The Accounting Excellence Awards 2025

It was such an honour to be a finalist in this year's ESG Category.

I was in Newcastle having coffee with Gavin Spencer from Beach Accountants when the finalists were announced in the summer. We were sharing ideas on all things sustainability, so it felt rather appropriate that we were both named as finalists. By chance, we were both staying in the same hotel for the awards and ended up walking in together too!

The ESG Award is an interesting one to be nominated for. You see, we all want the same thing. We want the industry to start taking action. We want business owners to listen up. We are all striving for the same goal, to save our planet, so seeing eight firms named as finalists this year was really gratifying.

On the way in, I admitted to Gavin that I actually hoped we didn't win, in an odd kind of way. I feel we still have so much to do and to get in place. To win at this stage wouldn't sit right and Gavin admitted to feeling the same, but reminded me that it's also important to celebrate how far we have come too. In the end, the winners were Venn Accounts. Gavin took Bronze and our friend James, from Thrive, took silver. I came away with lots of ideas on how to move us further forward in supporting ESG initiatives and how to help our clients do the same. Collaboration is always better than competition and that has never been more true than in the ESG space.

It was an amazing evening, with so many inspirational people in the room. I always come back from these events inspired and full of ideas. The accounting industry is one that is full of collaboration. When you put the best brains in the industry together in one place, which is what happens at the AE Awards, amazing things happen! The future of the industry is looking bright and I for one, am grateful to be able to play my part.

The following morning, saw me up bright and early for a walk up to Hampstead Heath, where I met Nick Levine for a swim in the Hampstead Heath Mixed Ponds. Swimming at the ponds has been on my bucket list for some time now, so it was great to finally make it there. We had a beautiful sunny morning and the water was a crisp 13 degrees, just how I like it!

As we swam, we chatted about the benefits of cold water swimming. It was Nick's coldest swim to date, and I think he was surprised to hear that I still feel a certain amount of trepidation even after all these years. You need to have respect for the water when it's cold. It's important to listen to your body and not to be afraid to get out sooner than you had planned too if things aren't feeling quite right. For me, swimming in cold water is a chance to switch off from the world. The need to focus on your body, your mind and your environment is a great way to reset. Overcoming that initial fear to get started is a mindset I find helps me in day to day life and work too. The swim was a brilliant way to blow away the cobwebs after celebrating at the awards. Who knows, if we make it to the finals again next year, it might just become a new annual tradition.

We might not have won an award this year, but to be a finalist amongst so many other truly amazing accountants and bookkeepers is so inspiring and I came home,

after my swim, with my head fizzing, full of ideas for how to take Wild Bookkeeping to the next level.