Edges of Impact: Nature’s Wisdom as a Guide
I’ve been looking at edges lately. Not just organisational boundaries, but the spaces where things meet: where exchange happens, where abundance flourishes. Just looking at a garden. Birds communicating across species at the tree line. Opportunistic plants filling every gap. Constant flow, constant exchange. And THAT got me thinking: we’ve been getting boundaries all wrong in business.
This year, I released my latest book (https://www.routledge.com/9781032967967) exploring the “edge effect”; how 3.8 billion years of nature’s strategy refinement shows us that the magic doesn’t happen in the neat, compartmentalised centres. It happens at the messy, irregular edges where one thing meets another.
The same principle applies to impact.
My Pledge Journey: Seven Years of Edge-work
Since joining Pledge 1% in 2018, Get Agile Ltd has committed to giving above 1% of employee expertise and time, plus over 1% in product donations aligned with SDG 4: Quality Education. But I’ve never seen this as just “giving back”: it’s integral to how I operate, embedded in our value chain and decision-making.
2024 Impact by the Numbers:
- +3% increase in total time volunteered through Pledge 1%
- 85 skills-based/pro bono hours donated
- 6% of products (books) donated for education
- 9 scholarships awarded for ‘Agile Sustainability’ training
- 20% waste reduction through conscious product choices
- 52% carbon footprint reduction from 2021 baseline
- 1% of profits donated to Devon Wildlife Trust
But numbers only tell part of the story.
Creating Exchange at the Edges
Reflecting on last year’s impact report, is giving focused on creating “edges”: intersections where diverse groups meet and exchange.
- Blue Road Academy: Contributing to helping refugees learn digital skills and launch Salesforce careers. Here’s an edge between displaced talent and opportunity, between survival and thriving.
- PepUpTech: Volunteering to increase underrepresented people in tech. Another edge, where systemic barriers meet intentional pathways.
- Foodforce For Good: the community plant-based cookbook with ALL profits going to Action Against Hunger. The edge between food abundance and food insecurity, using what we have to address what others lack.
- Coalition of the Willing: Nine scholarships for Agile Sustainability training. Creating edges between traditional business practices and regenerative approaches, and doing so by design.
The Nature Connection
My new book argues that natural abundance flourishes at edges: riverbanks, estuaries, forest boundaries… These aren’t tidy spaces with straight lines. They’re irregular, dynamic, constantly reorganising. They increase the perimeter for exchange, resource collection, and resilience.
Get Agile impact program mirrors this. We don’t have a “neat” CSR department tucked away in a corner. Impact is woven throughout: in client selection, banking choices (we scrutinise appointed banks and pension funds), energy suppliers (switched to renewables in 2020), material decisions (books published digital and print-on-demand only), and daily operations.
We’ve joined years ago Business Declares, acknowledging the Climate and Ecological Emergency. We’re part of the Race to Zero Campaign. Get Agile is one of the organisations in action for the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. We offset 105% of our emissions, including household.
Why This Matters
As I write in my guiding ethos: “Building a sustainable future by enabling customers to have a positive and better impact on well-being, communities and the planet we live in, through all that I do.”
There are no real boundaries. We all breathe the same air. Our home (Earth) is not ours alone.
Companies are composed of individuals, and we can do both: do well and do good. In fact, with sustainability, happiness, and profit as a focus, they nourish each other. You really can have all three.
We’re in a pivotal moment. Past generations didn’t have the data, skills, technology, and influence we have. Future generations won’t have the timing.
The question is: Are you willing to be part of it?
Looking Ahead
As I continue this journey, I’m focused on increasing “edge perimeter”: creating more spaces for exchange, more opportunities for diverse groups to intersect, more irregular boundaries where abundance can flourish.
At Get Agile Ltd, we’re choosing to design with nature, not against it.
Ines Garcia is an organisational coach and the Founder and CEO at Get Agile, dedicated to helping businesses to deliver better value and reduce waste, focusing on impact. Her new book is Nature’s Blueprint For Business: Harnessing the Hidden Power of Edges (Routledge; September 8, 2025 https://www.routledge.com/9781032967967). She offers hands-on programs for Agile, Project, and Product professionals at www.inesgarcia.me. She’s been a Pledge 1% member since 2018 and publishes annual impact reports which can be fount at her website.
