As helpful as consultants can be to businesses, until you work with, or become one, there’s not a lot of information available to understand what a consultant actually does. Broadly, consultants are critical thinkers who leverage and develop structures and methodologies to understand and address problems and questions that businesses face in a repeatable, consistent way. (Sounds like that was written by a consultant). Even though “clear communication” is a mandate of our work, it can still be difficult to break free of the jargon to illustrate all that we can do.
In an effort to bridge this gap, I have compiled three handy charts to define and describe sustainability consultant tasks and illustrate how this work helps business. This is not a comprehensive breakdown of everything a sustainability consultant can do, however it is representative of the work I have completed with clients in the past.
I hope this sheds a little light into what sustainability consultants do, how they can be helpful, and what you can ask for when working with one. It’s important to reiterate, there is much more that a sustainability consultant can do than is what is listed here; such as support with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) plans and inventories. However, the focus of this piece is what Mach Zero has completed in the past, and can continue to support businesses with in the future.
