This year in September will mark the 15th anniversary of Fronteer. And in (almost) 15 years, we have done a lot. We’ve grown from 2 to 22 people and have developed our work from concept development to vision and strategy. We did 737 projects for 278 different clients. But that’s just the numbers talking. As a B Corp, we believe in making a positive impact in our work - together with experts and our clients. March marks B Corp month, so we’re taking this month to highlight how we go beyond and how we are truly making an impact. So let’s look back at the past 14 years and reflect on the impact that we’ve made. Here’s our overview of 14 years of impact.
Our work has global reach
Over the past 14 years, we have worked in 36 countries. We did more than 2,500 workshops with over 15,000 experts in 55 cities. Testing strollers in San Francisco, exploring the future of beers and cocktails in Shanghai, tasting cookies in Bucharest and investigating the future of retail in Dubai. We’ve done it all and much more. Recently, we’ve been saving our air miles and have been doing a lot of our international work online. For example, organizing co-creation workshops with experts in Mexico, Guatemala, and Indonesia to develop transformational concepts for Rainforest alliance that go beyond certification. Just as impactful and much more sustainable!
We launched 71 products and services
OK - we didn’t launch them ourselves. But we helped our clients do so. In co-creation with experts and consumers, we created concepts for new solutions and 71 of those made it to the market. Wow! The products and services span different industries, from NGO to FMCG and Financial services. Here’s one that we are really proud of:
We developed a new brand and concept in mobility: Shuttel. With Shuttel, employees have access to a broad range of mobility solutions - from public transport to car sharing and parking. And the best feature: by swiping your transactions in the right buckets, the bill goes straight to the employer - no more reimbursements needed! But, how did we get there? Have a look here.
We developed 20 sustainability strategies
We believe the future requires bold actions. And for businesses to take action, they need a solid plan. In recent years, we have supported a lot of organizations in developing their sustainability strategies. From a compelling narrative that inspires action to tangible plans and measurable results. Take for example Heineken. To inspire a new decade of action within Heineken, we helped them to ‘raise the bar’ with a new sustainability narrative. Bold and bar-proof enough to put on a coaster - but with a strong foundation to guide sustainable efforts for the next 10 years. Read the full case here.
We built 10 new coalitions
Real impact is made in collaboration with others. The complex challenges of today require people and organizations to join forces and work towards shared goals and with shared purpose. We apply co-creation to help organizations find shared purpose and solutions, help to set up the coalitions and support them in managing their shared work. From urgency to impact. Take, for example, the 2BCM Alliance. A collaboration between eight big stakeholders in the Green Gas business in the Netherlands, working together to produce 2bcm (billion m3) green gas by 2030 - in line with the Paris Agreement. Read more.
We developed a lot of new education programmes
To be honest - we lost count. For the past 14 years, we have been doing so much work in innovating vocational education programmes that it’s difficult to measure our impact completely. In fact, our education work now has its own team, methodology and white papers. But let’s put it in terms of new education programmes. There are at least 10. The Jean School was our first, and now ranks in the top 100 best fashion schools in the world. But we’re also very proud of the 010 E-com Academy, the Start-up School and the House of Events!
We empower NGOs to make impact
Finally, a personal favourite. Over the years we have helped a lot of NGOs with their work to make impact. From small non-profit initiatives to global NGOs, we do it all. A recent project that we are very excited about is the work we did with WWF to make their advocacy work more strategic and effective throughout the global WWF network by co-creating an actionable toolkit. You can read all about it here.
Here’s to 14 years of impact - and to 14 more… let’s go beyond! 💪