At Modo we’ve been moving quickly. We’re really proud of the progress over the last year and this is a chance to look back at...
1. Governance
2. Our team
3. Community
4. Environment
5. Customers
These impact reports are a great opportunity to showcase the work that exists behind everything you normally see at Modo. If you’ve got any questions about anything we mention (or things you think we don’t!) then we’d love to hear from you.
Governance (staying accountable)
We aim to build a culture based on transparency, fairness, and accountability. This has to start with our leadership. Over the last year we’ve made the following changes to how we maintain accountability:
1. A new board member
In February 2021, following investment from Catalyst Core Plus European Property Fund (CCPEPF), Kean Hird was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors, joining existing directors and founders Quentin and Tim.
2. Management of finances
We’ve appointed a new independent accountant, Avonmead, to manage payroll and expenses (saves Quentin and Tim needing to be good at maths).
3. Transparency of finances
Our financial reports and position is reported both to our Board, and the entire Modo team every three months. As well as enabling our Board to hold us accountable, this empowers everyone at Modo to make educated decisions on how to allocate their own resources.
Governance Goals 🏆
At Modo we’re trying to create a business that’s more than just about making money 💷. In 2022 we plan to amend our Articles of Association making a legal commitment to consider the interests of ALL stakeholders.
(Not sure what Articles of Association are? Here’s a quick explanation from gov.uk)
Our team
It sounds obvious, but isn’t said enough - the people at Modo are the key to our success as a business.
Here’s some of the things we do with the aim of supporting each other as best as possible:
1. Salaries & ownership
- Everyone at Modo is granted share options.
- We have a minimum salary of £35k for anyone at Modo (equivalent to full-time).
2. Benefits
- We moved from “unlimited” holiday to 30 days + bank holidays + your birthday.
- Everyone gets a new macbook and airpods when they join.
3. Growth
- Every three months we set new objectives and key results (OKRs). Everyone is encouraged to input into these OKRs and to set their own.
- Everyone is encouraged to attend seminars and events that will support their own personal growth as well as growth at Modo.
Community
We have a responsibility to have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate. We’ve been thinking about what a positive impact would look like for us in reality, and we’ve landed on the following tangible metrics, which we will use to measure our success over the coming years:
1. Spend on local, independent suppliers
This year we spent less than 2% of our expenses on independent suppliers based in Birmingham. We want this to be 10% next year.
2. Diversity of workforce
As of 31 October 2021, 14% of our team members identify as female and 28% identify as being from racial or ethnic minorities. Next year we want to be at least 40% of our team to be women.
3. Charitable donations and local volunteering
We haven’t recorded any charitable donations or volunteering hours this year. We intend to donate at least 1% of our sales next year to charitable causes.
4. Job creation
We created four new jobs this year - that’s a job growth rate of 100%! We want 4 more people next year.
Environment
We believe that when companies profit from the resources they take from the earth, they have a responsibility to protect those resources for future generations. As our company grows, we need to ensure that our products and operations give more to the planet than they take away.
We’ve got a lot to do monitoring and improving our sustainability. Here’s our current baseline:
- Our office (Birmingham, UK) used an average of 9.533 kWh of electricity per day between July and October 2021.
- 50% of energy was supplied from renewable sources.
Our aims for next year:
- Produce zero food waste
- Reduce energy usage by 5% per employee
- Source 100% of energy from renewable sources
- Produce internal training materials on environmental issues
- Partner up with a local wildlife trust
Customers
We are continually developing our product to ensure we are delivering a specific, material, positive impact for our customers. We aim to achieve this by providing high-quality data and research in accessible and engaging formats, ultimately equipping our customers with the skills and information they need to build a more sustainable energy system. Here’s some big changes we made this year to empower users:
1. Freemium
We are on a mission to make energy market data accessible to as many people as possible, so we decided to remove a significant payment barrier to the Modo platform. We replaced our 14-day free trial with a new subscription option, providing users with unlimited free access to essential areas of the platform. There’s no need to enter any card details, and there’s no pressure to pay at all.
2. The Energy Academy
The Energy Academy offers bitesize lessons on topics from Frequency Response and Dynamic Containment to STOR and Electricity Market Reform. We’re committed to breaking down barriers to entry, so this resource is free to access, and will remain that way! Find out more on Phase, our platform dedicated to media: https://platform.modo.energy/phase