We are delighted to announce that our client the International Monetary Fund has received their certificate for ISO 20121 Sustainable Events in Washington D.C. USA with support from Crowberry Consulting Ltd.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is proud to announce that it has achieved the international standard for event sustainability – ISO 20121 – for the Spring Meetings and Annual Meetings held at its headquarters in Washington, DC. This certification by the British Standards Institution (BSI) recognizes the IMF’s commitment to managing the environmental, social, and economic impact of its operations during the Meetings.

As climate change remains a major threat to long-term growth and prosperity, the IMF has a role to play in helping its members by providing policy advice related to mitigation, adaptation, and transition to a low carbon economy. The IMF also has a role to play in taking steps to advance its own operational sustainability efforts.

“Sustainability is a priority for the Fund, and I am immensely proud that we have achieved the ISO 20121 standard for our Spring and Annual Meetings, an important step in the right direction. The standard recognizes our many efforts; from offsetting the carbon emissions associated with participants’ travel to Washington, to eliminating single-use plastics from our cafeterias and catering, to establishing an Environmental Sustainability Council—each action highlights that the Fund is making strides to be more sustainable in our own operations.” said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva upon receiving the certificate from BSI.

To achieve this certification, the IMF has been working with the team from Crowberry Consulting® since 2023 to conduct gap analysis, internal auditor training, and sustainable event system implementation. The collaboration ensures that all functional areas are in scope and meaningful sustainable event objectives and targets are embedded. These include the continuous offsetting of carbon generated by participants’ travels for the Spring and Annal Meetings, as well as considerations for materials, food waste, accessibility, and recycling.

“It has been a pleasure to support the IMF to work towards and achieve the ISO 20121. We have supported the internal departments to implement a full internal audit program, trained up the sustainability champions and guided them through the required documentation of the standard to ensure successful certification in 2024. We are delighted that the team has achieved the prestigious ISO 20121 standard, and this will inspire other large bi-lateral & political events to do the same.” said Becky Toal, CEO of Crowberry Consulting – Enabling Sustainable Futures.

“As a globally important organization, the IMF has a powerful opportunity to set an example for how events can be planned and delivered sustainably, benefiting people and planet. It’s fantastic to see them using their Spring and Annual Meetings to create a lasting legacy,” said Tim Wren, BSI’s Chief Commercial Officer. “BSI’s rigorous audit demonstrated that the IMF has taken vital action to meet the requirements of the Sustainable Events Management System Standard and consider key environmental, social, and economic impacts. The IMF deserves credit for taking an important step forward that can ultimately help society accelerate progress towards a fair society and a sustainable world.”

The ISO 20121 provided the Fund with a framework and guidance that was flexible and rigorous in measurement and monitoring, enabling the institution to track positive and negative impacts over time and take necessary steps to address them.

We are delighted to announce that Becky Toal CEO of Crowberry Consulting has been accepted as a Fellow to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. This is the highest status for the Institute and follows a rigorous process of interview, application and references. Fellows to the IEMA are transforming the world to sustainability  and Becky now joins a prestigious networking group for the Institute. Becky said “I am delighted to become a Fellow of the IEMA after working my way up from Student member to Full Member and now reaching the Institutes pinnacle and aim to inspire the next generation on sustainability and environmental management issues.”

We recently welcommed three new internships to the team! Darren Hallak and Casey Williams join us via the University of Livepool, Dareen as  a PGR executive and Casey as our new Sustainability (Compliance) Executive. Megan Chiu joins us as a Sustainability Executive from Lancaster University. They will all be supporting our clients with data analysis, legislation updates and ISO compliance.

Becky Toal Wins the Diverse Business Award at the Enterprise Vision Awards 2023!

The Enterprise Vision Awards took place on the 29th September in the Blackpool Winter Gardens, the largest awards for women in business outside of London. Becky Toal CEO of Crowberry Consulting was delighted to be the winner for the Diverse Business Award saying, “We work hard to ensure our team is diverse and inclusive and offered many posts to international graduates over the years, we are also a signatory to the Employer Champion Scheme with Society for the Environment, Disability Confident and an Armed Forces Convenant Signatory. Winning this award means a lot to me and I hope it inspire others to focus on diversity and inclusion.”

Our MD Becky Toal was delighted to recently win the Inspirational Woman in STEM Awards presented at the House of Lords in London. The award and campaign aims to raise awareness of how few women are currently working in STEM and Construction in the UK. All winners of the award will be paired with a young female ambassador who is currently working in STEM to act as a coach/mentor for their career. The campaign which is supported by the Federation of Small Business and Jomas Associates follows the Alison Rose Review which concluded if more women worked in STEM and Construction that the UK Economy could grow by billions of GBP. Becky Toal said “I am over the moon to be recognised as a leading and inspirational woman working in STEM as I am to inspire the next generation of environmental and sustainability managers in the UK. I look forward to providing coaching/mentoring to one of the young ambassadors.”

Becky Toal MD and Founder of Crowberry Consulting Ltd has been honoured in this years ENDS Top 100 Power List of the UK’s most influential Environmental Professionals. Becky said “It is fantastic to be recognised in this way and also to celebrate all the folks on this list who work hard each day to protect the environment and prevent pollution, its a real honour indeed.”

The team at Crowberry Consulting Ltd recently signed up to an office lease at the iconic Guinness Enterprise Centre, Dublin, Ireland. We have many clients in the Republic of Ireland and have grown a EU client base over the last five years. The GEC accommodates a range of businesses from start ups to well established businesses and critically they have a new Sustainability Cluster. Becky Toal Managing Director said, “We are delighted to have a physical presence in Ireland to better serve our growing customer base across the EU. We are also excited to be a part of the GEC new Sustainability Cluster, which will support our clients even further.”

Our team recently visited the House of Commons and the House of Lords in London to visit the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, who represents our area Chorley, Lancashire. The team discussed women in business and sustainability issues of relevance to the Speaker. Mary Toal Head of Quality and Customer Service said “This was a fantastic opportunity to discuss sustainability issues with the Speaker of the House and to promote women in business.”

Managing Director of Crowberry Consulting® Ltd – Enabling Sustainable Futures, Becky Toal, wins the Society for the Environment Award for Environmental Professional of the Year 2022!

The finalists were selected from an array of high calibre nominations, received for environmental professionals working in energy, agriculture, environmental management, water supply, transport, resources and waste, chemical engineering, the built environment, and more. Nominees also ranged from freelance to Directors working for multinational consultancies

Designed to recognise those outstanding individuals who have innovated, inspired, and have gone beyond what’s expected in their recent work to protect, preserve, or enhance the environment, there are two prestigious awards up for grabs:

• Environmental Professional of the Year
• Registrant Newcomer of the Year

In judging Becky to be the winner of this prestigious award, the judging panel noted her clear knowledge and leadership, excellent communication skills, and infectious passion for protecting the environment. Setting up and leading her own business Crowberry Consulting Ltd since 2006, in this time she has supported swathes of UK and EU based businesses to become more sustainable by implementing ISO environmental management systems, delivering innovative training courses, and giving back to a profession that has given her so much, by coaching and mentoring early career professionals. A career highlight was achieved in 2021, as Becky was appointed – in partnership with Arup – as Lead Sustainability Consultant of both G7 and COP26, with her work duly recognised as the events were awarded the ISO 20121 standard. All of this and more shows Becky as someone truly going above and beyond to protect the environment – and a worthy winner of the 2022 Environmental Professional of the Year award.

“I am truly delighted to be awarded Environmental Professional of the Year 2022, especially given the strength of the competition. This reflects the professionalism of the sector and how far the respect for our work has come over the years. To be the winner feels amazing and I hope to inspire the next generation of environmental managers, auditors, and consultants to work hard, go for their dreams and apply their skills and knowledge to continue to support protecting the environment. Thank you to the Society for the Environment for this recognition, it really means a great deal to me and my team at Crowberry Consulting.” Becky Toal, MD.

The Lancashire Apprenticeship Awards was held on 31^st March at the Mill Farm Sports Village to celebrate the success of apprenticeships and kick starters across the county.

Crowberry Consulting was the winner of the category SME Employer, for the county. As a Chorley based business, they have invested in apprenticeships for over 10 years offering a range of roles including Project Management, Digital Marketing, Business Administration and Team Leading.

Becky Toal Managing Director said “We are proud to have offered a range of quality apprenticeships since 2012 working with various local colleges in the North West. In 2017 we were recognised by the National Apprenticeship Services as a Top 100 Employer of apprenticeship, and in 2020 we won the North West Regional SME Employer of Apprenticeships. We are also a Lancashire Skills Pledge signatory and a Society for the Environment Employer Champion to promote the professional skills in our sector. As a sustainability consultancy we believe in learning and development and continued professional development for all our staff, it’s a delight to have won this Lancashire award”.

Nicola Adam, Editor of Lancashire Post said “These awards celebrate those who have grasped the opportunity and bloomed within their chosen apprenticeship, setting a solid base for their future while playing an invaluable role within industry. All the finalists and winners have been carefully selected by an independent judging panel, including the Head of Business Development at Blackpool and Fylde College, Sarah Hall, representatives from the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub and Group Marketing Manager at Porsche Centre Preston. Collectively the panel reviewed hundreds of nominations before selecting the winners and finalists”.

There was a total of 12 categories on the night, and many local colleges were represented. The host for the evening was Jordan Williams.