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What working in sustainability looks like in today’s global market
In this episode of the Sustainability Matters podcast, hear from three different sustainability leaders about the realities, challenges and rewards of driving change across advocacy, advisory and practitioner roles worldwide.
Related topics
In this episode of the Sustainability Matters podcast, listeners will explore what it means to work in sustainability from three unique perspectives: Janine Osborne, CEO of Sustainable Seas Trust and marine conservation advocate; Alice Ashpitel, Sustainability Lead at Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team; and Benjamin Okpara, Senior Consultant in EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services. Together, they reveal how sustainability for them is more than a job — it’s a mission that spans advocacy, business innovation and advisory work.
Listeners will hear how Janine drives systemic change across Africa’s blue economy, how Alice embeds sustainability in the fast-paced world of Formula 1 and how Ben helps organizations navigate complex environmental challenges. The episode delves into the realities of the field: balancing ambition with practical constraints, the importance of collaboration, and the personal motivations and experiences that keep these leaders moving forward.
Key takeaways:
- A career in sustainability can mean aligning personal purpose with professional action across advocacy, business and advisory roles.
- Resilience and adaptability are crucial skills for overcoming challenges and achieving long-term impact in the sustainability field.
You can also listen to this podcast on Apple, Spotify and Libsyn.
For your convenience, full text transcript of this podcast is also available.
Host
They're tackling a planet on the brink, facing burnout, bureaucratic roadblocks and overwhelming complexity. Yet, within their work lies a quiet revolution — the power to reshape our world, one solution at a time. So, what does working in sustainability actually look and feel like?Janine Osborne
The best ideas are formed when businesses are sitting at the table with advocacy groups. It's about being able to have the conversation in an honest way, but without necessarily blaming each other.Alice Ashpitel
Obviously, performance is critical. Within Formula 1, we know that there are inherent challenges, but there are technologies and solutions that we're finding and ways in which we can actually transparently and credibly be bringing our footprint down.Benjamin Okpara
Sustainability is not just a job. You have to be able to connect what you do with something that is important to you.Host
Hello and welcome to the EY Sustainability Matters podcast, our regular look at sustainability topics and how they'll impact businesses around the globe. I'm Matt Bell, EY Global Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader and your host for this episode. Today, we're asking a deceptively simple question: What does working in sustainability actually look like? Not just the job description or career landscape, but the real day-to-day work, the struggles, the compromises, the moments of progress and pushback, because sustainability work does not come in one single role.It's now a whole ecosystem of responsibilities across various departments, each with their own vantage point, pressures and impact. We spoke with professionals from three different vantage points: the advocate — a CEO of a marine conservation organization; the practitioner — a sustainability lead for a Formula 1 team; and the advisor — a consultant from our own EY team in Ireland.
We'll explore the different roles and how each is working to shift systems and make change. You'll hear how they got into their roles, what their work actually involves, and where they find both meaning and resistance. Let's start with someone working as a sustainability practitioner in the business. Alice Ashpitel leads sustainability at Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 team, embedding change within a fast-paced, high-performance environment, quite literally.
Ashpitel
I've been working with the team now for about three-and-a-half years, looking after our sustainability strategy, focusing mainly on environmental sustainability and how we deliver on our ambition to become one of the most sustainable global professional sports teams. And really looking at how we find innovative and exciting projects to drive change within Formula 1, but hopefully also within broader sports and entertainment, which I just think is a really exciting intersection of sustainability at the moment.My role is really varied, which I think is one of the real privileges of having a sustainability job. And it really looks after our strategy. So, how do we deliver that? And we break that down into four impact areas. We talk about our home or our factories. We have a base up in Brackley in Northamptonshire. And here, we're really looking at how we are driving sustainability innovations across all of our operations manufacturing a Formula 1 car.
I'm also looking at sustainability strategies on the road. We travel to 24 races a year. That's a large travel footprint. And so, finding ways to implement more sustainable fuels or ways to travel in more responsible manners is a big part of what we do. And we do a lot of collaboration with partners and also across the team. We then also look on the racetrack and on the car — how are we actually driving sustainable innovations in the materials that we're using or the fuel that's going into the car.
Finally, one that I actually find is my favorite, if I'm allowed to have a favorite, which is what we call beyond our world. And so, I spend a lot of time thinking about how is what we're doing within Formula 1, having transfer and benefits outside of our Formula 1 sphere, so, looking at the sustainable innovations that we put on the car or in our operations, where can they translate to road freight more generally when we're doing online shopping? Or where can the innovations that we're trialing in material actually have bigger implications, for example, in aerospace? So, I'm constantly looking at how we can find innovations to meet our emissions reduction targets and our other commitments.
Host
This sustainability role touches everything from car design to global logistics and cross-industry innovation. But what does that actually look like in practice? Let's hear what Alice's typical day involves.Ashpitel
I'm really lucky to have a dedicated team working in sustainability. So, the day to day is really varied, and actually one of the big responsibilities is leading the team and making sure that we've got a really clear strategy for how we're going to deliver our targets. A lot of it is project management and planning.So, looking at some of the big projects we've been working on recently, one of them has been around sustainable fuels. So, some of the day to day has been looking at how do we collaborate across the legal teams, the finance teams, the purchasing teams to implement biofuels across our European road freight.
So, we've started scaling that up, and we've taken that from, in 2022, a trial in nine trucks across the season all the way through to in 2024, getting 98% coverage of HVO100 in the trucks. And the way we've been able to do that is through that kind of collaboration and really close working relationship between those teams, and building the confidence that we can use these sustainable fuels as a drop in compared to traditional diesel.
But it won't affect our ability to go racing. It won't affect the miles per gallon that we're getting. And what's been really exciting about developing that project has been that, this year, we were able to actually trial the first electric truck moving our equipment. Initially, we moved our race cars from Brackley to Silverstone, which is actually not that big a distance.
But what was really great about that trial was that we built the confidence, and we've worked out the logistics of doing that. And then when we went to race in Zandvoort, we were actually able to move the cars, again, on an electric truck, but actually do that from the UK all the way over to Zandvoort. And so, it's part of how do we develop these — how do we identify these projects, and then how do we develop and build the relationships across the team to actually deliver them and then scale them over the coming years. So, that's a lot of what I do day to day.
Host
It's clear that a significant aspect of Alice's job as a sustainability lead is to drive collaboration among various stakeholders on a shared vision.Ashpitel
I think one of the key skills that you learn as a sustainability professional that's really useful is the communication side of things as well. In the sustainability space, at the moment, making sure that we're communicating really transparently is so important. And so, a lot of what we're doing is making sure that we're collecting the right information and also telling everybody what we are doing and the benefits of what we're doing, but doing it in the correct and responsible way.So, that's been a really interesting thing that I've learned in the last couple of years in my role as I've moved into this. I think collaboration is so key in delivering these projects. And it's the expertise of the logistics team who understand how we're going to sort our routings through Europe. We go to multiple countries. So, the logistics are really specific about making sure that you're moving the trucks on the right days to the right locations and making sure that where you are using a more sustainable fuel, the collection points are organized and how do you plan for, say, road diversions and things like that. I think one of the really important things is bringing that network together and really sharing the why we're doing it and the benefits.
Host
What Alice's experience really highlights is the complexity of the practitioner role. It's about setting targets, sure, but it's also about navigating teams, translating strategy into action and making the case for change in a way that sticks. And in a performance-driven environment like racing sports, that raises an important question: Can sustainability go hand in hand with constant performance enhancements?Ashpitel
Obviously, performance is critical. And so, one of the exciting and interesting challenges has been how do we make sure that the initiatives and the projects that we're delivering are enhancing or not taking performance away? So, that's a huge opportunity, and it kind of aligns with a lot of what sustainability is already about. When you look at the heart of sustainability, it is about being efficient with the resources that we have.It's about finding new innovations and new technologies and things like that. So, actually, often, it's more about finding those sweet spots to unlock that I think is where the work needs to be done. And that actually within Formula 1, we know that there are inherent challenges in the fact that we travel internationally to races, but there are technologies and solutions that we're finding, such as sustainable aviation fuel certificates, and ways in which we can actually transparently and credibly be bringing our footprint down. But just making sure we're really cognizant of the fact that these challenges exist and that it will take time to solve them all.
Host
As Alice's sustainability role has evolved, so has her perspective. Moving from project delivery to strategic thinking means looking beyond the team, and even sometimes, beyond the sector. So, how does the sustainability practitioner stay informed and inspired? For Alice, it's about learning from others and bringing those insights back into her world.Ashpitel
So, because we operate globally and we go racing globally, we really try to keep an eye on all of the various impacts in our world. And we're very fortunate to have a great stack of partners that we can work with and share a lot of lessons learned around what's happening in different markets, what projects have worked, what haven't and how we can actually learn from each other across industries.Because I think one of the things that's so interesting about sustainability is that, actually, it's very sector-agnostic in a lot of ways. The challenges that we might face in the sports and entertainment sector can be really similar to the freight and logistics sector. And so, having those kinds of conversations, and I really value making time to go and have those conversations. And I think that's a big part of what the job is becoming is to go and see what's happening outside of your own sector and then bringing it back into your world.
Host
That kind of cross-sector learning is a big part of the job but so is seeing the impact of your work firsthand. So, what makes the hard parts worth it?Ashpitel
I think what's great to see at the end — what makes the hard work worth it — is when you see a project that you've taken from inception all the way back, when we were first talking about more sustainable alternatives to carbon fiber, to seeing it go racing on a race weekend, to seeing it in the flesh and knowing that that has huge implications beyond our world is really exciting.But I also really enjoy, kind of completely on the other end, working with a really engaged and excited team. And that's not just the sustainability, the core sustainability team, but I think it's really great to be working in a team across the Mercedes Formula 1 team, where everybody is really passionate about driving change in all of their own sectors.
We're an incredible bunch of competitive people, but actually it's great that so many people are passionate about sustainability. And we set up a group of environmental representatives right across the business, from technical departments to operations departments. And these people are now actually coming to us with ideas for how they can improve sustainability through looking at energy dashboards, which we rolled out a couple of months ago.
Looking at that going, I've seen we're doing a process this way, and I think I could improve it and save energy here. And it's really rewarding to see that kind of information flowing to us, once you've given the language and the skills and kind of the passion outward, seeing that kind of come back from the wider team. So, that definitely makes it all worth it.
Host
From seeing a project go from concept to racetrack to encouraging colleagues across the business bringing their own ideas forward, Alice's role shows how sustainability can spark real momentum inside an organization. But what does it take to build a career like this? For those looking to step into the practitioner role, here's Alice's advice.Ashpitel
The first thing is to have a passion. So, I think being really passionate about what you want to do and being able to express why you're passionate about it. People love to hear why you enjoy something. And I think aside from that, it's really about building a variety of experience. I always say to people that all of the experience you're getting is relevant. You just need to think about why and how it's relevant to what you're doing. So, for example, understanding how to build a business case, spending time with the legal team in wherever you are at the moment, just to kind of understand how do they contract?What does that look like? How does that influence business operations? And really kind of looking at developing a really broad set of skills in sustainability in general. Having a skill set where you're able to understand business operations and then also be able to communicate effectively and influence is really important, as well as being quite resilient. There's a lot of change in the sustainability sector and that's been the case throughout my time in it. And I think being resilient and being really adaptable and kind of recognizing when things change, when standards move, how do we adapt to them, how do we keep moving forward are all, I think, really useful skills to develop and we'll set anybody in good stead.
Host
Alice's story gives us a great look at what it means to drive sustainability from the inside, balancing strategy, collaboration and a whole lot of persistence. It's a role that evolves; it stretches and demands both technical depth and people skill. Now, let's shift our lens to Janine, our advocate. She works in a nonprofit organization, pushing for accountability and meaningful public influence.Osborne
My name is Janine Osborne. I'm the CEO of Sustainable Seas Trust, or SST for short, and we drive work in the marine conservation space, but specifically to curb the threat of marine pollution to an African blue economy. We do that through embedding circular waste solutions into local value chains. We foster an inclusive blue economy through research, education and enterprise development across the entire plastics value chain. And then to scale our impact, because we are a very small NGO based in South Africa, we strategically partner with multilateral organizations across Africa to make sure that we are taking our design principles that we develop and test in South Africa, but we're able to scale it into Africa. As the CEO, I steer strategy, funding and partnership. And I serve as SST’s public voice, aligning science, communication, action and policy for ocean smart growth.Host
Janine's work is a powerful example of advocacy in action. Her job shows how a comprehensive approach can not only raise awareness locally, but build systems across an entire continent. But what does that actually look like day to day? How does someone in an advocacy role spend their time? And what does it take to influence change from outside the system?Osborne
My days are really the same. It doesn't really follow a script of any sort, but it all revolves around steering SST toward its long-term vision. We have an incredibly ambitious vision, which is a future where Africa and her seas flourish together. We have a very clear theory of change. We've got very clear outcomes, deliverables, inputs that are required on a short-term, a medium-term and a long-term basis. But to come back to what I do, one moment, I'll be reviewing budgets and checking that we're hitting our milestones in terms of our five-year plans. And the next, I'll be working with donors, grant givers to try and raise money, both restricted and unrestricted, for SST to ensure long-term sustainability in terms of our financial governance.And we always want to make sure that the donors that we work with align with our values, but also that we are able to deliver on the outputs and the outcomes that they have. I also mentioned previously that I'm the organization's public voice. So, I spend a lot of time canvassing, speaking to journalists, government committees. And that's on a strategic level.
But then, there's also part of my work that is making sure I remain at the coalface, making sure that I am present in the communities, the scientists, the businesses that we are able to have conversations in a way that makes sense to them, that bring them alongside the vision that SST has. So, I'll handle today's hurdles, but I'm always thinking about what's on the horizon. I'm always thinking about how do the day-to-day activities that I'm involved with actually meet that 10-year, 15-year, 20-year vision that SST has. Thinking in the short term, but acting in the long term.
Host
What's striking is how much Janine's role mirrors that of any corporate CEO —balancing budgets, managing long term strategy, engaging stakeholders and being the public face of the organization. The difference here is that every decision is anchored in a mission that goes beyond profit. I asked Janine how she got into that space.Osborne
I didn't start my career planning to be the CEO of a marine conservation organization. In fact, when I started my career, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was good at science; I was good at maths, but I didn't really know what to do with that, so I just started. I began my career as an intertitle biologist in Namibia. I'm originally from Namibia, and I studied marine biology. And that was where I learned really how rigorous science patient field work.It can turn the data that you collect into practical conservation insights. It also taught me a love and an understanding of rigorous quantitative and qualitative science. And that scientific grounding has really proved invaluable for my career, because it helped me understand and appreciate the necessity to have data in order to be able to act. And that speaks to what I do today, but I'll circle back to that later.
After I moved from being an intertitle biologist in Namibia, I moved to South Africa and I started working at WWF South Africa. So I moved from grounded, credible science into a more conservation activist space. The work that I did there, which was around sustainable seafood, it was exactly that. It was taking credible science and translating it into everyday actions, so that a consumer doesn't have to be a marine biologist in order to know how to choose more sustainably sourced fish.
And that's where I started really becoming interested in taking science and breaking it into digestible chunks for a normal layperson to understand. That's where I started understanding how communication is so important to science and that scientists are not necessarily the best placed to translate the science to the layperson. And that's why strategic communication is so important. And that's where I started learning and appreciating the need for strategic communications. So, all of these threads — then it was credible science, clear communications and systems thinking — so, all of these things now weave together into my role at SST.
It's quite amazing actually when I look back at my career path. But I've always believed that progress starts with an internal locus of control. I work hard, I seek honest feedback and I stay ready to seize opportunities wherever they present themselves. And as I started allowing myself to take in the experiences and the opportunities, I started having honest conversations with people, all my managers, all along the line.
I said, what is it that I can do better? What is it that I can learn more of? And I allowed myself to be able to take on that critical feedback and develop in that way. And that's really what I brought with me into this position where I am actually in a position to strategically shift entire systems, which is very exciting. And it's a really, really interesting space to be in.
Host
Janine's path from field science to strategic leadership is a common path for those of us who've worked in what we now call sustainability for the last couple of decades. And it shows how advocacy work can be deeply grounded in data, systems thinking and collaboration. It's a role that blends technical insights with public influence, and it's clear how her experiences have shaped the way she leads today. But despite that complexity, advocacy roles are often misunderstood. So, we asked Janine, what do people get wrong about advocacy and nonprofit work in the sustainability space?Osborne
I think for a lot of people, they think that advocacy is angry slogans, pitchforks, finger wagging, press releases that cast business in a very villainous light. I think while that's a very real consideration and it's a very real part of advocacy, I don't really buy into that kind of advocacy. For me, effective advocacy starts quietly and it starts strategically. And when I say quietly is at SST, we talk to the people on the ground. We study the numbers. We spend a lot of time doing the groundwork. We don't go into any community thinking that we have the answer or any stakeholder group.We go in there with a curious mind, and we go in there with open ears. And we look at the lived realities of the communities on the ground. And we unpack what it is for them that impede sustainable waste management and what impedes a flourishing blue economy for them in their situation. We stress-test ideas, we look at what's already working on the ground, and we try to figure out how to build on it. Only through this groundwork can we really turn insights into straightforward steps that anyone in the value chain can take on and embrace.
The best ideas are formed when businesses are sitting at the table with us as advocacy groups. And it's not about blaming. It's not about shoving the responsibility solely onto businesses or profit-driven companies. It's about being able to have the conversation in an honest way, unpacking the real issues, but without necessarily blaming each other. I think strategy is also really, really important. So, good advocacy, in my view, ties in a very long-term goal to everyday actions. And it has to be tracked. It has to be measured. Good governance is so important when it comes to advocacy space.
Host
Janine's take on advocacy is refreshingly grounded not in slogans or blame, but in listening, strategy and shared accountability. But as she points out, even within the advocacy space, collaboration isn't always easy. Competition for funding, internal politics and misaligned priorities can slow down the very change that everyone's working toward. So, we asked her what could be the most frustrating thing about trying to shift systems from the nonprofit side.Osborne
The frustrations come from trying to shift systems that we don't fully control. When I think about how urgent the work is, when I think about how much we can change people's lives and I then get caught up in internal politics, that's draining because I think about this is not what we should be talking about, when people out there can have their lives changed if we could just get ourselves sorted out internally.When I feel like we're not moving fast enough to address the waste crisis because we are getting caught up in egos and we're getting caught up in things that fundamentally don't really mean that much.
Host
Janine doesn't shy away from the tensions within the advocacy space. But despite those frustrations, there's a reason people stay in this line of work. So, we asked her, what makes it all worthwhile?Osborne
What really energizes me is when I see thoughtful ideas, strategy translating into real operational outcomes and outputs. That shifts the way coastal communities live for the better. It creates income opportunities. It creates cleaner systems. It creates ways for people to put food on the table. When I see that happening, that brings me a lot of joy. For me, my entire life was changed when I started understanding how waste pickers in this country fundamentally have shifted recycling behavior for the whole economy. And they are not valued, they are not appropriately included, but these people continue to hustle to make a future opportunity for themselves and for their communities as well as their families.There is nothing that is more inspiring than going to a waste pickers’ home. And they don't have much, but they will give it to you with their full heart just because that's who they are. And that is what fills me with a lot of joy is when I see the work that I'm thinking about at a strategic level. I can see it having an impact in a community that fills my heart up and helps me sleep easy at night.
Host
Janine's passion is contagious, but what really stands out is how her passion is grounded in real people and communities. So, before we wrapped up, we asked her, what advice she'd give to anyone thinking about building a career in advocacy?Osborne
I think the most important advice I could give anyone is to be clear about why you want to work in this space, because purpose is what's going to push you through the difficult times. This is not an easy space to get involved in. I have, for example, fought for market related benchmark salaries within my organization, and despite that, we still cannot offer the same kind of salaries that a JSC-listed private company can offer just because we're in the NGO sector.So, you can't really be driven by finances and financial gain if you want to be in the sector. That's just the bottom line. So, you need to be very clear about your why. Purpose is very, very important. Once you have that North Star, you know exactly why it is that you want to join the sector. It'll help direct you through difficult times.
Host
Janine's reflections remind us that advocacy and this line of work is not only deeply meaningful, it can also be strategic and grounded in science. But there's also a role that sits in between and across organizations: the advisor. The advisor links together what we're trying to do in practice and brings the concepts that we hear from the advocacy role. The EY Organization, of course, is a great example of those sorts of organizations.EY professionals helps organizations with their sustainability challenges and help translate them into business practice. One of our incredible senior consultants from our Irish practice, Ben Okpara, is here to talk you through some of that. I've had the pleasure of working with Ben now for a while, and I'm excited to hear what his take is on working as a sustainability consultant.
Okpara
I'm a senior consultant in Climate and Sustainability Services — we call it CCaSS in EY Dublin. I'm from Nigeria, and I moved over to Dublin just about two years ago. And I've been working in EY Dublin since then. My background is in environmental sciences. I have a bachelor's degree in Environmental Biology and a master's degree in Ecotoxicology. I would describe myself as a scientist and an academic and consultant because I spent a lot of my formative career in sciences and research. In terms of the work we do in CCaSS, the work is varied, and it's very diverse and is dependent on the client's ESG maturity.So, most of the common asks we get from clients or they include asks around supporting them on meeting the regulatory requirements. We also get requests from clients to assist with developing their strategy with their net-zero and decarbonization ambitions, things around how do they optimize their supply chain for sustainability. So, I think, in a nutshell, whatever the ask is, we try to meet the clients where they are and work together with them to provide on their needs while acting as their trusted advisors to help them to become a more sustainable business.
Host
Ben's work, like many sustainability consultants across EY, spans everything from regulation to net zero. But that raises a big question, how do you get into consulting? For Ben, not unlike Janine, the journey started in science. Here's how his path unfolded.Okpara
So, I would describe my journey into consulting as something that’s evolved over time. I really didn't particularly at first want to be a consultant, but I was running to consulting as I figured out over time that that is the career that best aligns with my skills and passion and the way I would make the greatest impact. I began my career as a scientific research assistant at the university. I was involved in research in toxicology and environmental forensics. And most of my research at that point in time was on the impact of human activities on water bodies and what's that has on their customer in general. And while I was there, I kind of also got quite interested in environmental advocacy. So, a friend of mine introduced me to the great work she was doing as an NGO that was advocating for environmental rights in Nigeria at that time. So, I was able to easily make the connection because I was studying the impacts in laboratory and I had the opportunity to advocate for the people who are mostly impacted.So, working in that NGO kind of made me realize the scale and the impacts that companies could have on people. And I was trying to actually figure out exactly how I could step in and make real change. Now, the path for consultant began when I worked on the UN project as a UN volunteer. And the project was actually like an environmental impact assessment of the Pangina Mine, Papua New Guinea. And it kind of really exposed me into the after kind of work that I love doing because, in that project, I was the lead ecotoxicologist, and I could see how valuable my skills could be put into use beyond just for doing papers and also advocacy and how I could make a lasting impact on companies.
So, after this experience, I joined consulting in the Big Four in Nigeria. And few years, later I moved over to Dublin, and it's been a great experience so far. So, I think consulting is kind of like a combination of all my skills, my background as an environmental scientist and also my academic degree as well as my passion for climate change advocacy. So, I think it's bringing everything together. So, that's really why I enjoy my work every day.
Host
Being a trusted sustainability advisor means tackling a wide range of client challenges. But what does that work actually involve?Okpara
So, I would say the services that I will render to clients are in some major domains or buckets. So, they could be advisory in nature, where the clients engages us to support them in such areas, such as climate and decarbonization, developing their strategy, reporting, gap assessments, and so on. So, your clients might want, for example, to have a roadmap that's clearly outlines how they can actually attain sustainability goals. And this could involve certain measurable targets, identifying KPIs and developing action plans to meet that goal.So, in advisory engagements, we're actually working with the clients and co-creating with them to that specific business context. Then on the other hand, we would have the assurance engagements, where the clients engages us from an auditor or compliance perspective to look through that data or specific ESG metrics and give our assurance opinion on conclusions — if it is as correct in line with set criteria. So, in assurance engagements, we actually come in as auditors and review the client data in line with the criteria, so we can examine KPIs, such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste water, EHS metrics and so on. So, basically, I've worked across both advisory and assurance engagements. And I've developed some kinds of skills across both engagement
Host
So, that's the big picture. But what does being an advisor actually look like on a day-to-day basis?Okpara
In terms of my daily tasks, I spend a lot of my time on research, reading through clients’ documents and making sure I understand the context of the work we're doing for the clients. We also have meetings with the clients, where we'll update them on progress of the engagements and to make sure that we're aligned on the key project deliverables. So, I think generally the idea is that the consultants — we don't work in silos. We try to work together as much possible within ourselves and also with the clients to make sure that they are part of the process.So, we support the clients, give them insights that we have gathered through working on different engagements. So, I would say, in a nutshell, my work is basically giving the clients like a lot of extra insights to make a difference. And it's about building trust, credibility and transparency of sustainability information, so that the stakeholders are able to rely on that information and they're able to make informed decisions based on what's the client has disclosed. So, that's really what we do in sustainability consulting.
Host
So much of what Ben describes — research, collaboration and translating insights into action —highlights the behind the scenes rigor of advisory work. Sure, it's about building trust, but it's also about helping clients navigate complexity with clarity. What is it though about this work that keeps Ben energized? And where does he encounter the constraints or tensions that come from being an advisor in a fast-paced, fast-evolving space? Let's hear what he finds most rewarding and most challenging about his role.Okpara
What I find the most rewarding in consulting generally is learning. So, I think, in consulting, you can work on different client engagements, with clients across different industries and sectors, both private and public. So, with this, I get exposed to a lot of different client challenges, and I'm able to have insights and experiences, which are always very beneficial. And I think as someone who was in academia who loves learning, I find working in consulting really energizing because I get to learn new things.Then in terms of constraints, I think having had the opportunity to work in emerging markets in Nigeria and then Europe, where sustainability is kind of like a bit more ahead, I've noted that the client challenges across both countries might be different, but they are similar in nature. And although the awareness of climate change in Europe is higher than what we have in emerging markets in like Nigeria, I think there's actually like a little more needed in terms of the urgency to act.
This is a general perception that sustainability is a tomorrow's challenge and not today's. And I think that really worries me a lot, because even though climate change may seem like a distant future for many in Europe, it's already happening. Because myself, growing up as a child, I also experienced some of the impacts of climate change, you know. So, I think it's something we will have to look beyond just now but also look at how it's affecting people in other countries.
Host
Ben's passion for learning and his global perspective really shine through. But he also points to a real tension: How sustainability is still seen by many as tomorrow's problem, even though communities around the world are already living with its consequences? So, with that deep level of experience and perspective, what advice does Ben have for those looking to step into this advisory or consulting world?Okpara
I would say sustainability is a very knowledge-driven field. So, the first thing for me would be to pursue the knowledge and to get grounded in it. And to do this, I think you have to look at the whole of sustainability and choose an area that you are most interested in or passionate about and try to know as much as you can in that area. So, for example, you can have interest in decarbonization, in environment, in human rights or whatever, so I think you need to pursue the skills and experience that you need in that area. Aside from the knowledge, you need to also seek opportunities as where you can put that knowledge into use. And that's going to actually include volunteering experiences, where you can actually just learn and explore some things further. But I think the most important thing that I would say for anyone getting into sustainability consulting is the passion.Sustainability is not just a job. It has to connect with you. It has to mean something more to you than just having a paycheck or just a giving a client's report. So, I think you have to be able to connect what you do with something that is important to you. And that's what I really call the why. So, it's important to hold on to your why, because it gives you that extra edge, you know, that push and that's energy to keep going even when it doesn't seem interesting. So, for me, my why would be to fulfill the desire of my inner child that had to grapple with some of the effects of climate change, with my background growing up in Nigeria and the drive for me to contribute to tackling that problem kind of spoils me every day and gives me that extra push that I need even when I don't feel like it.
So, I think having that why is very important because passion kind of forces you transform the work experience and there's been a job to something that's much higher and gives you much more fulfillment because you know that you're actually contributing to meeting a global goal and you're contributing to actually to solving climate change. So, even though beyond the PowerPoint, beyond the Excel sheets, you need to go to see exactly how you're playing your part in solving a global problem and that kind of chance from the experience to being something really meaningful and really rewarding.
Host
So, there you have it, three unique journeys and at different stages of their career, sharing some incredibly comparable outcomes in the context of what's most important to be working in the sustainability field. Hopefully, like me, you took a lot out of that. So, that brings us to the end of our journey through these three archetypes shaping sustainability today — the advocate, practitioner and the advisor. Of course, like you, I'm sure as listeners, you will have heard a lot of complex areas of focus, but also a lot of complementarity between these roles for three people at different points in different parts of the sustainability ecosystem.What I took away though, is that each of them, in their own way, are creating the sort of impact that we need in the world. And if you're inspired by that, I encourage each of you to continue your own journey. Thanks to Janine, Alice and Ben for sharing their stories. This has been EY Sustainability Matters podcast. Of course, you can find all past episodes on ey.com or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy listening to this episode, we'd love you to subscribe. But of course, ratings, reviews and all comments are very welcome. Please also visit ey.com, where you're going to find a range of related and interesting articles that'll help you put bigger topics like these in the context of your business priorities. We look forward to welcoming you onto the next episode of Sustainability Matters. Thanks for listening.