The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended
31 July 2023
.
Review of the Business
The Board
The year ending 31st July 2023 represented the second full year of trading for Play It Green.
The Board were delighted Play It Green was accredited with B Corp status in April 2023. Achieving this globally recognised kitemark standard is a major success. Play It Green became the first business to gain this accreditation in the local authority in which it is based and gained one of the highest scores on governance globally. Gaining B Corp status shows Play It Green is a business meeting the highest of standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency. Demonstrating it is making a positive impact on society and the planet.
Two Board members received individual awards for their work with Play It Green. Chris Thair and Richard Dickson being crowned Carbon Heroes of Manchester.
The shareholding and Board of Directors during this period remained 45% Chris Thair, 45% Richard Dickson and 10% Amaris Group Limited. The latter being represented by Scott Pickavance and Chris Hurcombe.
The Board, who meet monthly, remain committed to the Play It Green’s aim. To help people and businesses lower their carbon footprint and ensure they make an ongoing positive environmental and social impact on their journey to net-zero. This is encapsulated in Play It Green’s 3 step solution to climate change #reduce #repair #regive. “Reducing” carbon footprints. “Repairing” the planet through planting trees. “Regifting” vital funds to good causes by passing on 10% of all subscription and tree purchase revenues.
The information within this report and the financial account reflects the Directors commitment to transparency, openness and delivering upon its promises.
Revenues
Play It Green continues to have two primary revenue streams, subscriptions and sales of single trees. The latter is packaged in different ways to better suit members needs and enhance their own proposition e.g. bookings, product, event, bill, thank you gestures etc.
Subscription and trees purchase revenues moved from £44,146 to £89,291 per annum. This is more than double the previous financial year and a positive trajectory.
The only other source of revenue was £100. Captured under “Sales-Other”, this payment was for delivering a short talk.
Reducing Carbon Footprints
Play It Green continued to offer a wide variety of support to help reduce the carbon footprints of people and businesses.
Each week, members are sent a tip on how they can reduce their personal carbon footprint, a discount to a related product and education about sustainability including business best practice. This education is essential to initiating change and footprint reduction actions.
Play It Green members are then able to access template net zero plans and environmental policies through the members portal. Thus driving footprint reduction actions in their business.
Members continue to use Play It Green’s signposting service. For example, a number completed a Scope 3 carbon footprint report and gained a PPN 06/21 compliant Carbon Reduction Plan through strategic partner Eaasi Carbon.
On average over 2000 unique new users visit the website per month. The personal tip and educational articles to help reduce carbon footprints have excellent SEO scores. For example, an article entitled Sustainable Headphones is ranked number 1 on Google. The content output and social media platforms continue to drive traffic to the website.
Play It Green made further improvements to the business support folder for members, especially on the marketing collateral they can use. New accreditation badges for email signatures including Climate Positive Green Team.
Repairing the Planet by Planting Trees
219,167 trees were planted this financial year compared to the previous 95,167, meaning the company has planted 327,082 trees to date.
Play It Green continues to use Eden Reforestation Project as the tree planting partner and their sites in Madagascar. Play It Green provides full disclosure on the trees to show members they are planted and making a difference. Regular tree planting reports with themed narratives, google earth coordinates of the planting sites and copies of all purchase receipts are published on a regular basis. All this information is also fully available on the website's dedicated tree page.
In the previous financial year, Play It Green absorbed a large price increase from Eden Reforestation for the trees and did not pass this onto members. For 2022-23 Eden kept their prices the same and therefore no price changes were passed onto Play It Green members.
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Review of the Business - continued
Eden Reforestation is a not-for-profit company and every payment to them represents a charitable overseas donation. This represents a £26,903 donation to an overseas not for profit organisation.
Regifting funds to Good Causes
10% of all subscription and tree purchase revenues are passed to a good cause of each member's choice. This promise was kept, as £8,937 was passed to good causes, 10% of the £89,291:
Year End Donations
July 2023 Since 2021 Launch
£ £
Mind 1,994 3,240
Edwards Trust 1,525 1,525
Birmingham W&C Hospital 868 1,659
WWF 840 1,520
Shelter 367 924
Western Park Cancer 196 757
Malvern Hills Foodbank 290 679
Sea Shepherd UK 324 625
Devon Air Ambulance Trust 70
Active Cheshire 60 127
NW Air Ambulance 353 361
Winstons Wish 21 53
Childrens Air Ambulance 154 160
City Harvest London 63 63
The Felix Project 63 63
AKT 64 71
DEC 212 369
Depaul UK 208 208
Wood Street Mission 308 308
St Anns Hospice 499 499
Parkinsons 11 13
The MND Association 37 62
Woodland Trust 94 115
Spinal Injuries Association 232 232
Young Lives v Cancer 101 101
Dogs4Resuce 16 16
The Lord Taverners 17 17
Y Kids 12 12
Coffee 4 Craig 10 10
Dragonfly Cancer 4 4
War’ Wolves Foundation 3 3
Donations to Good Causes 8,937 13,856
Sales - Trees & Subscriptions 89,291
Percentage to Good Causes 10%
32 UK Charities received £8,937 for the year ending July 2023 which is double the number of charities and donations compared to the previous year. In total since launching in 2021, 33 charities have received £13,856.
These donations to good causes are made to make a social impact as per step three of Play It Green’s climate solution. By running our business model we are helping put extra provision in the following support services: Mental health. Bereavement and end of life services. Hospitals. Wildlife and marine conservation. Homelessness. Foodbanks. LGBQT+. International disasters. Active lifestyles, sport and community activities. Families in financial difficulty. Dogs and finally, dealing with life changing diagnosis such as Parkinsons, cancer, MND and spinal injuries.
Play It Green defines good causes for the 10% regifting as registered charities, sports organisations or educational establishments. To date, only registered charities have been selected by members.
Costs, Investment and Expected Growth
The remaining funds from the six-figure investment by Amaris Group Limited was used in the first quarter of this financial year. The new platform was launched in October 2022 with positive feedback and is the main legacy of the investment.
Whilst membership levels continued to grow, the investment into staff in the previous year did not result in sufficient additional sales whereby they could be maintained. From month two onwards Play It Green reverted back to the two co-founders as the only full-time staff.
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Review of the Business - continued
The acquisition of new sales continued to come through the networking and meetings with Richard Dickson or Chris Thair. Optimising the platform so the website can self-generate new members without them having to meet the cofounders continues to be an issue. A new partner has been found at the end of year to resolve this issue and ensure continued growth. Converting a small percentage of the 2k+ new users who see the Play It Green website each month into members is a stated goal.
The costs to run the business fall in 4 main categories:
(i) The cost of the product listed as ‘raw materials and consumables’ totalled £38,475. This represents 43% of sales. The bulk of this, 70%, is the cost of trees, followed by good causes, sales commission payments and fees taken by the online payment platforms, Stripe and GoCardless.
(ii) Staffing costs totalled £33,989 or 38% of sales. A lower-than-expected figure, as Directors took no wages certain months to ensure investment into other areas.
(iii) Website platform, over £18,000 from the remaining capital from the sale of shares was used in this area and it remains a key asset of the business. The term ‘amortisation’ in the finances means depreciation on an intangible asset i.e. the website.
(iv) Other costs totalled £24,938. This included general expenses, meetings, software subscriptions, product development work, marketing and accounts etc. A quarter of this expenditure was used to help break Play It Green into the UK Holiday sector and acquire a major bookings partner. A venture that has yet to bear fruit and was a recognised gamble to try and enter new sectors.
No dividends were taken.
Going Concern
Play It Green remains a going concern. The net loss of £14,626 was expected this financial year as the remaining investment funds from the previous sale of shares was used in Q1. The remaining quarters Q2 – Q4 the business operated in a profitable position, albeit whilst minimising expenditure on wages to keep the business stable. The next financial year 2023-24 represents the third full year of trading and Directors expect Play It Green to produce its first posting of an annual profit.
The balance sheet remains positive, +£26,831, given the asset of the website and the cash in bank. The Directors loans from Chris Thair and Richard Dickson are not expected to be pulled back in the short term and cause cash flow issues.
The business continues to have a strong reputation, acts true to its values and has a growing customer base. Attrition rates are extremely low, customer satisfaction is very high which is reflected in online reviews all being five star and there is a clear plan for growth.
IMPACT REPORT
For the year ending 31st July 2023, Play It Green:
Helped reduce the carbon footprint of over 25,000 people, encouraging behavioural change through weekly tips, discounts and tools.
Ensured 219,167 new mangrove trees were planted and protected in Madagascar. These will absorb 16,175 Tonnes of CO2 over the next six-year period and more thereafter.
Donated £26,903 to an overseas not for profit organisation called Eden Reforestation Project for the planting of the trees. All donation receipts are published on our website and regular planting reports published. This growing, planting and protection of these trees provided 3291 workdays of employment to locals and supported 10 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Donated £8,937 to 32 UK registered charities for social causes.
Donated a total of £35,840, 40% of income, to charities and not for profit organisations.
Play It Green has no offices, vehicles, everyone works remotely, and use of public transport is encouraged at all times. Numerous actions are taken to ensure a minimal carbon footprint. For example, www.playitgreen.com is hosted with Green Geeks meaning the hosting leaves no carbon footprint and is a service that contributes positively to the environment.
Every Play It Green subscription supports 11 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the provision of sustainability education, gifting to charities and the planting of trees in Madagascar with the Eden Reforestation Project.