Miss Milly takes part in the inaugural Sustainability Basics course

A six-week course run with Oxford Brookes University, Small99 and Sustainable Pathways, the programme began with an introduction to sustainability and how to calculate your carbon footprint, and then looked at different areas in more detail, such as energy and transport, supply chain and carbon offsetting.

"With the interactive webinars and an engaged Facebook Group, the course was, and continues to be, a great help in our aim to be more sustainable", says Sarah Watmore. "We had already made some changes but now have several other projects ongoing, and will be including information on what we're doing on our new website, launching in June."

Small Business Britain will be running a second course from 6 September and Miss Milly is encouraging other businesses in the gift industry to get involved.

"Sustainability is a minefield and many of the smaller wholesalers and independent retailers would struggle with B Corp certification but this course gave us lots of suggestions and advice on where we could improve and how. Every positive change you can make at work and home, no matter how small, really is worthwhile."

www.missmilly.co.uk