WBI

Our Origin Story

Work Better Innovations came from the lows of the pandemic. Our community interest company, a social enterprise, is the brainchild of founders Dr. Bonny Ling and Ms. Anita David.

Bonny is a human rights researcher and practitioner, with years in environmental, social and governance (ESG) consulting. Anita is a community development worker based in Portsmouth, England, with years of experience of working and volunteering with the charity sector.

Because it was difficult to access vulnerable communities during lockdowns, a chance online meeting led Anita to ask Bonny if she could volunteer to host a weekly Zoom conversation club for migrant women. And so it began, a weekly chat during the ups and down of our COVID years.

Portsmouth
Office

Listening to the women’s stories made Bonny and Anita believe we can try a different way of working and engaging with the local community, of working on SDG 8 as a socially conscious business with proceeds going to community projects in support of migrant integration and sustainable development.

Our core business is to help the private sector, civil societies, governments and international institutions create tangible and sustainable solutions for a more responsible economy. At the same time, we work with local partners to identify and meet the needs of marginalised individuals, to help them be a part of an inclusive and sustainable economy.

Meet the Team

Dr. Bonny Ling

Executive
Director

Research professional with a background in human rights and development. Bonny has worked as an ESG analyst and consultant for international businesses keen to make a positive social and environmental impact. Her background includes working with the UN and international civil society.

Anita David

Director of Community Engagement

A community educator, with over 25 years of teaching experience and years of experience of working and volunteering within the charity sector. She received Portsmouth’s Inspiring Volunteer Award in 2018, for her wide range of volunteer work in the community. These include volunteering as an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher for refugees and asylum seekers, as well as coordinator and interpreter for the British Red Cross, Portsmouth.

Isabela Palancean

Programme Assistant & Digital Communications

Graduate of King’s College London with a BA in German and English Literature, she developed her practice in journalism and media via her experience as an Editor for STRAND, KCL’s student-run magazine. Her studies shaped her interests in social justice and in the arts and culture sector.

Shuhan
Lin

Project
Officer

Human rights defender with a background in international relations, with a focus on migration and displacement. Between 2022 to 2022, she served as the Refugee Campaigner for the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and led campaigns to raise public awareness on refugee protection in Taiwan.

Taiwan Project for Business and Human Rights

Wen-Chi Chang

Project Researcher

Legal researcher with a background in the law of technology and sociology. She is a recent graduate of law from the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Advisors

Sarah

Prof Sarah Bridle

Professor of Food, Climate and Society​

A distinguished, transdisciplinary researcher at York University driven by the need to tackle climate change, using a quantitative approach to steward change to sustainable futures. Sarah founded the Take a Bite out of Climate Change project and holds many prestigious awards from the Royal Society, Royal Astronomical Society and the European Research Council. She wrote Food and Climate Change – Without the Hot Air, published in September 2020.

Shipa Ahmed Khan

Health Inequalities Lead at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS

A community development officer in Portsmouth, with over 20 years of experience in community work. Her work has focused on empowerment, creating resources for the mental health and well-being of the local Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Entering your email address confirms you would like to receive our Monthly Newsletters. This is for GDPR purposes. You can unsubscribe any time by following the instruction in the newsletter footer.