Cultivating sustainable solutions

High-quality analysis

Seddon and Cress use a range of tools to understand the fundamentals of a particular industry or business sector. At that point, the goal is to realise that specific sector’s drivers and economics.

“We want to know things like the top costs and biggest drivers of change and challenge in that specific industry,” she said. “We come armed with that background understanding, and then we look at the business and run a benchmarking assessment. This helps us to know where our client is relative to other companies in the same sector, domestically or internationally.”

Understanding how mature their client is regarding sustainability, climate change, or in meeting ESG requirements provides a lot of value to the client, in the eyes of Seddon. Understanding where the organisation is relative to carbon emission reductions or any other aspect of their targets. It also provides the client with knowledge of how they compare to their peers worldwide.

“WE DON’T DO greenwashing, and we don’t do lip service. We don’t go in and say, ‘Oh, look, you’re doing all these wonderful things already. You don’t need to do very much more.’ We do gather all the information and use it as a baseline to improve upon. As a consultancy, we show organisations what they can accomplish by adopting a shift in business strategy, and Cress works with them to make it achievable.”

That’s Cress Consulting principal Julia Seddon. Under her leadership, Cress Consulting has the expertise to help businesses identify pathways to a more sustainable, secure, decarbonised future. It believes organisations need to understand the risks of climate change to create a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable future.

Cress Consulting works to help businesses and organisations design strategies to reduce risk and increase self-reliance.

“We are consistent and deliver tailored solutions to each customer,” said Seddon. “We commit to spending time with our clients and customers to understand their business. We want to create a fitfor-purpose piece of work that is the right size for the organisation while presenting a challenge to work towards a more sustainable and secure future.”

“By providing this high-level analysis, we can help our clients understand if they are in a good position or need to do a lot of work. It’s imperative to see what good looks like and then identify the steps to get there,” said Seddon.

Sustainable procurement key area

One of the most important areas for any enterprise is sustainable procurement. By working with every link in the supply chain, organisations can work to improve sustainability outcomes at every level.

“The idea of sustainable procurement is for everyone to play their role. Organisations need to influence their supply chain to become more sustainable whether that’s reducing emissions, getting to net zero, identifying modern slavery or other sustainability risks,” said Seddon.

The life cycle needs to be examined, along with the key suppliers. Seddon focuses on the conversations with suppliers and partners around going on the sustainability journey together.

“It’s essential that the conversations are had,” she said. “Organisations need to talk with their suppliers and partners to find out their positions on the relevant sustainable issue, whether it’s energy, emissions, water, or something else.”

For those organisations with a procurement function, it’s fairly straightforward to pivot towards a more sustainable focus. Such a transition makes sustainability part of the rules of engagement.

“It’s an opportunity to have the supply chain demonstrate that they are on an emissions reduction pathway, or a path that adequately addresses sustainability risks. This would then flow through other parts of the supply chain and could impact consumer use of the product,” said Seddon.

Stakeholder engagement

Any organisation will have numerous stakeholders inside and outside the corporate structure. Effectively engaging stakeholders in the broader sustainability analysis and strategy creation can be challenging for organisations. However, working out how to get them on the sustainability journey can be easier than some might suggest.

“When looking at the value or supply chain, organisations need to think about suppliers and service providers. It’s not limited to physical products but could be web hosts, data centres, or any other service provider. Often, organisations are very clear about the contractual arrangements but have less idea