Peakpact is based in the Peak District National Park, UK. We collaborate with local organisations across Derbyshire, the wider East Midlands—including Sheffield and Manchester—as well as nationally and internationally.
We take inspiration from the National Park and apply nature-based knowledge to our approach. Peakpact's support is grounded in the realities we face, and ensures that doing good and doing well work together.
Grounded in the Peak District, working wherever needed
Peakpact helps organisations respond when conditions are difficult
Purpose, people, place and commercial reality in action
Peakpact exists to help people and organisations bring their values, experience and distinctive capabilities to worthwhile work.
Thirty focused minutes around one real pressure point. No obligation
Barry Carney
Director, Strategy & Purpose
Barry's background brings together creative practice, sustainability, strategy, learning and business development. He spent more than a decade in creative industries before moving into sustainability, completed an MSc in Sustainability and Adaptation, worked across corporate sustainability and technology, and has led research and learning work. As ESG Lead for a Berlin SaaS company, Barry secured €2.2 million in investor funding dedicated to sustainability innovation.
Across that experience, the consistent thread is helping people make sense of complex situations, connect ambition to practical choices and turn useful thinking into action.
Based in the Peak District, UK, Barry draws on time outdoors as a practice of attention, preparation, humility and adaptation. You'll find him hiking, mountain biking, trail running and cherishing time with his young family. He's passionate about solving problems and helping businesses and people live fully and authentically.
Connect with Barry on LinkedIn →
To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of these Company Values sections.
Things like "We're inclusive" and "We care" and "Fair wage employer" shouldn't be differentiators, they should be the baseline.
​So, here at Peakpact, the values we want to talk about are the ones that stretch us and our clients. Because values should challenge us, pull us ever-forwards: a rising bar that keeps us developing, reaching, thriving.
Barry, Founder of Peakpact
Worthwhile work needs to go beyond good intentions
​Businesses and organisations direct people's attention, effort and skill. They shape products, services, workplaces, communities and possibilities.
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Peakpact's role is to help purpose influence real choices, especially when pressure makes that difficult.
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The aim is not purpose instead of performance, it's to connect purpose, people, capabilities, contexts and commercial reality so that meaningful responses can be brought to life.
Actions in
place
Policies, approaches, and collaborations for better business
Peakpact office energy is 100% low-carbon renewables. We prioritise positive procurement, which means our providers are purpose-driven, show strong and clear ethics (e.g. committed to low emissions, data privacy, ESG transparency), are responsible and/or community focused. Some examples:​
- Network provider: Honest mobile
- ​"Mobile done right."
- Business phones: Fairphone
- "...on a mission to change technology for the better."
- Internet provider: Zen
- "Do right for people and planet."
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Online privacy: Proton
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"A better internet starts with privacy and freedom."
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Workwear, marketing material: KIN.DER
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"Eco-friendly and sustainable print studio"
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​​​Professional Indemnity: REALLY HONEST
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"Great at Insurance. Bad at lying"
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Peakpact is a member of Business Peak District (BPD). The affiliation highlights:
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Peakpact's support for BPD’s vision for the Peak District region to be a distinctive, high-quality environment with a social and environmental conscience.
- Peakpact's commitment to innovative, inclusive, sustainable and supportive actions for the communities and environment within which we operate.
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Peakpact's passion for the Peak District, its unique landscapes and character.
The "INSPIRED BY THE PEAK DISTRICT" logo represents Peakpact's sense of place. We recognise the interconnections and the responsibilities which exist between any business and the contexts they operate within.
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Founded in the Peak District National Park, Peakpact considers the PDNP area - the unique natural setting; the footpaths connecting the hills to crags to towns to rivers; the spirit borne from the land - as an invaluable team member, bringing clarity, wisdom and inspiration to our work.
Partnerships & Collaborations
Collaborations with purpose.
The Peakpact approach to working together is driven by creating relationships greater than the sum of their parts: mutual connections that take us all further and benefit wider.
Get in touch to discuss a partnership opportunity and collaborative works
Our approach
Peakpact brings together three core elements with authentic, purpose-led action at the core. They guide the questions, our attention, the quality of decisions and the practical standard of the work.
Hold what matters firmly, hold everything else lightly.
Three perspectives; one approach.
A purposeful response
clear direction and practical nest steps
Phronesis
Practical judgement
Understand the situation, evidence and consequences, and choose the worthwhile response that fits.
Exploratory practice
Question assumptions, uncover possibilities and learn through purposeful action.
Spirit of adventure
Values in action
Connect purpose, people, capabilities, commercial reality, and action.
Authentic business
Phronesis is an Aristotelian term, roughly meaning 'practical wisdom'
Real success is measured by wellbeing which is realised through quality decision-making and right action.
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Think in full: present, future, self, other
Act right in pursuit of the most beneficial outcomes possible
​Show up with big actions in response to big challenges
Embody "Phronesis"
An adventure tests us in the best ways possible - challenging us whilst giving all the reasons our hearts need to carry on. It gets more out of us than we knew we had, and gives back more than it takes.
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Lean in: face the hard thing
Adapt to the changing conditions
Endure and thrive
Invite adventure
The object isn’t to make businesses authentic, it’s to create the conditions which make authentic business inevitable.
Each business has a unique ecosystem of resources, skillsets, values, and insights.
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Do what's right: tackle the topics that fit your business
Grow through doing
Uncover the possibilities unique to you