“Caring for Our Environment” is our defining philosophy and call to action.
Why?
At Ground Control, our owners and employees share a passion for nature and a commitment to sustainability. “Caring for Our Environment” is our defining philosophy and call to action.
In May 2020, we launched the Evergreen Fund, dedicating 5% of Ground Control’s annual net profits to a £5 million Impact Venture Fund dedicated to environmental initiatives and carbon sequestration.
Our vision is to show business as a force for good, by considering wider stakeholders and supporting sound, evergreen investments in ventures focussed on carbon reduction, sustainability and environmental protection.
What binds our partners – founders, co-investors and investees – is the belief in the greater good and our collective ability to affect positive change together. At least 75% of investments will be focussed in the UK.
How?
The Evergreen Fund will provide seed and growth capital to companies and social enterprises that are focused on delivering measurable, beneficial and sustainable environmental impact.
We will invest ‘patient capital’ in projects that are commercially viable, so that the £5 million Fund is a perpetual investment facility, reinvesting future profits back into new sustainable ventures.
As part of our carbon sequestration commitment, the fund will dedicate £100,000 each year to native tree planting, serving as a catalyst and amplifier for projects with our customers, government organisations, charities, private land owners, our supply chain and other partners.
Over the next five years, we will have:
£5 million invested in early stage environmental ventures
1,000,000 trees planted, £500k invested directly by the Evergreen Fund
Perpetual, roll-over of capital to continue investing in environmental initiatives and carbon sequestration
Board of Directors
Meet some of our team at Evergreen Fund.
Simon Morrish
Simon is passionate about saving the planet. From a very early age, he had dreams of harnessing the solar energy from the desert and utilising it in parts of the world that needed it, whilst simultaneously converting the desert area to habitable lush vegetation due to the lower solar irradiation and desalinated water supply.
Whilst for the past 15 years he has built up Ground Control Ltd to be a highly respected, multi-award winning environmental services business and received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for Transformational leadership in 2018, he has also focused significant energy on other environmental initiatives.
He has built over 100 wind turbines through Solar Ventus that he founded in 2010 which currently supplies renewable electricity to over 2,600 households in the UK. He is the founder of Future Motors which aims to supply 20%+ more efficient electric motors to businesses in the UK and he has founded XLinks in 2019 to power 3GW of electricity to the UK from an HVDC sub-sea cable link from solar panels in the Moroccan desert – thereby hoping to fulfil his childhood dream.
Kim Morrish
Kim has launched start-ups, acquired businesses and enjoys backing promising social impact entrepreneurs. She and her husband transformed Ground Control, the £8 million grounds maintenance business they bought in 2004, into a highly respected, multi-award winning company with revenues now exceeding £150 million. In 2018, they received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Transformational Leadership Award.
In 2017, Kim founded Canterbury Partners as a platform for social impact investing in education, health, green-energy, social and economic inclusion. She’s an active angel investor in ten new ventures and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mustard Seed and School Space.
Before moving to England 20 years ago, Kim was a tenured U.S. Foreign Service Office for managing development projects in emerging markets. She is a mother of four and holds a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Darden.
Philip Trehern
Philip has over 33 years of experience within the landscaping industry in the Middle East and UK. He is one of the second generation owners of Ground Control, holding many operational and strategic roles including Main Board Director over his 20 year tenure. Philip has directed his energy to grow the business through operational efficiencies, building strong client relationships and empowering people.
His most recent Executive Role was as the HSQE Director with emphasis on staff health and safety, work quality and environmental compliance, of which ISO 14001 :2015 was part of his remit. Building on these themes, Philip continues to be a positive catalyst and actively engaged in market ecosystem analysis, environmental sustainability and social impact investing. Unlike his horse, he refuses to go out to pasture as his still has an unquenchable thirst for actionable knowledge, lateral thinking and idea creation.
Chris Bawtree
Chris has worked in the Landscape industry for over 25 years, predominantly in the construction sector. He is a Chartered Landscape Architect whose career has developed from consultancy through to Construction Director with Ground Control from 2002 to 2015. In his Director role he led the division from £0.5 million revenue to over £20 million. He has been instrumental in a number of acquisitions and led the associated integration programs.
Chris is passionate about trees and woodlands and now leads Ground Control’s Woodland Creation business alongside his role as Environmental lead. His ambition is to increase the UK’s woodland cover in partnership with clients and landowners, making a positive contribution to the fight against climate change.
Chris is a father of two with a BSc in Landscape Design from the University of Sheffield and a PG Diploma in Forestry from the University of Bangor.
Marcus Bell
Marcus is a Chartered Management Accountant with over 30 years of experience in a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, engineering, and landscape. For most of his career, he worked at Sanofi (pharmaceuticals), where he experienced the company change through mergers and acquisitions from Rhone-Poulenc, to Aventis, to Sanofi-Aventis, and finally Sanofi. Whilst working at the then global headquarters in Frankfurt, he was responsible for consolidating the results of 80+ legal entities across the world, and preparing board reports. At Sanofi, Marcus progressed to Finance Director for one of the company’s strategic sites, looking after an annual turnover in excess of £1.3bn, and being the ‘go to person’ for group accounting policy changes.
During his tenure at Sanofi, he implemented three major SAP rollouts, and later progressed to a European Finance Director role, where he was responsible for the controllership of 6 sites across Europe. Marcus joined Ground Control at the end of 2018, and has supported the business through rapid change, and growth – including the launch of the Evergreen Fund. Marcus is excited to be joining this highly experience team of business entrepreneurs who share a common passion for the fight against climate change, and using business and finance, as a force for good.
