The impact of our Voice Groups in 2025

Wellbeing

Our Wellbeing Voice Group advocates for policies, practices and initiatives that promote mental health and co-owner wellbeing. They share resources and lead initiatives to help everyone feel supported, valued and connected.

This year, they continued to promote Headspace, which provides all co-owners and their families with access to guided meditations, sleepcasts, workouts for the body and mind, and much more.

The group also hosted a series of co-working sessions as a way to bring our global team together for focused work and moments to chat.

For World Mental Health Day, they launched Wellbeing Your Way, which allowed all co-owners to make a small claim towards something to support their mental health and wellbeing. Over half of our team took part, making it one of the most successful wellbeing initiatives to date. It also prompted some really lovely conversations about what people find helpful for their wellbeing. The flexibility meant everyone could choose what suited them, from bath bombs and books to scented candles and spa treatments, it was lovely to hear about what everyone had chosen.

This year also saw the launch of our Wellbeing Breakfasts, held both in person and virtually. These were a relaxed way to start the day together, share breakfast, and chat outside of the busy working day.

Given the positive response, the group is planning to continue the breakfasts next year, and are considering hosting them in shared work spaces in addition to our Bristol office. They’ll also keep marking national days such as World Mental Health Day and explore new ways to continue supporting our wellbeing.

Community Action

Our Community Action Voice Group creates opportunities for co-owners to support and strengthen ties within our local communities.

Throughout 2025, 13 co-owners used their paid community leave to support local schools, run tech camps and volunteer with local charities.

The voice group also continued to run our Torchbox 250 initiative, which supports smaller local charities and community groups with a monthly donation.

These include:

• Pregnant then Screwed
• Children's Heart Surgery Fund
• Rugby pentru Toți
• Young Enterprise
• Talk Club

They also sponsored Torchboxers in a charity quiz which supports charities within Oxfordshire.

In 2026, the group will continue to build our relationship with Bristol City Academy by running workshops and Digital Days. They’re also excited to launch a new charity challenge and a charity auction, as well as continuing Torchbox 250.

Climate and Sustainability

Our Climate and Sustainability Voice Group ensure we consider our environmental impact in everything we do. Their long-term vision is to help Torchbox achieve NetZero, and this year they continued making steady progress towards that goal.

Each year, we release our Impact Report, which details our sustainability initiatives and ongoing commitment to reducing our environmental impact. Members of the group play a key role in shaping this work. The latest report showed clear progress in reducing our emissions, and throughout 2025, the group focused on building a long-term strategy to ensure those reductions continue. Our goal is to reach a 50% reduction by 2030, and Net Zero by 2050.

Over the years, we have built a much stronger shared understanding of where our emissions come from and how we measure them. Our next step is putting that knowledge into practical reduction actions. This includes:

• Encouraging more sustainable choices day-to-day, such as our Sustainable Holiday Travel Time benefit, which 11 co-owners used this year
• Choosing to work with suppliers who have clear Net Zero goals

The group has also discussed ongoing projects such as our grid-aware websites partnership, which offers practical ways to reduce the footprint of our clients’ websites. They’re also looking into joining DEFRA’s Government Digital Sustainability Alliance to share our expertise more widely.

The rise of AI has brought new climate considerations, and they have spent time this year reviewing topics such as the growing energy demands of data centres and the footprint of large language model queries to help us navigate this space responsibly.

Another highlight was the addition of a carbon.txt file to torchbox.com. It’s a simple, machine-readable way of making our sustainability information more discoverable across the web, which we hope our clients will adopt too. Chris has written a short blog explaining what it is and why we’ve introduced it.

Looking ahead, the group’s focus remains on guiding the company and our clients towards more sustainable options. Their next steps include looking at how sustainability features in our pitches and identifying new opportunities to help clients reduce their impact.

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)

Our Diversity and Inclusion Voice Group continues to play an important role in championing inclusion and supporting all co-owners.

This year, they reinforced our commitment to creating a safe and welcoming workplace by sharing supportive messages around trans rights and inclusive facilities, at a time when these issues were prominent in the news. They also signposted our neurodiversity and LGBTQIA+ support groups to ensure that everyone is aware of the communities and resources available to them.

Alongside this, the People team refreshed our annual D&I survey to help us better understand the diverse make-up of Torchbox, with plans to build on these insights in the new year.

Social

Our Social Voice Group brings people together across Torchbox, wherever they’re based in the world. They plan events and activities for different interests, locations and time zones, helping everyone feel connected and part of our community.

This year, they continued to create ways to bring us all together, both in person and online. In October, they launched our annual pumpkin carving competition, which was a hit with family members of all ages. More recently, in the lead-up to Christmas, they got us into the festive spirit by organising light trails and our much-loved Christmas quiz.

We also had a chance to connect in person at Torchfest, a brilliant day out with friends and family at the Cotswolds Field of Dreams. Whilst this wasn’t an initiative of the Social Voice Group, the event captured the same sense of community and connection they work hard to build all year round.

Looking ahead to 2026, the group will continue to bring us together by hosting both in-person and virtual events. Alongside returning favourites like the pumpkin carving competition and festive quiz, they’re excited to introduce some brand new social events and collaborate with other Voice Groups to explore even more ways for us to connect.

Putting this roundup together has shown me just how much our Voice Groups support and strengthen our community at Torchbox. Seeing their impact has made me excited to get more involved myself, and I’m already thinking about which group I might join next year. Thanks to everyone who organised and supported these initiatives throughout the year - I can’t wait to see what the groups achieve in 2026!

You can follow us on BlueSky and LinkedIn to hear more from our Voice Groups in 2026.