These days, software and AI can calculate a decent carbon footprint. Getting real estate, procurement, finance and the C-suite aligned and moving in the same direction, however, is the incredibly human part of it all, and where I love to support our clients! I work alongside the individuals who make decisions in each of those spaces, often as an extension of their team, to build sustainability into their BAU decision-making.
I help clients to…
…break down the acronym and jargon sustainability soup – the rules, required disclosures, regulations, customer pressures and expectations – I help clients make sense of it all, and then translate it into a bite-sized plan, with tasks and deadlines cascaded to the appropriate teams throughout the business. The solutions we co-develop are tailored to their business and their priorities, rather than a one-size-fits-all framework.
Materiality, risk assessments, CDP, EcoVadis, UK SECR, SB 253 and 261 – what do all these things actually mean for a client and their business units? What do they need to do, by when, and what resourcing is required on their part?
When I wrote my entrance essay for my Masters program, the thesis was around wanting to become a bridge between those who “speak sustainability science” and those who most need to understand it. That desire and need still stands today, and with new standards, regulations, disclosure requirements, complex carbon management platforms and ESG acronyms galore, it is arguably more important than ever.
Relatedly, our clients’ customers, investors and employees want evidence not only of ambition but of progress, as we see increasingly through things like supplier questionnaires, RFPs, CDP and EcoVadis. Our team help clients decide what to say and how to say it, leading with transparency and avoiding greenwashing. Most importantly, we help build the program so that answering those questions becomes the easy part.
One of the major challenges the I am seeing in the market is….
Sustainability teams are increasingly asked to “do it all”. Often small and stretched, they are expected to be experts in everything from carbon accounting and regulation to communications and supplier engagement. Most mature programs have already captured the easy wins where being a generalist can suffice; the next round of reductions, getting deep into Scope 3, electrification, renewable energy procurement, takes deeper expertise and real cross-functional buy-in. This is where I see the value of bringing in a team of experts. We support our clients by combining expertise from across the team to curate the right mix of experts to meet our clients where they are.
Frequent updates to the sustainability “rule book”, (proposed updates to the GHG Protocol and SBTi standards, California’s climate disclosure laws and shifting EU requirements) mean that the goalposts keep moving. Companies need a sustainability program that itself is sustainable … built for the longevity of their business without environmental compromise, rather than pivoting their program to fit the newest draft or disclosure.
How do you think the market will change in the next 12-24 months?
In the current US environment, companies seem to be taking two different paths. Some are scaling back, taking a purely compliance approach. Others are quietly doing the work, and some are even increasing headcount and budget. I anticipate that gap will widen, and the companies investing now will be well poised to be ahead when expectations inevitably shift again.
Sustainability is moving from the aspirational to the operational. Companies are moving their emphasis from announcing targets toward showing results.
Mature programs that have ‘picked the low-hanging fruit’ so to speak, are pushing responsibility into procurement, real estate and operations, where the business-unit specific decisions are made, and where the accountability and expertise come along with it.
Further to the above, with the low-hanging fruit picked, companies with mature programs may bring in specialists – in-house or through consulting support – to drive action that requires complex solutions in areas like renewable energy, procurement, data assurance and building operations. As platforms and AI automate more of the data collection and calculation, we may see the real value of a sustainability team shift toward interpretation, strategy, change management and thought leadership.
Recent impact
None of our team’s success comes from the work of one individual but rather a synergy of teamwork by talented consultants, enabled by forward-thinking clients who genuinely want to partner to make a positive impact. A great example of this type of partnership is with EnterpriseDB (EDB), where we worked with their internal teams to assess the avoided emissions from adopting EDB Postgres AI in their customers’ data centers.
The initial phase of this work involved developing the methodology for calculating avoided emissions from the use of EDB’s products, and then testing that methodology with data from three real customers. The findings, published in EDB’s white paper Optimizing the Core, show that customers have the potential to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over 50% from their baseline scenario (prior to utilizing EDB). The work was also highlighted when EDB was named Sustainability Innovation of the Year at CRN’s 2026 Sustainability in Tech Awards. Our team is now working with EDB on the next phase of the project – watch this space!
Most poignantly, for me, this project highlights the importance of a genuine and trusting partnership. Our work with EDB demonstrates what can be achieved when committed stakeholders from their team and ours collaborate and bring their collective expertise to the table, where the sum is often greater than each of the individual parts.
Want to talk about where your sustainability program goes next?