Inspiring businesses to connect with nature

Aim

To reconnect business with nature through virtual reality, storytelling & field projects to optimise corporate environmental responsibility

What is Intaconnected?

In January 2020, Intaconnected was born to inspire businesses to do much more, much faster, to protect the planet. Our solutions will enable businesses to become a real Force For Good. Why does this matter? Check out our youngest colleagues, 6yrs and 3yrs, talking to our founder about why nature protection matters to them <3

Episode 2

Episode 3

As Covid hit the world, our April launch was cancelled and my attention was diverted to work on an urgent project to protect a forest in Tanzania (long story!). 

But now, we are ready to go! We have finalised our business plan, sourced some incredible environmental projects, and identified global expert speakers whose stories we wish to capture on film and promote.  Now we need the funding to make this plan a reality. 

I was lucky to find three amazing interns, Deborah, Emily and Jack, who are as passionate as me about nature, and the four of us have been non-stop preparing for this Crowdfund, all working for free. 

We desperately hope to reach our target so that we can film, edit and present powerful stories from around the world into the consciousness of hundreds of business leaders and employees, inspiring change at scale. 

We were overwhelmed at our call to envionmentially responsible, nature-centric brands and individuals who have so generously gifted these phenomenal rewards to help us raise our target.  We'd love you to help us change business attitudes and mindsets before it's too late, and grab yourself a beautiful reward at the same time! 

Why Intaconnected?

I came up with the idea of Intaconnected in August 2019, imagining a platform where business leaders could connect with world experts to learn how and why companies are best placed to help resolve the disconnection between people and nature.  The name came immediately, since we are all intricately interconnected, and I also believe wholeheartedly in the power of collaboration. 

Why do we think business has the power to change the world? 

• Governments don’t seem to be cutting it. 
• Financial systems ignore nature in pursuit of profit and increasing debt.

Yet businesses - and we as their consumers – influence the financial systems and rely upon natural resources for survival. Healthy natural ecosystems provide us with the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat – unhealthy or destroyed ecosystems, cannot. 

But our current economic model drives business practices which exploit, exhaust and pollute these ecosystems to make products cheaper, and profits faster and bigger. This model has a short window of viability, until the planet gets sick. We are already witnessing the effects of Earth’s imbalance and we don’t have much time to turn things around. This is why we exist, to help businesses secure a safer future for all of us. 

My journey so far

With a diverse career to date, (working in youth and social mobility, entrepreneurship, adventure travel, sports events, wine (!), international development and conservation), I have always felt a little 'abstract', but almost always fulfilled. 2019 was consciously my 'year of transition', personally and professionally. I studied alongside 2.5 jobs at the University of Cambridge, in Sustainability Business Management, and whilst intense to the extreme, this confirmed I had to shake up my world and take the leap into something which enabled me to play a tiny role in securing a better future. Or fail trying. 

So this year began with intentions of travelling nowhere (the irony of 2020!) as I set up the business, having taken the big step to quit my job at the end of last year and move house to reduce my outgoings. 

I soon realised that aligning your passions with your daily desk time brings untold rewards (and chaos!). I had a last-minute invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos then attended the Change Now Summit in Paris, where I met so many inspiring people all striving to make our world a better place. I was then persuaded to help protect a precious forest in Tanzania and spent the last 4 months building a plan for the forest and her people (result TBC).

Finally, since June 2020, I have been able to focus fully on creating and launching Intaconnected by September 2020. I was lucky to recruit two brilliant school leavers as summer interns who have provided additional motivation and inspiration to the mission, and I am so grateful to them. Jack recently joined our team too! 

We are now an unpaid but dedicated team of 4  (and a heap of other wonderful people who are so generously helping with advice and support). 

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly helped the world to realise the delicate balance between humans and nature and just how fragile our economic system is when people don’t respect and protect the planet and those we share it with. It's time to step up and do more to be climate positive, not negative. 

Why am I Crowdfunding?

This Crowdfunding campaign is so exciting for me, and for our mission, as we don’t yet have the capital needed to fulfil the ambition. We do already have expressions of interest from potential clients who acknowledge the gap we are filling. We want to give them the very best experience we can to see them mobilise in support of a sustainable future.  We want to be able to launch in October. 

We will use the funds we raise thanks to the generous support from reward brands and our investors, for the following;

• Creation of unique AI/AR experiential films to enable businesses to become a true Force For Good
• Professional editing and content creation
• Completion of design work and branding for digital marketing, including the website as a key sales tool
• Online marketing (to attract even the most resistant CEOs!) 
• Embedding robust impact measurement tools so we can monitor client progress
• Employment of 2 part time staff to support client and project management, and business ops
• Meetings and events for business generation 
• Develop and promote our portfolio of special projects so companies can begin to take direct action immediately

We are absolutely thrilled to be promoting the numerous brands who have so generously supported our campaign, and are proud to showcase so many companies who have already proven that 'doing good business is good for business'.  All our reward offerings are created with conscious care for people and nature. Enjoy :)

I cannot express my thanks strongly enough to everyone who is reading this and deciding to join us on this incredibly journey. The time is now.

If not for us, for our children

With gratitude,

Caty 

“We vote for the world we live in with the products we buy, and people are starting to vote for products that consider the environment and society as they’re being made.... It is also critical to mitigate risks to continuity - for example, less extreme weather means more predictable harvests and therefore more consistent supply across the global agricultural system"

Katie Leggett, Sustainability Manager at Innocent Drinks.

Getting to 100 supporters!

This project successfully funded on 21st September 2020