Impact Leaders: Interview with Gillon Dobie on B Corp and Sustainability Leadership

Gillon is the Impact Director at GrowUp Farms. Gillon was previously with Estover Energy Ltd as a Project Developer. As Impact Director at GrowUp Farms, a UK-based vertical farming company and certified B-Corp, Gillon is responsible for ensuring that the company has a positive impact on the environment and the community. Environmental and earth systems scientist by training. Follow Gillon on LinkedIn here and read more about GrowUp Farms here.

Toby: Gillon, great to chat! Let’s start with your background—what led you to sustainability and impact leadership?

Gillon: It’s been quite a journey! I studied environmental science at university, back before climate change was as widely discussed as it is now—pre-Paris Agreement days. Then I did a degree focused on disasters—earthquakes, volcanoes, that sort of thing. Initially, I thought I’d go into reinsurance, but I didn’t feel comfortable with how large insurance firms typically only cover countries that can afford it. So, I took a different path and ended up in renewables.

After that, a group of us started looking into sustainable food, which led me to GrowUp Farms. They were in the middle of a shift—wanting to be bolder and scale up—and it just made sense to join forces. My role has evolved since then, but one of the first things we pushed for was B Corp certification. We didn’t just want it as a marketing badge; we wanted to embed impact and sustainability into everything we do. That was in 2022, and we’ve spent the last couple of years making sure it’s truly part of our DNA.

Toby: What excited you about GrowUp Farms when you joined, and what keeps you motivated now?

Gillon: When we first met GrowUp, they were the only growing business we’d seen that had actually made their innovative idea – vertical farming - work. We thought we could bring our experience to add value. Now, what’s really exciting is our latest Big Hairy Audacious Goal: we believe one in three people will be eating food from a vertical farm. The industry is growing fast, and if we get this right, we’ll be part of a massive shift in food production.

Toby: GrowUp Farms is a B Corp. What motivated you to pursue certification, and how has it shaped your strategy?

Gillon: We wanted to prove—to ourselves and others—that we were genuinely doing good. It was about accountability. Getting B Corp certified in 2022 was a huge milestone, but more importantly, we didn’t want it to be a static achievement. We’ve embedded impact goals into our KPIs, so our success is measured partly by how we improve our B Corp score. That keeps us accountable and ensures sustainability stays at the heart of what we do.

Toby: What are some of the biggest environmental challenges in the food and agriculture sector, and how is GrowUp Farms tackling them?

Gillon: There are a few major ones. First, if the UK population ate the recommended daily intake of vegetables and we sourced them all here in the UK, we’d need to quadruple UK vegetable production—essentially adding another Shropshire’s worth of farmland. But land is already stretched, and yields are declining. Vertical farming changes that equation because it produces the same amount of food using 250 times less land.

Second, traditional farming has a big environmental cost. In Lincolnshire, for example, soil erosion is a huge issue, and nitrogen pollution in rivers is high. Plus, 80% of lettuce sold in the UK has pesticide residues—ours doesn’t. We don't use pesticides, there's no nitrogen runoff, and no soil degradation.

Third, there’s the ethical side. Many farms rely on seasonal labour, and working conditions in parts of Europe can be poor. We employ people full-time, year-round, and we’re a Living Wage employer.

And finally—our greens taste better and last longer. That’s why we call them ‘unbelievable’—because they really are!

Toby: Vertical farming is often positioned as a game-changer. What makes it so transformative?

Gillon: It’s about efficiency and sustainability. We grow and pack everything in the same building, so our crops go from harvest to supermarket trucks within hours. Compare that to produce from Spain, which spends days in transit. Plus, we don’t have the environmental downsides of traditional farming—no soil degradation, no chemical run-off, and significantly less water use.

Toby: Can you share a sustainability initiative you’re particularly proud of?

Gillon: One that really stands out is our volunteering program. We set a goal for every employee to volunteer at least one day a year. It took some effort to get it going, but now it’s completely normal—last year, we hit 500 volunteer hours, which is two-thirds of our team. What I love is that people organise their own volunteering days rather than us dictating them—it’s truly driven by our team, and the feedback has been fantastic.

Toby: What key metrics do you track to measure GrowUp Farms’ impact?

Gillon: We focus on greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy consumption, waste, advocacy events, volunteering hours, surplus food donations, and diversity metrics like the percentage of our workforce identifying as female – just to name a few!

GrowUp Farms' impact framework (from GrowUp Farms' Impact report 2023)

Toby: Balancing sustainability with commercial growth can be tough. How do you manage it?

Gillon: It is tough! Sustainability leaders are basically internal salespeople—we’re constantly selling ideas to our organisations. One approach that works is linking sustainability directly to the business case. For example, reducing water and energy use saves money. Diversity policies help attract top talent. We also assume we won’t get extra budget, so we build impact into what we’re already doing. It’s about being strategic and finding ways to integrate sustainability into the core business.

Toby: How do you get buy-in for sustainability initiatives across the company?

Gillon: By showing how it benefits everyone. We involve every team—data, technical, operations—so that sustainability isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ but part of how we operate.

Toby: And how do you engage consumers in your sustainability story?

Gillon: That’s the tricky part! We have about two seconds to communicate with shoppers in a supermarket. People do care about sustainability, but when they’re buying food, they’re thinking about taste and freshness first. So, we keep our main messages simple like ‘grown without pesticides’. Those resonate more than just talking about impact.

Toby: What have been the biggest challenges in leading impact initiatives?

Gillon: The biggest one is always ‘why?’—why are we doing this? Getting that clarity and bringing people along is key. For example, switching to more sustainable packaging took a year because of all the internal conversations and questions. Sometimes, you just have to say, ‘We’re doing it.’ Its often a balance!

Toby: What advice would you give to businesses looking to integrate sustainability or go for B Corp certification?

Gillon: Be clear on why you’re doing it. It’s not enough to just ‘want to be more sustainable’—you need to understand and commit to your purpose. My top tips would be to have a plan around impact. Get your leadership and teams to co-create it with you so its their ideas in the plan. Focus on a few core things at a time.

Toby: Looking back, is there anything you’d do differently in your impact career?

Gillon: I’d focus more on getting early buy-in from key people. And I’d remember that no one has all the answers—you have to learn as you go.

Toby: What’s next for GrowUp Farms in its impact journey?

Gillon: We’re recertifying as a B Corp this year, which is a big milestone. 2024 was about building a strong foundation—2025 is about delivering on our efficiency targets and getting involved in the National Food Strategy.

Toby: If you could change one thing across the food and agriculture industry, what would it be?

Gillon: More businesses need to engage with the National Food Strategy. The food industry is shifting—consumers want healthier, more sustainable food. Companies that don’t get on board will get left behind.

Toby: Finally, what’s one goal or initiative you’re most excited about this year?

Gillon: Really embedding sustainability into how we operate every day—not just as a side project, but as something that drives real business success. That’s what will make the biggest difference long-term.

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This series of interviews is in support of our mission to accelerate sustainability and decarbonisation across SMEs, NGOs and value chains. By sharing experiences, lessons learned and tips and tricks to embedding sustainability, we can all learn how to improve more, faster.

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