Purpose in Practice Series
Throughout 2026, we’re showcasing our purpose-driven clients making a difference to people and planet. This series embodies our company’s purpose – a living statement we continue to refine through ongoing team dialogue: “to transform accountancy from opaque compliance into collaborative partnership – empowering purpose-driven SMEs with financial capability. TBLA is actively reshaping the profession itself, so that investing in people, planet, and lasting impact becomes the norm.”
This is the next in our series profiling TBLA clients whose work centres on environmental stewardship and social impact. Following our features on the Agroforestry Research Trust, Good Small Farms, Investors for Purpose, PfBIO, and the Apricot Centre, we’re proud to share our partnership with Grass Roots Remedies.
Folk Medicine for All Folk
Grass Roots Remedies is an Edinburgh and Glasgow based workers’ co-operative with a beautifully simple yet radical philosophy: herbal medicine is the medicine of the people and should be accessible to everyone.
Rather than seeing the plants, lichens and fungi solely as commodities that can support our health, they share with people how to learn from, appreciate and make medicines with these living beings for themselves, their families and their communities. Their work is rooted in the belief that herbal medicine offers a truly sustainable way to support community health and connection – to the land, to each other, and to the more-than-human life all around us.
Three Pathways to Impact
Grass Roots Remedies achieves their mission through three interconnected approaches:
Community Education: They offer practical courses and workshops that not only share herbal knowledge but also subsidise much of their other community work. From their popular eight-month seasonal foraging course “Wild Things” (now in its 10th year) to their slower-paced, lunar cycle focussed “Plant Allies: 13 Moons” programme, they create spaces for people to reconnect with plants – without hurry, one at a time, leaning into their own senses and experience.
Low-Cost Clinical Care: The award-winning Wester Hailes Community Herbal Clinic has been running for over 10 years, supporting people who find conventional herbal medicine financially inaccessible. Located in an area of high deprivation, the clinic offers low cost appointments to ensure that financial barriers don’t prevent access to care. Some patients have even gone on to become volunteers and students, with at least one qualifying as a medical herbalist themselves.
Free Community Workshops: Funded by the Herbal Medicine Trust, they are offering free workshops in Wester Hailes, ensuring that herbal knowledge reaches those who need it most, making community herbalism genuinely accessible rather than a privileged “add-on” for those with money and means.
Ecological Herbalism in Practice
What sets Grass Roots Remedies apart is their bio-regional and deeply ecological approach. They value and cherish the land that gives them their lives and livelihoods, fostering connection through:
- A herb garden on a sizeable plot at Lauriston Farm run by Edinburgh Agroecology Co-op on the outskirts of Edinburgh
- A herbal teaching plot in the Southside of Glasgow
- Sustainable harvesting practices and ecologically aware use of plants
- Responsible sourcing, favouring organic and supporting short supply chains through local growers and producers
Living in what they describe as “a turbulent time of accelerating catastrophic climate change, environmental toxification, habitat loss and a frightening rate of species collapse,” they consider themselves to have a great responsibility to do what they can to preserve life. Their approach to ecologically aware herbalism naturally stewards the land, creating positive environmental impact through the very practice of making medicines from the earth.
Why Grass Roots Remedies Chose TBLA
“We saw your advert in Permaculture Magazine, and thought immediately that you might be the sort of folks that we would like to work with to help us prepare our accounts. As a workers’ co-op working in the permaculture field, we believed you would understand our business and our ethos.”
This intuition proved correct. Understanding how their workers’ co-operative structure operates has been invaluable. As they explain: “In the past we have spent time explaining our structure to folks, but with TBLA we felt the structure and ethos was understood from the beginning.”
What TBLA Has Done for Grass Roots Remedies
Our primary work with Grass Roots Remedies centres on preparing their accounts for submission to HMRC. But beyond the technical work, understanding their unique structure – a workers’ co-operative operating in the permaculture and community health space – has allowed us to provide support that truly fits their organisational model.
How This Has Helped Their Mission
The impact is beautifully straightforward: “Having TBLA handle our accounts and year-end reporting has allowed us to focus on the stuff that we most enjoy – spending time with the plants and the communities that want to learn more about them.”
This is exactly what purpose-driven financial partnership should achieve – removing administrative burden so that passionate practitioners can focus on their core work. Whether they’re teaching sustainable foraging, making medicines with patients at the Wester Hailes clinic, or nurturing their teaching gardens, the Grass Roots Remedies team can concentrate on sharing plant knowledge and building community connections.
A Growing Movement
Each year, many people study or volunteer with Grass Roots Remedies. They run in-person courses on the land and online courses which students join from across the UK, Ireland and beyond. Groups and individuals based locally volunteer at their herb farm in Edinburgh or their herbal teaching allotment in Glasgow.
Through this combination of volunteer and study opportunities, they support people to reconnect with the land and gain deeper knowledge of plant medicine in community. They encourage people to pause and spend time with plants, taking them in on a sensory level for a deeper understanding of their character and values, building lasting connections.
Looking Ahead
As Grass Roots Remedies continues to share plant wisdom, run their award-winning clinic, and expand their educational offerings, we’re honoured to handle the financial complexity behind the scenes. Their work demonstrates that accessible healthcare, environmental stewardship and community empowerment can flourish together – when organisations are structured around shared values rather than profit extraction.
Their journey reinforces what we’ve always believed: that investing in people, planet and lasting impact isn’t just possible – it’s essential for building the resilient, connected communities we need.
About Grass Roots Remedies
Grass Roots Remedies is an Edinburgh and Glasgow based workers’ co-operative rekindling Scotland’s rich tradition of herbal community healthcare and promoting ecologically responsible herbalism. They run the award-winning Wester Hailes Community Herbal Clinic, offer courses and workshops, and maintain teaching gardens whilst sharing the philosophy that herbal medicine is the medicine of the people and should be accessible to everyone.
If your organisation is ready to align its financial management with its values, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re a workers’ co-operative, community health provider, educational organisation, or anywhere in between, Triple Bottom Line Accounting is here to help purpose-driven organisations thrive. Contact us here.
Learn more about Grass Roots Remedies:
- Website: grassrootsremedies.co.uk
- Wild Things Course: Year of Wild Food & Medicine – a few places left for 2026
- Plant Allies Course: 13 Moons Programme – Bookings open 2nd–16th April and then every quarter
- Instagram: @grassrootsremedies
- Newsletter: Sign up for seasonal updates
- Location: Edinburgh & Glasgow, Scotland
Fran leads TBLA’s sustainability services and HR function, delivering Net Zero Workshops, decarbonisation and ESG consultancy for SMEs and organisations. She develops and delivers sustainability education across multiple frameworks, notably as tutor for ESTU Global’s Sustainability Manager and Carbon Manager programmes, teaching sustainability managers and leaders from diverse corporate backgrounds. In her dual role at TBLA, she obtained B Corp certification and drives the company’s ongoing ESG momentum, while supporting TBLA’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility through practical sustainability solutions and a focus on inclusive team leadership through the company’s HR function.
