Our stories | On Purpose

03 Apr 2019 Climate Despair? It’s Just a Phase.

How to confront existential threat, and remain positive.“It is worse, much worse, than you think.”The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells’ new book about climate breakdown, gives fair warning before pummelling the reader with horrifying...

03 Jan 2019 How to champion social enterprise across your organisation

The term ‘social enterprise’ can describe a wide range of organisations which look different in pretty much every way. When who they help and how they do it vary so wildly, it can be tricky to see the common thread.Most of the time, it doesn’t...

05 Dec 2018 It is OK not to hate your job.

I believe passionately in the value of creativity. As an awkward child in many ways, whose constant feedback at parents evening was something along the lines of “I think Hannah is doing fine, but it’s hard to tell because she never speaks”. I am...

15 Nov 2018 Using open innovation to encourage frugal innovation

In this post, Victor Gimenez, an Associate of the London April 2018 cohort, analyses the historic flow of innovation, the characteristics of frugal innovation and how the work carried forward by Nesta, his first placement, has helped support...

04 Oct 2018 The Embercombe Experience

On one of the first warm weekends in June, sixteen On Purpose associates arrived at — excited but perfectly clueless about what was to come next. Not that knowing in advance would have done any justice whatsoever to the experience we shared...

27 Sep 2018 Can you make a difference to where you live?

Dot Dot Dot’s Property Guardianship encourages people to act with positive impact.I was first introduced to Property Guardianship a few years ago by a friend. As an actor trying to make it in London, he was looking for accommodation that matched...

13 Sep 2018 How to find a job you love (and not go mad in the process)

I’ve spent the last 6 months searching for a job that I really want to do. It’s an incredibly privileged position to be in but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. As another On Purpose cohort prepares to do the same, I thought I’d share some of my...

06 Sep 2018 Getting Real about the Climate Crisis

On Purpose Fellows , and are now Climate Reality Leaders, having attended a three-day training with Al Gore. They share their lessons for communicating climate change.For Alex, it was growing up with a mother who is an architect focused on...

02 Sep 2018 The role of mental health in evolving business models

How big of a problem are mental health issues?The figures will perhaps surprise those who haven’t heard them before: approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year; in England, 1 in 6 people report...

23 Aug 2018 On Purpose: Career Change & Clairvoyance

How On Purpose knew about my new career before I didThe On Purpose InterviewThe harder I tried to focus on the digits in front of me, the more they lurched across the paper. I wrote down new numbers but they were just as unreliable, slipping from...

17 Jul 2018 For a weekend, I ‘occupied the future’

Last weekend I volunteered for , a global innovation foundation and an On Purpose placement host, at their flagship event, . The annual 2 day conference aims to bring future thinking to the public realm, inviting its 4000 guests to ‘occupy...

03 Jul 2018 Sustainable diets: a powerful tool for climate action

Rabia Abrar, who is part of our October 2017 cohort, writes on the surprising contribution to climate change of our diets, and how we can make a positive impact through the things we choose, and choose not, to eat.