Sustainability consultants and/or specialists are those that have skills focusing on business systems that promote positive environmental and community impact.

There are many different kinds of sustainability consultants. Some focus on energy, certifications or others on waste. It’s usually clear what the focus is.

Restore is focused on corporate strategy and product development and design. We love consumer packaged goods and direct to consumer brands. We believe every company has an opportunity to make changes but we are experts in materials, certifications and strategy.

Most brands have a desire or a pressure from consumers to align with environmental values or claims. However, brands can’t always use specific language or marketing tactics without verification without liability. This has changed over the past few years. A year ago, a company could say what they wanted if it looked like it made sense to a consumer. Or maybe it even feels like it make sense.

Things have changed. There are laws and regulations on how you can use green marketing and Restore can help ensure that the claims and values you want to share are actually realistic for your brand.

In our experience, companies can get in trouble for making certain claims and thinking they have checked every box when in reality, the suppliers lied about the accuracy of a sustainable material and now puts the company in a difficult position.

We are an extension of your team to help you make sure sustainability is part of your process, your systems and your sales.

This field is a niche field and heavily skill based. Life cycle analysis and audits are implemented with post-graduate education and training.

Consultants and agencies range in price based on project type and experience.

Young consultants typically charge between $50-70/hour.

More experienced consultants range from $100-250/hour.

Sustainability agencies will charge you thousands of dollars for project work, adding extra fees for their software and pushing billable hours.

Hiring a sustainability professional with experience will cost approx $100,000 plus benefits.

Sustainability roles are very desirable at many companies. There are many people that want to work in the sustainability field because they are passionate about the environment.

That doesn’t mean that just anyone can build out an effective and efficient program for your company on their own. While some sustainability can be learned through research, many effective strategies come from years of experience and training.

If there are employees interested in this role at your company, I highly suggest enrolling them in some of our training programs or setting them up on a monthly call so we can assist on the skills side and give them guidance.

This can reduce the costs of developing a sustainability program while supporting your employees.