Recently, I have been applying for internships for my year abroad. Nightmare. One promising site I found was a position as a copywriter for a Parisian firm called Greenly. Upon investigation into their activities I discovered carbon accounting. This triggered a memory from last year. As a participant in the Vice-Chancellor’s Climate Colloquium 2025, I was particularly struck by Amir Amel-Zadeh’s speech. Zadeh is an Associate Professor of Accounting, working at the Saïd Business School. In his lecture he discussed the economics of climate change solutions, arguing that under the current system companies have no motivation to invest in sustainable options. In other words, business will only go green when it is financially advantageous to do so. Although, I must admit, I left the lecture feeling rather dejected, believing I was faced with having to overturn the whole capitalist world order if I wanted to do anything to effect climate change, I didn’t think at all about the other side. What if sustainable solutions were the most cost-effective business strategy?
So when I bumped up against Greenly’s carbon accounting, where they help organisations to measure their greenhouse emissions to assess their business performance, I started thinking about the benefits of eco-consulting; might it be the best way forward? Could eco-consulting help businesses to cut their emissions in a way which is sustainable not only for the environment, but also for the business?
Eco-consulting offers an attractive proposition for companies looking to comply with government regulation, whilst maximising their profitability. Companies, such as Thomson Environmental Consultants and Logika Group, can assist businesses in a number of ways. They work to help companies reduce their waste, advise clients on how to adhere to environmental regulations, implement strategies to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, whilst ensuring their client remains profitable. In many ways, hiring eco-consultants can be financially beneficial for a company. Solutions concerning optimising energy consumption and reducing waste, for example, will naturally save a company money in the long run. Consultants can identify areas where a company could improve energy efficiency or integrate sustainable technologies, again reducing expenditure. It is a sector which is growing both in size and recognition. In 2021, Thomson Environmental Consultants projected a turnover of £21 million, and just last year Logika Group was awarded Highly Commended for Sustainable Business of the Year at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards. This marks an important shift in the emerging recognition of eco-consulting as a vital industry in the push against climate-change, supporting businesses to adopt sustainable policies, and hopefully achieve net-zero.
Logika Group works internationally, mostly recently helping Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya expand and modernise its facilities and infrastructure, whilst also providing training to its staff . They have also managed Chelmsford Garden Community, co-ordinating environmental inputs to the new building project of around 10,000 homes, a new country park, two primary schools, and a secondary school. They advised on the use of multifunctional green infrastructure, as well as assessing air quality, biodiversity, and noise levels in the area.
Thomson has also managed huge projects. For example, Nancy Thomson and her team were involved in the building project at the London Gateway between 2007 and 2008. In one interview, Nancy Thomson described how staff often return to the site to see the ponds they put in place to protect the population of Great Crested Newts which lived on the site. Recently, the company has begun to diversify into different fields. They now provided Marine Ecology Consults and habitat management specialists, alongside more typical services such as Ecological Surveys and Interactive Mapping services.
Eco-consulting is a field which developed out of the creation of CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility. This concept relates to the responsibility of businesses for their impact on society. Essentially CSRs make companies socially accountable to themselves, stakeholders and the public. In some countries, such as India, Indonesia, and Mauritius CSR regulation is implemented in law. For example, India requires certain companies to spend a minimum 2% of average net profits on CSR activities, whilst in Indonesia any company which engages in natural resources activities is mandated to implement a CSR program. CSR efforts revolve around a number of ideas: ethical labour practices, philanthropy, responsible sourcing, transparency and workplace diversity but in this article it is environmental sustainability we are interested in.
Increasing emphasis on companies incorporating CSR policies into their workplaces has boosted the eco-consulting industry. Particularly with the rise of social media, pressure on big business to act responsibly has exponentially increased and people are now, more than ever, able to hold companies accountable for their environmental impact.
Eco-consulting has therefore become a vital industry for many businesses needing not only to comply with government regulation, but also to remain in the public’s favour. Eco-consultants might assess how companies use natural resources and how they dispose of waste. They might investigate how much plastic a company is using and offer biodegradable alternatives. They may even draw up a roadmap for a company to switch over to renewable energy. Eco-consultants can also provide training to staff members, helping them to change their workplace habits to be more environmentally friendly. Groundwork’s Sustainable Business Consultants offer a One Day Carbon Literacy Course, designed to help people achieve zero-carbon in the workplace and at home. For example, they advise course participants on how to go about installing cavity wall insulation. Cavity wall insulation involves the injection of an insulating material such as foam into the gap in a house’s walls. This saves a lot of money in the long run on gas and electricity bills, as well as, of course, saving energy.
However, it cuts both ways. Some companies may hire eco-consultants simply for the good PR, greenwashing their ads and Instagram with sustainable promotions. Nevertheless, this does not negate the potential benefits eco-consulting has to bring to the table. One of the prime examples of this was the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Eco-consultants were positioned at the heart of this business project. In 2010 Unilever embarked on a decade long project. They achieved a great deal in that time: reducing greenhouse gas impact per consumer use by 10%; reducing CO2 emissions from energy at their factories by 75%; reducing waste impact per consumer by 34%; and sustainably sourcing 67% of their agriculture raw material. The company has developed new plans since then, some of which include: having 95% of its key crops verified as sustainably sourced; implementing regenerative agriculture on 1 million hectares of agricultural land; and helping protect and restore 1 million hectares of natural ecosystems by 2030.
Unilever’s dedication is of course unusual. Nevertheless, the company stands as a beacon for what is possible when commitment from corporations is combined with eco-consultant expertise.
Of course, the industry faces one major problem. They can’t intervene unless asked. They rely on clients having the goodwill to want to invest in environmental programmes. Despite this a combination of increasingly strict government legislation and public pressure might push companies into the arms of the eco-consultants. And perhaps, they’ll be surprised at the profitability of sustainability.