Know where you stand on cost, risk, and customer requirements, then agree a direction your board will back and get a plan you can act on that's built around your business priorities.
Start with the decision
Most sustainability work starts with a target, but the right starting point is the decision in front of you. A tender that asks for a carbon reduction plan. A lender asking for climate risk data. An energy bill that no longer makes sense. A customer questionnaire nobody can answer. A board that wants to know what this is going to cost over five years.
A sustainability strategy connects those pressures to one direction, so the money you spend on energy, data, reporting and supply chain work adds up to something rather than sitting in separate projects.
We help you:
• Establish your current position using evidence you can defend
• Agree what matters most to your organisation and what does not
• Set an ambition that stands up to scrutiny without overcommitting
• Turn it into a costed roadmap with named owners and decision points
• Deliver it, if you want us to
What a Sustainability Strategy covers
A sustainability strategy sets the direction for the environmental, social and governance issues that materially affect your organisation. It sets out what you will do about them, in what order, what it costs, and who owns each part.
It is wider than a net zero strategy. Net zero deals with your GHG emissions and the date by which you will reduce and neutralise them. That work is the core of the sustainability strategy with the option to build on it with energy cost and operational performance, supply chain and product impact, your workforce and social commitments, climate risk, and the reporting your customers, investors and regulators ask for.
Benefits of a Sustainability Strategy
It all starts with the core strategy
In the first six months, we begin with one piece of work that produces the evidence and the direction everything else depends on.
- GHG and data review | what you measure, how reliable it is, what is missing
- Stakeholder workshops | the priorities of your board, customers, people and investors
- Materiality and risk inputs | which issues genuinely affect your organisation
- Ambition and target assessment | what level of commitment your evidence and context support
- Scenario modelling | the pathways available, what each costs and what each delivers
- Social sustainability | how your workforce and community commitments fit the same direction
- Transition roadmap | sequenced actions, owners, costs and decision points, split into ten areas so accountability is clear
- Senior-level presentation | the version your board will act on
Scope is shaped around what you already have. If your carbon footprint is current and reliable, we build on it rather than repeat it.six
With areas you can add to the strategy
When setting the direction, most organisations need additional support in one or two specific areas, so we keep it flexible. We provide you with a selection of six optional modules that act as add-ons, tailored to meet areas that you need.
Get guidance before you add modules
A discovery call is 30 minutes, free, and includes an honest view of where we can help and where we cannot.
Ways to work with us
How much you commit to at the outset is your decision, and we provide four flexible structures that cover most organisations.
Strategy
Gets visibility of the baseline and direction work only. We identify the areas worth adding and tell you what they would cost, but none of it is committed.
You decide after the board presentation.
Suited to businesses who are starting their sustainability journey and need more clarity on which focuses their industries best benefit from.
Strategy plus specific workstream
Provides the baseline alongside named pieces of work you already know you need.
Everything has defined outputs, assumptions and exclusions.
Suited for organisations with immediate requirements, such as tender request for product footprint, a supplier data gap or a disclosure requirement, that also need an overall direction so the specialist work does not run in isolation.
Strategy plus delivery
Combines the baseline and direction work with ongoing support to deliver it. It works as an extension of your team. Most organisations take it across 2-3 years, and it is scoped from the start rather than offered once the strategy is finished.
Suited for companies with limited in-house capacity or ownership that want implementation, tracking, reporting and governance support built in from the start.
Strategy plus procurement support
We support in finding the right solution partners and writing the brief so the specs reflects what your strategy actually needs. Solutions include solar, heat, fleet, lighting, and more.
Best for procurement teams that need help briefing sustainability specs, and then tendering for and selecting third-party solution providers to act on the roadmap’s priorities.
JDR Cables Systems – Net Zero Strategy
As part of their commitment to sustainability, JDR sought to build a Net Zero strategy with global climate objectives. Recognising that over 95% of their emissions originate from their supply chain, a core element of their ambitions was to enhance data collection, improve supplier collaboration, and integrate environmental considerations into procurement decisions
Sustainability Strategy FAQs
What is a sustainability strategy?
A costed plan covering the environmental, social and governance issues that materially affect your organisation — what you will do, in what order, and who owns each part. It should be specific enough that your finance team can budget against it.
How is that different from a net zero strategy?
A net zero strategy deals with greenhouse gas emissions and the date by which you will reduce and neutralise them. A sustainability strategy includes that, and also energy and operational performance, supply chain, people, risk and reporting.
Do we have to do everything at once?
No. Most organisations start with the baseline and direction work, then add one or two areas once the evidence shows where the priorities are. Nothing beyond the initial scope is committed unless you agree it in writing.
How long does it take?
The baseline and direction work takes around three months. Anything added runs alongside it or afterwards, depending on what it depends on.
What does it cost?
It depends on size, complexity and how much reliable data you already hold. We price the starting work as a fixed scope and quote anything added separately, with the assumptions stated. A discovery call is usually enough for us to give you an indicative range.
Do we need a carbon footprint first?
Not before you start. A reliable footprint is needed for the environmental part of the strategy, so if you do not have one, or the one you have is out of date, that forms part of the initial work. If yours is current, we build on it rather than repeat it.
We already have a strategy. Is this still relevant?
Sometimes. Where evidence and governance are already sound we scope the starting work down to the gaps and focus on the areas that are not yet covered. We will tell you honestly if you do not need us.
What happens once the strategy is agreed?
That is your decision. Some organisations take the roadmap and run it internally. Others ask us to deliver it through Sustainability Strategy & Delivery. Either is a valid outcome and we scope for both.
Who do you usually work with?
UK organisations of roughly 200 to 1,000 employees, most often in manufacturing, construction, technology, retail, hospitality, finance and insurance, wholesale, private healthcare and private education.
Got a question about Sustainability Strategy?
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