The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2024.
Review of the Business
The Board
The year ending 31st July 2024 represented the third full year of trading for Play It Green.
The Board were delighted the company maintained its B Corp Status and continued to make an environmental and social impact whilst growing its customer base and revenues. A ‘feel good’ business for all concerned.
The shareholding and Board of Directors during this period remained 45% Chris Thair, 45% Richard Dickson and 10% Amaris Group Ltd. The latter being represented by Scott Pickavance and Chris Hurcombe. The Board continued to meet monthly, with no changes in positions during the year.
The Board remain committed to the Play It Green’s aim. To help people and businesses lower their carbon footprint whilst ensuring they make an ongoing positive environmental and social impact on their journey to net-zero.
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.
Subscription and trees purchase revenues moved from £89,291 to £128,769 per annum, an increase of over 44%. The previous year tree and subscription revenues more than doubled so this maintains a very positive trajectory for the company.
There was one other source of revenue listed, £5,765, detailed as ‘Sales Other’ in the accounts. This came from 2 sources. £28.80 from Macclesfield College as travel reimbursement for a speech provided by Chris Thair to all staff and £5,736 for a grant project. This was a joint project with two other partners to help develop our technology and automation within the website. More specifically being able to show live data on the trees by connecting Play It Green’s website directly to our tree planting partner’s site; improving our offer to members and better enabling future growth. This revenue from the Growth Company was passed directly onto Salford University for their support services. Play It Green made no financial gain from this project however will certainly benefit in kind.
Overall revenues moved from £89,391 to £134,535 per annum, an increase of just over 50%.
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 Catalyst Digital Energy.
On average over 2,500 unique new users visit the website per month. The personal tip and educational articles to help reduce carbon footprints have excellent SEO scores.
Repairing the Planet by Planting Trees
285,297 trees were planted this financial year compared to the previous 219,167 meaning the company has planted 612,379 trees to date.
Play It Green changed its trees planting partner from Eden Reforestation Project to Veritree. Of the 285,297 trees, 63,333 were Mangrove trees planted in Madagascar with Eden. The remaining 221,964 trees were planted through our new partner Veritree. These planted trees were split evenly between 3 sites. Kelp trees in the seas around Canada, agroforestry trees in Rwanda and Mangrove trees in Kenya. Play It Green is delighted to now be making an impact on land, coastlines and seas.
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 2022 Play It Green absorbed a large price increase for the trees and did not pass this onto members. In 2022-23 we did not increase our prices and in 2023-24 the cost price for the trees again went up significantly leading to full consultation with members. Being ‘customer led’ is one of the organisations 3 core values and all members were consulted. The decision was taken to change from 13 trees to 10 trees per £5 subscription. This kept us extremely competitive in the market whilst not passing on any price increase to members.
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Review of the Business - continued
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 £12,800 was passed to good causes, 10% of the £128,769 :
Year End Donations
July 2024 Since 2021 Launch
£ £
Mind 1,877 5,117
Edwards Trust 5 1,530
Birmingham W&C Hospital 981 2,640
WWF 1,249 2,768
Shelter 283 1,207
Western Park Cancer 139 896
Malvern Hills Foodbank - 679
Sea Shepherd UK 353 979
Devon Air Ambulance Trust - 70
Active Cheshire 72 199
NW Air Ambulance 835 1,196
Winstons Wish 40 93
Childrens Air Ambulance 835 1,196
City Harvest London - 63
The Felix Project - 63
AKT 28 99
DEC 244 613
Depaul UK 475 683
Wood Street Mission 409 716
St Anns Hospice 763 1,262
Parkinsons 78 89
The MND Association 29 91
Woodland Trust 467 583
Spinal Injuries Association 1,392 1,624
Young Lives v Cancer 442 543
Dogs4Resuce 189 205
The Lord Taverners 29 46
Y Kids 21 33
Coffee 4 Craig 75 85
Dragonfly Cancer 6 10
War’ Wolves Foundation 3 3
NEW CHARITIES:
David Lewis 5 5
Cotswolds Wildlife Support 78 78
St James Place Foundation 48 48
Lifeshare 7 7
Scottish Projects (Woodland Trust) 257 257
Joshua Tree 12 12
Pide Piper Appeal 117 117
Friends of the Earth 16 16
HILS 276 276
Fletchers Foundation 62 62
Forget Me Not Charity 5 5
The Inflammatory Breast Cancer N’ 116 116
Donations to Good Causes 12,800 26,660
Sales - Trees & Subscriptions 128,769
Percentage to Good Causes 10%
39 UK Charities received £12,800 for the year ending 31st July 2024 which is a record number of charities and donations compared to the previous year. In total since launching in 2021, 44 charities have received £26,660.
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.
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Review of the Business - continued
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
Previous year revenues more than doubled each year, so the 44% growth in this financial year was lower than expected. New sales slowed and this was primarily due to reduced staffing levels. For 9 of the 12 months, Richard Dickson was the only fulltime position. Chris Thair took up a parttime teaching position in November 2023 and moved to two days per week with Play It Green. This was a strategic move to aid an increase in wages for staff to a standard UK wage.
The costs to run the business fall in 3 main categories:
(i) The cost of the product listed as ‘raw materials and consumables’ totalled £61,052. This represents 48% of the £128,769 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 £40,360 which are low and explains the strategic decision to reduce hours and increase salaries.
(iii) Other costs totalled £16,249. This included general expenses, meetings, software subscriptions, product development work, marketing and accounts etc
No dividends were taken.
Going Concern
Play It Green remains a going concern. The £2,439 profit was the first profits posted by Play It Green, previous year producing a net loss of £14,626.
This financial year 2023-24 represents the third full year of trading. As previously reported Directors expected Play It Green to produce its first posting of an annual profit and it did.
The balance sheet remains positive, +£29,270, 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 2024, Play It Green:
Helped reduce the carbon footprint of over 30,000 people, encouraging behavioural change through weekly tips, discounts and tools.
Ensured 285,297 new trees were planted and protected across 4 countries. These will absorb 28,530 Tonnes of CO2 over the next ten-year period and more thereafter.
Donated £7,862 to an overseas not for profit organisation called Eden Reforestation Project for the planting of the trees. Also donated 35,551 to overseas not for profit organisation Veritree for the planting of trees. All donation receipts are published on our website and regular planting reports published. This growing, planting and protection of these trees provided over 4000 workdays of employment to locals and supported 10 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Donated £12,800 to 39 UK registered charities for social causes.
Donated a total of £56,213, 42% 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.