Sustainability Consulting Services

We are proud to provide sustainability consulting services to the further and higher education sector, through a strategic partnership with SUMS Consulting.

Our holistic approach to sustainability consulting combines specialist sustainability knowledge with the expertise of our other practice areas, guiding you towards a net zero, nature positive and resilient future for your institution.

Sustainability in Further and Higher Education

We can support any part of your sustainability mission, whether that is understanding and reducing your carbon footprint or impacts on nature, managing and adapting to risks from the changing environment, or deploying your education, research and partnerships for leadership towards a sustainable future.

We recognise that sustainability is a true horizontal: every part of your organisation will need to play its role.

It is also a major transformation journey involving complex change, with implications for your institution’s operations, ways of working, strategy, planning and governance.

We can help you ensure that your approach to sustainability is integrated, grounded and embedded.

Our approach

Higher and further education has long been an engaged sector for sustainability. Supporting social development and economic prosperity is in universities’ and colleges' DNA, and many institutions are already mapping the distinctive contribution that they can make towards a sustainable future.

But we know that more action is needed to reduce institutions carbon emissions and other negative environmental impacts. Understanding and responding to the risks that climate change and nature loss present to your institution and its business continuity is also essential.

Like everyone, universities and colleges are part of wider systems: your path to sustainability and resilience needs to be plotted with consideration of the massive changes which are underway across all sectors to make the world’s economy sustainable.

We are your partner for this journey. We can help you zoom down into details and out into the big picture, from your campus to your value chain and your role in systems change.

Our sustainability consulting solutions rest on the latest policy development, cross-industry knowledge and academic research. These are fused with the deep expertise from our other practice areas such as data analytics, transformation, strategy and governance.

Our strategic partnership with SUMS brings a range of sustainability specialisms grounded in leading sector practice and the experiences of sustainability leaders who have achieved major change in their institutions. Explore our cohort of Associate Consultants.

How we can help you

We can help you to:

reduce your impacts on the climate and natural environment, setting your path towards net zero carbon and nature positive
map and navigate sustainability risks, building your resilience now and in the future
lead in the transition to a sustainable future for our economy, society and environment
maximise, identify and communicate the positive impacts of your education, research and partnerships.

Case Study and Testimonials

We are delighted to share a case study from Oxford Brookes University on our work with them to develop a programme to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

"This was a key piece of enabling work for Oxford Brookes to further develop and future-proof our Carbon Reduction Strategy. Understanding our scope 3 impacts to develop robust plans and roadmaps will be key to successful delivery. We greatly value the insights and recommendations and learned a great deal during the process. The report will be used as a basis for developing a new strategy, ensuring integration within existing frameworks and the development or enhancement of robust governance structures"
Michele Morley, Head of Environmental Sustainability, Oxford Brookes University

We are also delighted to share a case study from the University of Essex on our work with them on spurring transformation and culture change for a sustainable university.

"It was great working with the SUMS and EAUC team. They really understood our challenge and what we were aiming to achieve. Their approach was very thorough from the outset and gave us confidence that they were focused on what we needed; and they had the breadth of expertise in the tam to deliver recommendations that would be realistic and achievable in the context of our organisation"
Daisy Malt, Sustainability Manager, University of Essex