What Makes us Different?

Amongst thousands of environmental consultancies in the UK – what makes us different?

1.     We are less driven by commercial targets (not bidding for numerous contracts that don't match our strengths or experience) and are more academic and policy focused than other consultancy companies.

2.     Because of our academic and policy backgrounds we are accustomed to working on unique and sensitive assignments and responding to original questions, for clients in both public and private sectors. We consider it important (both in terms of our own interest and for broader research work) to remain at the frontier of new knowledge and thinking. As can be seen from our expertise section on the website, a number of the projects we have undertaken have been the first of their kind internationally, requiring novel thinking and imaginative research analysis.

3.     We are not solely after (or targeting) clients from one genre. We deliberately have a very diverse client base because of our approach and expertise. We like conducting research and solving problems from different angles for different clients. Our client list on this website demonstrates the large number of different type of organisations we have conducted work for.

4.     We are not a large profit driven body, so if you commission work you will get an experienced consultant producing quality work, not an unpaid intern handling the project. All our members of staff have each over 15 years experience.

5.     We don't take on more projects than we feel comfortable with, in order to ensure we can meet deadlines and produce work of the highest quality.

6.     Even though we are small we have the capacity to work on major contracts, by relying on our Team of Associates in our Environmental Research Bureau. We also have lots of connections with other freelance environmental specialists and organisations that we can join forces with when conducting research work.

7.     Our aim is to listen to the client and then deliver clear and honest advice, which is supported by evidence, that will be useful to them in solving problems. Or to put it another way we want to deliver what clients are hoping for when they commission work.

8.     We are experienced in producing quality outputs (and able to adapt writing styles) in different formats, depending on the requirements of the client. We can also potentially place outputs in academic journals or media outlets if the client wants to get broader coverage of the research findings. Our publications and media exposure pages on this website demonstrates our expertise in this area.  

9.     We have the expertise of being able to spot new connections. We have both worked entirely in interdisciplinary environments and we always try to use our expertise in an imaginative way, bringing experts/different disciplines together that might not have communicated before with the intention of solving problems.

10.  We have extensive contacts (both nationally and internationally), developed over many years, in academia, NGOs, international institutions, governments, and industry. This gives us two major strengths. First, we can get relevant information from a more diverse number of sources (not just other consultants). Second, we can set up and undertake comparative studies – something that many other consultancy companies will struggle to do (or will try and persuade clients to undertake these in countries where they have existing contacts, rather than ones that would support the research aims).