the solutions.

Breaking Ground, funded by the Greater London Authority and the City Bridge Trust, is an attempt to keep decision-making power in local hands while finding a model that can drive change at scale. We’ve been supporting Breaking Ground projects around London to co-create green spaces, with funding, mentorship, and guidance where it’s needed.

Breaking Ground participants hosted 50 events for over 2,500 people, and the programme’s reach extends to over 4,450 in total. That’s a big number, but the real impact is deeper.

50 events hosted 2,500 people participated in events 4,450 people reached

Behaviour: bringing communities together to create and nurture local green spaces.

These projects are bringing communities closer, with interviews showing a stronger sense of belonging and connection to nature. Now, we’re providing support to help the groups transition into independently operating organisations that can access continued funding for their communities. And we’re also expanding the programme into Tower Hamlets.

Connecting people via re-used tech

Having this smart tablet has opened up a world of possibilities for me. I have learned how to write and send emails, which has been instrumental in staying connected with different organisations.”

- Tech Lending Community user

8,000 second-hand phones sourced for rehoming 1,000+ people enabled to borrow a device

Behaviour: redistributing pre-loved tech.

We’ve been working with Virgin Media O2 to join the dots between the seven million digitally excluded people in the UK and the piles of tech going to waste. We source second-hand phones and tablets from the public and businesses, and pass them to charities to redistribute to survivors of domestic abuse, refugees, asylum seekers and those at risk of homelessness. In the last year, Community Calling sourced over 8,000 second-hand phones to rehome, and the Tech Lending Community enabled over 1,000 people to borrow devices, giving the tech a new life, and enabling people to connect with loved ones, access services and apply for jobs.

Funding innovation

As a small dynamic business with impact at its core, we’re always looking at ways to push the boundaries of what’s possible, but often lack the resources. The grant gave us the bandwidth to innovate on product design and performance and spend time sourcing partners willing to switch up their current supply chains.”

- DAME, Circular Future Fund grantee

Together with the John Lewis Partnership, Hubbub launched the Circular Future Fund, a £1 million initiative aimed at sparking solutions for a more circular economy, to support innovative new products and services that make environmental behaviours easier for everyone. The fund tackled everyday challenges across textiles, household products, services and technology. The four funded projects have made remarkable progress already, including bringing menstrual cups to the mainstream to redesigning kids’ shoes to let them grow with their wearers and enable better recycling, building ‘lend and mend’ hubs in libraries, and pioneering research to develop infinite polyester recycling.

£1m

grants awarded across four innovative ideas to boost the circular economy

9

‘lend and mend’ hubs created in libraries

99 times less carbon generated from a new self-santising menstrual cup (compared to boiling a traditional cup)

Behaviour: supporting the development of new products and services that will make environmental behaviours easier for everyone.

15 new products and services supported across all our innovation grant funds

Spotlight on our partnerships

We need everyone on board to create a new normal. From multinational corporations to local community groups, collaboration is core to everything we do. Here are the stories of some of our key partnerships.

Growing and enhancing the Community Fridge Network

Our partnership with The Co-op has enabled the rapid expansion of the Community Fridge Network across the UK, saving over a million meals a month from going to waste, whilst supporting and connecting communities. That’s enough meals for a small town, every month, and it’s continuing to grow! We will build on our success over the next two years, aiming to deepen the impact of the Community Fridge Network through grant funding, networking, training and support.

Partnering with Hubbub over the last two and a half years has been an absolute honour for The Co-op. With expert support and advice from Hubbub, the partnership is deepening the impact of each community fridge. Through investment from Co-op members, we have launched a fund to help community fridge hosts both survive the challenges of cost increases, and thrive, by developing engaging services that support communities to come together around food.”

- Ed Powell, Mission Manager,

The Co-op

619,761 people used a community fridge

7,582 tonnes of food waste avoided, equivalent to sharing over 18m meals!

Behaviour: sharing food to prevent fresh food from going to waste.

Creating stronger, greener communities

The ambition of our partnership with Starbucks, launched in 2018, is to build stronger, greener communities, funded by 5p from every hot drink purchased in a single-use cup. This customer donation aims to incentivise greater uptake of reusable cups, as well as support three key strands of work: reducing the environmental impact of cups on our communities, improving access and connection to nature, and making the most of our food. The funds have supported a range of projects, described throughout this report, from the award-winning Eat Your Pumpkin campaign, to the Bring It Back fund, supporting innovation in reuse system.

We’re proud to have partnered with Hubbub for another productive year - inspiring behaviour change to reduce waste and building stronger, greener communities. Together, we continue to push for impact, whether that be through research informing our ongoing efforts to bring reuse to more audiences or harnessing the power of the natural world to improve mental wellbeing in partnership with NHS Charities Together.”

- Jacqui Wetherly, Director of Sustainability, Starbucks UK

Highly Commended

Third Sector Awards 2023

Large Corporate Partnership category

£1.9m

awarded in grant funding to support innovative projects and communities

165 community partners supported

Digitally connecting people via reused tech

Our partnership with Virgin Media O2 supports the ambitions set out in their Better Connections Plan: together we’re working to create a zero-carbon future, give unused tech a second life and ensure everyone can stay connected.

Community Calling has connected more than 16,763 people to date using refurbished donated devices; Tech Lending Community connects people by lending them refurbished tablets; we jointly published a report exploring Gen-Z attitudes and behaviours around e-waste; we ran multiple activities to engage Gen-Z audiences in person and online; and we ran a £500,000 grant fund for running community -based projects cutting e-waste.

Our partnership with Hubbub has taken our focus on circularity to the next level and added a digital inclusion element to our work in this space.”

- Dana Haiden, Chief Sustainability Officer, Virgin Media O2

I don’t think I’ll ever fall back on how I used to treat technology before this project.”

- Time After Time hackathon participant

16,763

people connected using refurbished donated devices, via Community Calling to date

1.5m

times people saw Time After Time on social media

Behaviour: taking an action to reduce e-waste e.g. repairing, recycling, or reusing an electrical item.

Activating Manchester communities through ‘In Our Nature’

Our city-wide climate collaboration in Manchester supports communities to make meaningful changes together.

Funded by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund and the Wates Family Enterprise Trust, we’re delivering community engagement and city-wide communication, alongside a range of organisations including Manchester Climate Change Agency, Groundwork North West, Amity and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. We’ve supported 12 groups to set up place-based climate action projects in their communities, aiming to enable over 1,500 people to take action and learn new skills over the next year.

Together we have supported work which uses simple and practical activities to encourage a greater understanding and clarity of the link between individual everyday behaviour and the climate emergency.”

- Felicity Mallam, Director, Wates Family Charities

12 groups supported to set up climate action projects in their communities

It’s given me the confidence to just give it a go. It was the starting that I always found daunting, but I don’t have that now. I wouldn’t say I’m a professional, but I feel confident to get going.”

- Sharon Thomas, Sewing project participant

Testing and scaling sustainable solutions

Partnering with Dunelm, we’ve been busy finding ways to help their customers give homeware a second life, to reduce waste and support their commitment to a more circular economy.

First, we ran a trial called ‘Home to Home’ in 22 stores. Dunelm’s store colleagues sorted through customers pre-loved homeware and sent it to local community partners such as temporary accommodation services for refugees or survivors of domestic abuse. Over 1,500 containers of homeware were passed on to over 800 new homes, keeping valuable homeware out of landfill. This was such a success that Dunelm are now looking at options for rolling out the Home to Home scheme in the near future.

Hubbub played a pivotal role in helping us connect with local causes. They challenged us to champion these causes and consider the dignity of the end user at each step. None of this would have been possible without Hubbub’s considerable input and insightful guidance.

Thank you, for being a brilliant partner and trusted ally in our journey towards a more sustainable and connected world.”

- Jemma Williams, Director of Business Development

1,500 homeware packages shared through 22 stores

800 households benefitted from ‘Home to Home’

Behaviour: taking an action to reduce e-waste e.g. repairing, recycling, or reusing an electrical item.

Fashion

Our 2024 ambitions

So, what’s next?

There are four areas we want to do more in. We’ve chosen them because they’re tricky topics to crack but have huge potential for impact and need serious collaboration to tackle.

Are you in?

Hubbub designs fashion campaigns that help people look their best without costing the earth. We already have enough clothing in circulation to dress the next six generations1. In 2024 we want to help drive more pre-loved shopping, repair and care for the clothes we already own.

Sustainable diets

Eating less meat and dairy is one of the most impactful ways to take environmental action, and it’s better for our health and pockets too. In 2024, we will explore the most accessible ways to eat sustainably and help people make simple switches and savvy substitutions to reduce their impact on the environment.

Reuse

We can’t recycle our way out of the plastic and climate emergencies, which means reuse of packaging must also be an integral part of a sustainable solution. In the year ahead we’ll promote the wider benefits of reuse using insight-led communications and behaviour change campaigns, and we’ll be scaling workable reuse models by overcoming common barriers such as cost, convenience and visibility.

Greening

Those most affected by the climate crisis aren’t always included in the solutions. Our community-led green spaces projects put underserved groups at the heart of action to improve wellbeing and access to nature and to inspire more environmental behaviours. In 2024 we’ll support community-led green spaces, and establish a consistent, scalable model for our nature-based activities, and much more.

How we walk the walk

We’re committed to running our organisation in the best way we possibly can: cutting our own environmental impact, supporting the wellbeing of our team, building a more inclusive culture, and raising the bar on how we give grants and think about our impact, among much else.

Our team and culture

Hubbub’s culture has helped me to become more confident as I feel my ideas are listened to and valued.”

- Hubbub team member

• We’re proud that as our team has grown to around 60 people we’ve sustained our exceptional organisational culture. This year we were ranked 17th in Escape the City’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Escape to (up from 25th last year!)

• We aim to create an inclusive working environment where everyone at Hubbub can thrive. We’re actively challenging our own perceptions and making incremental changes to our working days, language and culture. We were therefore very proud to win the Most Inclusive at Heart Workplace Award in the first ever Shift People Awards, 2023.

• We’ve also participated in The Race Report, an industry-wide initiative to increase diversity in the environment sector, by disclosing our team’s diversity data and the action we’re taking to build a more diverse organisation.

17th

Escape the City

100 Best Companies to Escape to Winner

Shift People Awards

Most Inclusive at Heart Workplace

Our own impact

• We’re focussed on reducing our own environmental impact. We’ve calculated our carbon emissions again this year using GHG Protocols via Compare Your Footprint. Our estimated emissions are 54 tonnes CO2e for Scope 1 & 2 and 699 tonnes for Scope 3. That’s 377 tonnes lower than last year, despite growing both staff and turnover. How did we achieve this? Well, it’s mostly due to gathering more accurate data this year.

• As a service-based organisation, our emissions data relies heavily on estimations, particularly for Scope 3 (indirect emissions from suppliers). This year, we’ve managed to rely less on these estimations, and more on accurate reporting. For example, last year we used the cost of train travel to get an estimation of our emissions, whereas this year we used kilometres travelled on specific types of trains. This year, we’ll improve data accuracy further, particularly on hotspots where we can drive the most impact.

• So, what have we done to reduce our impact? We’ve built stronger relationships with ethical suppliers who are reporting their emissions, so we can make smart choices about how we do things, from choosing which printing materials to use to sourcing green logistics solutions to get our Ballot Bins from A to B. Our design team have been rethinking how we make physical products by prioritising reuse and designing with end-of-life in mind.

• Lastly, as a grant giver, we’re committed to transparency and fairness in our grant-making practices. We adhere to the IVAR principles of best practice to ensure those who apply for and receive funds from us are supported throughout the process.

Thank you!

Heartfelt thank you to our Board of Trustees for their time, commitment and invaluable wisdom.

Catherine Brown, Rhea Fofana, Jonathan Katz, Ryan Kohn, Stephanie Lambert, Deborah Luffman, Sheetal Shinh, Dan Smith, Beth Thompson, Anna Turrell

Thank you to all our funders who’ve made it all possible.

1 Oak Limited

23.5 Degrees Ltd

AM Coffee Retail Limited

Arabica Coffee Limited

BaxterStorey @ UBS

The Belazu Foundation

Bristol City Council

Bristol Waste Company Limited

British Nutrition Foundation

Bunzl Plc

Burton & Speke Limited

CAF

Cafe Fortune Center Parcs

ChangeX

Charities Trust

Cineworld Cinemas ltd

City Bridge Foundation

Cobra Coffee

Co-operative Group Limited

Crema Ltd

Dunelm ebay

Ecosurety

EG On the Move Limited

Elite Coffee

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Euro Garages Ltd

Eximedia UK Ltd

Garfield Weston Foundation

GK Coffee Group Ltd

GLA

Gloucestershire County Council

Homes for Students

IGD (including IGD Services Ltd)

IKEA Ltd

John Lewis Plc.

Kbeverages Ltd

KFC

London Borough of Southwark

Macmillan Cancer Support

The Magic Beans Co

McDonald’s UK & Ireland

Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC.

The National Lottery Community Fund

Novuna

OVO (S) Energy Solutions Ltd

Pets at Home Group Plc

Pie Factory/ Ecobooth Ltd

Playtech Plc

Primark Stores Limited

Queensway

Rothschild Foundation

Slurp Coffee

Soul Coffee House

SSP Financing UK Limited

Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) Ltd

The Starbucks Foundation

University of Birmingham

Village Hotel Club

Virgin Media O2

Wates Family Enterprise Trust

Welcome Break

Worcestershire County Council

Wychavon County Council