Jessica Sansom
A quick intro
Jessica is the head of sustainability at innocent drinks, the number one smoothie brand in the UK.
The business was started in May 1999 by three friends, and turned over £100m in 2009 selling
over two million smoothies a week in the UK and Europe. The innocent story shows that with a
non-corporate attitude, a fantastic product and creative thinking it is possible to create a fast
growing, profitable company that acts responsibly.
A little bit about Jessica
Jessica is responsible for the company's commitment to become a model of sustainable
capitalism - working not only to negate the business’ major impact areas through ethical
purchasing, resource efficiency and sustainable packaging but also to develop a future business
model that will ensure the long term viability of the business whilst bringing value to meeting
global sustainability challenges. In addition to this role, she is also Company Secretary for the
Innocent Foundation which funds sustainable agriculture projects in developing countries.
Prior to joining innocent Jessica was Environment Manager for McDonald's UK, and also worked
as an environmental consultant for a range of public and private sector clients in her home
country of Australia. In 2008 Jessica was named as one of Ethical Corporation’s Ethical Leaders
of 2008 alongside Barack Obama and Bill Gates. She has also recently been featured in Rebecca
Harrell Tickell’s new book, “Hot Rich and Green”, a book highlighting 50 successful women in
green business. Jessica has a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science and a Masters in
Environmental Law.
About innocent
innocent was born when three university friends decided to set up a lovely fresh fruit juice
company. After six months of developing recipes in their kitchen, Richard, Adam and Jon wanted
to test their drinks with a wider audience. To do so, they bought £500 of fruit, turned it into
smoothies and sold them from a stall at a music festival. They put up a sign that said, ‘Should we
give up our jobs to make these smoothies’, and put out a big bin that said NO and one that said
YES. Fortunately, at the end of the weekend, the YES bin was full so they went in the next day
and resigned.
Ten years on
Ten years into the business innocent is the number one smoothie brand in the UK with a market
share of approximately 80%. The company now employs 230 people, and sells over two million
little tasty drinks selling in over 11,000 outlets each week. The innocent range has expanded to
include: special smoothies for children, big one litre cartons for families at home and thickies for a
yoghurt and fruit blend. The drinks regularly win industry awards, including Best Soft Drink in the
UK 2006 (for the fifth year running), Growth Strategy and Business Innovation of the Year at the
National Business Awards and Growth Strategy at the European Business Awards.
As a business we want to make it easy for people to do themselves some good. And we want to
leave the planet a little bit better than we found it. This is reflected in everything from our use of
green electricity at Fruit Towers, to sourcing fruit from places that go the extra mile in terms of
looking after the people that work on the farms, and the environment. All our bananas come from
Rainforest Alliance accredited farms. Every year we donate 10% of our profits to charity, the
majority of which goes to the innocent foundation, which funds sustainable agriculture projects in
countries where we source our fruit.
For more information see www.innocentdrinks.co.uk, www.innocentfoundation.org.uk,
Recent awards

Environmental Awards
Barclays Green Leaders in Business Award
Sir Peter Parker Business Commitment to the Environment Award
Brand Client of the Year – UK Packaging Awards
Green Globe Award – Rainforest Alliance

Business Awards
Business in the Community Big Tick Award – Cause-Related Marketing
Greatest Britons – Business Achievement
European Business Awards – Growth Strategy of the Year
National Business Awards – Growth Strategy of the Year
National Business Awards – Business Innovation of the Year
Business XL10 – Company of the Year
E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year
National Business Awards – Small/Medium Business of the Year
Growing Business Awards – Most Promising New Company
Orange Small Business of the Year
Orange Marketing Campaign of the Year
Orange Innovative Company of the Year
Best Investors in People – National Business Awards
Innovative Company of the Year – Growing Business Awards

Drink awards
Best UK Soft Drink – International Food and Drink Expo
Best UK Soft Drink – Q Awards
Best UK Soft Drink – Great Taste Awards
Some feedback for Jessica from speaking events
ACCA UK on Accountants for Sustainable Business - 27 October 2009. Comments from
delegates who attended:
“excellent speaker, brilliant, high calibre speaker, very informed and enthusiastic, thought
provoking, excellent lecture , very knowledgeable, food for thought, challenging topic, fantastic”
Greening the post-crunch consumer, Forum for the Future – 2009
“Jess spoke very engagingly and eloquently. She was refreshingly frank and open about the
challenges that Innocent has faced during the recession and about how they might evolve going
forward. It was great to have someone speaking that could talk with genuine passion about
sustainability, but also someone that could clearly articulate how sustainability can be a key
commercial driver for their brand (and more widely).”
Dan Crossley, Principal Sustainability Advisor, Forum for the Future
Oracle Executive Event - 2008
“presentation was both convincing… and entertaining”
Carbon Footprint Supply Chain Summit – 24 May 2007
“really engaging, clear, visual and held attention”