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Practice 08

Sustainability & ESG

The disclosures your customers and lenders actually request — evidence first, narrative second, nothing theatrical.

Discuss your situation
ESG for companies who must, not companies who performing-art
ESG for companies who must, not companies who performing-art

ESG for companies who must, not companies who performing-art

Mid-market ESG is contract-driven: your largest customers audit your carbon data, your lender prices the transition, your insurers ask harder questions each renewal. We build the minimum honest machine that passes those tests — measurement you can evidence, targets you can defend, and a transition plan whose capital budget an owner will actually approve.

What we refuse to build is theatre: award submissions, illustrated brochures and pledges with no governance. They cost money and, when a customer audit or a journalist reads them closely, they cost reputation.

  • Customer and lender ESG audits — evidence bases that pass
  • Transition plans with capital budgets owners approve
  • Supply-chain due diligence that survives customer scrutiny

The disclosure floor, precisely

UK companies now navigate SECR reporting, the FCA's anti-greenwashing rules, and — through EU customers — CSRD data requests flowing down the chain. We map exactly which obligations reach your company, build the data collection once, and reuse it for every requester rather than answering each audit from scratch.

Where claims are made — recyclable, net zero, sustainably sourced — we test the evidence chain to the standard the FCA now expects of listed issuers, because your customers' audits already do.

Common questions

Sustainability & ESG — what boards ask

If your question is not here, ask it directly — the first conversation is free and candid.

Common questions

We are private and below the CSRD thresholds — does any of this reach us?
Through contracts, yes. CSRD applies to your large EU customers, and their data requests arrive in your supplier onboarding portal regardless of your size. SECR already applies to large UK companies and quivers down supply chains the same way. The practical floor is your customers' requirements.
Can you help us claim net zero credibly?
Credibly means dated, scoped, budgeted and evidenced — near-term reductions verified against measured baselines, offsets confined to the residual and disclosed as such. If the plan cannot survive a customer audit we will say so before it is printed.
What does an ESG engagement cost?
A customer-audit evidence base typically lands between £18,000 and £45,000 depending on data maturity. Transition plans are scoped like the capital plans they are. We quote fixed after a two-week data-read.
Do you certify companies as sustainable?
No — and be suspicious of anyone who offers quickly. Certification schemes are sector-specific, some are meaningful, many are marketing. We advise on which (if any) your customers actually recognise, and build the evidence either way.
Related practices

Often engaged together

Risk & Governance

Fold disclosure obligations into the risk register.

International Market Entry

Meet EU customer data requests from day one.

Corporate Strategy

Make transition a strategic choice, not a tax.

Next step

Bring us the decision, not the brief

The most useful first conversation starts with the decision the board cannot close. We will tell you within the hour whether we are the right firm for it.

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