Making an imPPPact: Bringing together People, Planet and Purpose at Zen

CSR. ESG. Many people’s eyes glaze over when they hear these terms. They’re the kind of jargon that live in reports and policies rather than at the heart of a business. But that doesn’t have to be true. And at Zen, they mean something much more important.

Because for us, doing right for people and planet isn’t just a statement on the wall – it’s what makes us uniquely Zen. imPPPact (yes, with three Ps) is simply a new way of bringing together the things we already do to make a difference. It connects the principles behind our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments – how we operate responsibly – and our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work – how we give back to our communities – under a single joined-up approach that reflects who we are.

As our founder and CEO Richard Tang explains, “Zen is all about a new way of doing business – capitalism version two – where people and the environment come first, and making money is a means to an end.”

What is imPPPact?

We recently brought together our existing Environmental Steering Group and B Corp working group (we’re the UK’s largest B Corp certified telecoms provider) into a single, unified initiative. The result is imPPPact – our refreshed framework for how we deliver on our purpose of doing right for people and planet. Those three Ps – People, Planet and Purpose – represent the core pillars that guide the way we work and the choices we make.

As Richard put it when launching the initiative, “We’ve all got a really important part to play in delivering our purpose and living by our core values. imPPPact helps us do that by joining up how we think about people, planet and purpose across everything we do.”

This isn’t a new direction or a rebrand of our values. It’s just a clearer way to show how the things we already do – from how we treat our people to how we care for the planet and conduct our business – are all part of one story. It’s about making our impact more visible and bringing the Zen values to life.

Why it matters

We know that corporate responsibility can sound like corporate language. But we want these ideas to be alive in the way we act, not just in what we say. imPPPact helps us stay focused on that goal – reminding us that the most important decisions we make are often the small ones we make every day.

It’s about:

• Supporting and empowering our people to make a difference.
• Making responsible, sustainable choices that protect our planet.
• Running our business transparently and ethically, so that we do what’s right even when no one’s watching.

As Richard says, “We achieve award-winning services by continually striving to be better and better – better today than we were yesterday, and a little better tomorrow than we are today.”

What’s next

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about each of the three Ps that make up imPPPact:

• People – how we support, celebrate and build communities within and beyond Zen.
• Planet – how we’re improving our environmental impact and helping create a more sustainable future.
• Purpose – how we hold ourselves to high standards, doing business the right way through openness, ethics and accountability.

Together, they capture what Zen has always been about – doing right by people and planet and making a lasting imPPPact.