What Does a Sustainability Consultant Do?

If someone has told you to hire a sustainability consultant, or you are thinking about it yourself, the first question is usually the same. What will they do all day? What do I get for my money? And will any of it make a difference to my business?

The answer depends on who you hire. But the work falls into a few clear categories, and understanding them will help you avoid paying for the wrong thing.

Carbon measurement and reporting

This is the most common starting point. A sustainability consultant will calculate your carbon footprint, usually starting with Scope 1 (direct emissions from things you own, like gas boilers and vehicles) and Scope 2 (electricity you buy). They will pull together data from your utility bills, fuel records, and fleet information, apply government conversion factors, and produce a baseline.

The output is a document that tells you how much carbon your business produces, where it comes from, and how it compares to others in your sector. If your customer has asked for carbon data, this is what they are waiting for.

Some consultants stop at the baseline. Others will build a reduction plan, set targets, and help you track progress year on year. The difference matters, because a baseline without a plan is just a number.

Policy and governance

Businesses are being asked for policies they have never needed before. Environmental policies, sustainable procurement policies, social value statements, anti-corruption frameworks, whistleblowing procedures. In many cases, the business is already doing the right things in practice but has never written them down formally.

A sustainability consultant will audit what you have, identify what is missing, and either write the policies for you or help your team write them. The policies then need to be dated, approved, and stored somewhere they can be retrieved when a customer or auditor asks for them.

This sounds like paperwork, and it is. But it is paperwork that directly affects whether you win or lose tenders, pass supplier assessments, and keep contracts.

Tender and questionnaire support

Sustainability now carries serious weight in tender evaluations. In construction, it can be 10-20% of the total score. In public sector procurement, social value and environmental criteria are mandatory under the Procurement Act 2023. A bad sustainability section can lose you a contract even if your price and technical scores are strong.

Sustainability consultants help businesses write stronger tender responses. They pull together the carbon data, policy references, social value evidence, and case studies that procurement teams are looking for. They know how the scoring works and where points are won and lost.

They also help with customer questionnaires. When a customer sends an ESG questionnaire asking for data you have never had to produce, a consultant can work through it with you, identify what you already have, and fill the gaps.

Supply chain engagement

For larger companies, a sustainability consultant will work with their supply chain. This means going to individual suppliers, helping them understand what is being asked of them, building their capability, and ensuring the data that comes back to the corporate is usable.

This is the work Ltt Group specialises in. Our Virtual Impact Team deploys into supply chains to get suppliers sorted. The corporate gets better data. The suppliers get support they would not be able to afford individually. And the whole chain moves forward.

EcoVadis and certification support

EcoVadis, B Corp, CDP, SBTi, ISO 14001. There are dozens of sustainability certifications and platforms, each with different requirements. A consultant will guide you through whichever one your customer or market requires, helping you gather evidence, prepare submissions, and avoid the common mistakes that cost points.

Ltt Group helps suppliers prepare for EcoVadis assessments. We offer fixed-price packages. Get in touch for current pricing.

Strategy and planning

At the other end of the spectrum, some businesses need a sustainability strategy before they do anything else. Where are we now? Where do we need to be? What do we do first? A consultant will assess your position, map the regulatory landscape relevant to your sector, and build a roadmap with priorities and timescales.

The risk with strategy work is that it produces a document nobody acts on. At Ltt Group, we focus on implementation alongside strategy. The roadmap tells you what to do. The Virtual Impact Team helps you do it.

What it costs

Sustainability consultant pricing in the UK varies widely by firm and scope, with Big 4 firms charging considerably more than independent consultancies. Our Virtual Impact Team is priced as fixed-price packages that let you use specialist hours across any of the areas above. We also offer a discovery session that gives you a carbon baseline and a clear view of what your business needs next. Get in touch for current pricing.