What we believe
‍At Heights, we believe impact-driven companies are going to succeed in the long-term.

‍‍Taking the triple bottom line approach further, we actually think that businesses pursuing a combination of environmental, social and financial goals, will be more competitive, more resilient and outright more successful in the long run.

The key shift at play?Is to shift from tracking impact as a chore (thank you ESGs…), and towards tracking impact as a value creation and driver for growth.

Planet, people and profit
The shift to what we believe can be aligned to our core 3Ps:

The first P, Planet
(or, environmental impact)

We believe the climate crisis is the biggest and most complex problem we have ever faced, as a species, as humans, as creative thinkers. In all of this, you can focus on the gloom and doom, and effectively freeze (or overreact, or insert whatever you might do in crisis mode), or you can do something, maybe even something better.

So whether you decide to act out of fear or optimism, it’s a no brainer that something has to be done here.

The second P, People
(or, social impact)

You could argue that a steady social downward spiral has been happening for longer than our climate problems. One which the climate crisis only compounds these very same social and economic inequalities for people.

Whether its healthcare, welfare or gender equality and accessibility....we have plenty of opportunities where we can do better for others, or rather, for each other.

The last, tricky P, Profit
(or, financial results)

Green premiums, the need to do well before we can do good, and all the rest are absolutely real (and a pain).
De-growth is exciting, and we should explore alternative business models for the future. But given the urgency of the climate crisis, we need to work with what we have in the meanwhile, and what we have is a world where money fuels change.
But then again, the biggest problems have always brought with them the biggest opportunities.

Harvard Professor Henderson says there's good reason to believe that solving the climate crisis presents trillions of dollars worth of value. At Heights, we believe it's time to go and unlock some of that.
Not because we prioritise money but because we prioritise the Planet and its People.

In short?

I am advocating for a return to sustainability by design, doing things better than yesterday. If we look back at the original meaning of ‘sustainability’, sustainable work has always been about better work, work that is stronger and more profitable. And that ultimately means for planet and people.

For example, businesses that look more kindly towards people and support positive social change, will be able to convince users (and better talent, smarter money and all of that too!) to come on board easier, and will ultimately naturally win in a crowded market - so that’s a financial win too. And an uplifting cycle.

Similarly, businesses who uphold environmentally sustainable practices, are future-proofing themselves and effectively setting themselves up for success in the long term, whether that’s in the eyes of investors or key stakeholders. Another financial win there.

So this is where Heights comes in.

Who we serve
We help tech startups & scale-ups who are driving environmental and/or social change, to scale their impact, reach more people and attract investment.

There are already a wealth of businesses, in various fields, tackling today’s complex and important problems.
We believe tech startups and scale-ups are uniquely positioned to provide solutions to the climate crisis, or rather a plethora of small but considerable improvements in the right direction.

That is because, by definition, they sit in the realm of innovation. And we definitely need some new, wild ideas if we hope to make it.
When we start a new piece of work at Heights, we exercise our best judgement: to ensure our clients always share our values, which often goes beyond a rigid climate-tech requirement.

While certifications like B Corp and pledges like 1% for the planet are a clear positive signal, we don’t stop there and do our due-diligence before making a decision about who we partner with.

SaaS startups, B2B service providers and DTC scale-ups are all good examples of past and current clients. Always driving social or environmental change.
We also often support the ecosystems powering these very companies, so that we can accelerate our reach: think investors, accelerators and communities.

How we work differently
‍We are a digital agency offering product and brand design, but we are different in two important ways.

The climate crisis needs a lot of visionary scientists and sensible policy-makers. But creativity plays an important role too.

First, we’re a strategic partner. We embed into client’s day-to-day, which gives us the time and depth to be thorough in everything we do. That also means we think long term, and challenge clients with our opinions to keep growing together.

Second, we care (a lot). We care about your mission because that’s what motivates us. We care because your success is not just our success but has the potential to exponentially impact a lot of people, if we get this right.

Not only do we take on sustainable and future-proof practices in how we carry out our day-to-day operations and client delivery, but we believe that we can instantly multiply our impact doing something we are really good at (which is not science or policymaking, but design!) through our client collaborations.

That happens because, in the simplest terms, design offers a better, more streamlined and meaningful user experience to potential customers, which in turns means a faster and more entrenched adoption of better tools, ultimately leading to positive impact on a global scale.

Here’s another angle: great design, (as we like to offer), gives a unique competitive advantage to any business who chooses to work with us, as it directly impacts users adoption, revenue, NPS and many other key metrics.

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Our principles

Here, or where we are:
complex problems open up a wealth of possible, positive exciting new worlds/opportunities

There, or where we want to go:
our success is your success, and your success is everyone else’s

How we’ll get from here to there:

1. Never stop innovating, but always do it with meaning or;
2. Do what matters, and never anything else
3. Creativity is messy, and, because of that, overwhelmingly powerful
4. Design is creativity on a mission
5. Lean into relentless optimism, always
6. We can’t do this alone (not me, not Heights, not you, nor your company): collaboration at scale can
7. Find a reason to care and make it the reason for everything else
8. Show up with kindness, and you’ll always get back more than you put in
9. Use technology for what it does best, and your brain for everything else
10. Nothing that was ever built fast and cheap lasted: so if you want to invest in something good we’re here for it

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Thanks to Jonathan Bell, of Sprout* and Ellen Donnelly of The Ask, for contributing to and reviewing our ideas.