Harlow Consulting Wild at Work Day

Harlow Consulting, a fast-growing young business in Harrogate, has committed to giving back to the community with its charity and volunteer work. 

The team took part in a Wild Work Day on 11 July for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Staveley Nature Reserve.

The leading research consultancy was established by Jennifer Brennan and Clare Vokes in 2019, motivated to create a business that invested in its people, and the planet, while delivering innovative, value-driven research work.

Jennifer Brennan, Director of the firm said, “As a team, we engage with a number of volunteering and community projects throughout the year. The Wild Work Day is not only great for the environment, but great for us too to get outdoors, it is a form of team building and boosts well-being.”

Harlow Consulting has announced it will focus on five areas for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) work: food poverty, animal welfare, community, hospice support and environmental causes.

The Wild Work Day was organised by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which is dedicated to conserving, protecting, and enhancing Yorkshire’s wildlife and wild places. Work involved removing invasive Himalayan Balsam form the reserve.

Himalayan balsam, also known as Impatiens glandulifera, is considered r problematic due to its invasive nature. It can disrupt habitat, reduce biodiversity, create soil erosion, and destroy native eco-systems, flora and fauna.

Joanne McGillan, Senior Researcher at Harlow Consulting said: “We are a mission-driven organisation. A driver for the directors, Jennifer and Clare, is giving back and making better - whether it’s in terms of the environment, or the lives of their employees.”

Harlow Consulting was highly commended in the Harrogate Business Awards 2023 for the Employee Health and Wellbeing Award.

The business offers staff a wellbeing allowance, volunteering days, and an extra Friday off each month, ten months of the year. It adheres to the Mindful Employer Charter and has made the Mental Health at Work Commitment.

It has signed the Market Research Society Net Zero Pledge and is working with Positive Planet to offset emissions. All employees attend carbon literacy training and receive certification.

Clare Vokes, co-founder, and Director of Harlow Consulting, said: “We are wholly committed to being a business based on strong values that sticks to those values. We’re conscious that our success means we can give more back.”

A percentage of annual turnover goes to the World Land Trust, with regular donations made to the Trussell Trust, among other charities. 

ENDS

For media enquiries contact clair@causeuk.com 0753 194 8014

Photos show the team at work.

Photo shows from (l-r) the Harlow Consulting team

Top photo: Clare Vokes, Joanne McGillan, Terry Massey, Ben Kehoe and Ellie Moore

Second photo: Ellie Moore, Ben Kehoe, Rachel Green (from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust), Terry Massey, Clare Vokes, Joanne McGillan

EDITORS NOTES

About Harlow Consulting

Research with Impact

Harlow Consulting is a full-service research and evaluation agency operating across the UK. Their directors have over 30 years’ combined research experience in a wide variety of sectors including construction, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), heritage and healthcare. They also work extensively in the education sector, and develop qualifications, standards and apprenticeship frameworks.

Harlow Consulting is passionate about delivering high-quality research that makes an impact.

https://www.harlowconsulting.co.uk

About the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is the only charity entirely dedicated to conserving, protecting and enhancing Yorkshire’s wildlife and wild places.

Staveley Nature Reserve, part of a larger area known as Staveley Carrs, has been renowned for rare plants for centuries. Today, this large, accessible site has been sculpted through quarrying activities followed by decades of work by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and dedicated volunteers. The site is in two parts: the East Lagoon edged with vegetation that was allowed to develop naturally post quarrying, comprising fen, reed swamp, scrub and flower-rich grassland; and the West Lagoons, which was landscaped and returned to agricultural usage after quarrying, with arable and intensively grazed areas.

A hay meadow has been created on a former arable field, islands, nesting platforms and a sand martin wall have been built around the lake, and ponds and scrapes put in to increase the area of wetland habitat.