Nature's Brief: Sustainability consulting, training and keynotes
Starting a career in Sustainability:
Building the capabilities that drive real change
'Career Spotlight' at Imperial Business School - Jan 2026
Starting a career in sustainability isn’t about finding the perfect path — it’s about developing the human capabilities that make change possible.
At Imperial College London’s Spotlight on Careers in Sustainability, I had the pleasure of opening the event with a workshop on Communicating Sustainability, followed by a dynamic and refreshingly honest panel discussion. The room brought together Master’s students from across the Business School’s diverse programmes, alongside MBA students — a genuinely rich mix of perspectives, ambitions, and lived experiences. And what unfolded was something I see again and again in universities, businesses, and early‑career cohorts: people don’t struggle because they lack passion or knowledge. They struggle because sustainability work is fundamentally human work.
Why Sustainability Conversations Feel So Complex
We explored the psychological and organisational dynamics that make sustainability communication uniquely challenging:
- Pluralistic ignorance — when everyone privately cares but assumes no one else does
- Deep‑rooted change resistance — the “this is how we’ve always done it” reflex
- Cognitive biases — shortcuts that shape how people interpret risk, cost, and responsibility
- Echo chambers — where teams reinforce their own worldview without realising it
These forces don’t disappear just because a sustainability strategy exists. They shape how people listen, how they decide, and how they act. And that’s why green soft skills — influence, collaboration, narrative framing, and systems awareness — are no longer optional. They are core capabilities for anyone entering the sustainability job market.
The Winning Combination: Human Skills + Business Logic
One of the strongest insights from the workshop was this:
When you pair strong human skills with a sharp, evidence‑led business case, you unlock trust, alignment, and real organisational momentum.
- Employers consistently look for people who can:
- Translate sustainability into commercial value
- Work across teams, functions, and personalities
- Communicate clearly without moralising
- Turn ambiguity into action
- Navigate complexity with clarity and empathy
And crucially, they look for people who understand that sustainability is not a spectator discipline. You learn it by doing — by navigating resistance, mapping stakeholders, testing narratives, and understanding how organisations actually make decisions. Real‑world scenarios, systems thinking, and hands‑on practice are what turn sustainability from a set of ideals into a set of decisions.
Supporting Organisations Through Practical, Systems‑Led Learning
Alongside my work with universities, I support organisations through workshops that build systems understanding of the most pressing sustainability challenges — climate, biodiversity, pollution — with a strong emphasis on circularity and practical, commercially grounded solutions.
I also help companies embed sustainability soft skills into onboarding programmes, employee upskilling pathways, team development sessions, and large‑scale events or conferences. Because the organisations that thrive are the ones that equip their people not just with knowledge, but with the confidence and capability to act.
A Community of Future Leaders
A huge thank‑you to the brilliant Imperial team — Natasha Takhar, Laura Skedgell, and Chloe Chambers — for bringing together such an engaged group of future leaders.
Final Note
The panel discussion — featuring representatives from Depop, Mercia Asset Management PLC, Octopus Electroverse, and Malk Partners — highlighted real‑life stories that reinforced a powerful truth: sustainability careers demand a hands‑on, practical mindset. Success comes from focusing on business impact rather than moral positioning, and embracing the reality that at least half of your job will be working with people, not just working on projects.
Follow the conversation on linked-in: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7425235071109853184/?originTrackingId=Q02K69ImsrseM56ewUNGsg%3D%3D
Circularity beyond Recycling:
Why now is the moment for organisations to skill-up
Circular Economy Collage Workshops for businesses - Jan 2026
Circularity Beyond Recycling: Why Now Is the Moment for Organisations to Re‑Skill
For many people, the circular economy feels like an old hat — a concept they’ve “heard a thousand times.” Recycling bins, reusable cups, maybe a repair initiative if things get ambitious. But beneath that surface‑level familiarity sits a huge, largely untapped opportunity that most organisations still haven’t grasped.
And that’s a problem, because the world is moving fast. The UN has identified three interconnected, urgent crises — climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution — and circularity is one of the most powerful levers we have to address all three at once. Yet the business opportunity is still widely misunderstood, and the knowledge gap inside organisations remains surprisingly large.
Circularity isn’t about waste. It’s about value — how we design it, how we protect it, and how we regenerate it. And right now, the organisations that skill up early will be the ones best positioned for the next decade of competitive advantage.
Regulation Is Accelerating — and It’s Reshaping the Playing Field
Across the UK and EU, circularity is shifting from a voluntary sustainability initiative to a regulatory expectation, backed by legislation that directly affects design, procurement, supply chains, and reporting.
UK Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Reforms
Adopted in 2023 and rolling out from 2024 to 2026, the UK’s EPR legislation shifts the financial responsibility for packaging waste onto producers. Poor design becomes expensive; circular design becomes commercially smart. It’s a structural incentive to rethink materials, formats, and product lifecycles.
EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
Adopted in 2024 and entering into force from 2025, ESPR is one of the most ambitious sustainability regulations ever introduced. It sets requirements for durability, repairability, recyclability, material composition, and environmental performance — pushing circularity upstream into design, engineering, and procurement, where 80% of environmental impact is determined.
Digital Product Passports (DPPs)
Rolling out from 2026 under ESPR, DPPs will require transparent, standardised data on materials, repair options, environmental impact, and end‑of‑life pathways. This will fundamentally reshape supply chain expectations and customer relationships, especially for exporters into the EU.
Together, these policies are creating a powerful push for organisations to embed circularity into strategy, design, and operations — not just sustainability teams.
The Real Knowledge Gap: “We Know Circularity… But We Don’t Know What to Do With It”
Inside large organisations, circularity is often misunderstood as a waste‑management issue. Teams feel they’ve “done the circular economy conversation” already. But when we run workshops, something fascinating happens: people realise how much they didn’t know.
They start to see the upstream opportunities — in design, procurement, business models, materials, data, and customer experience — that were previously invisible. Circularity stops feeling like a compliance burden and starts feeling like a strategic unlock.
Circularity fatigue comes from thinking too small. Once people see the system, the excitement comes back.
Why Circularity Matters for the Next Decade of Business Advantage
We’re heading into a decade where resource scarcity, supply chain volatility, and regulatory pressure will reshape what competitive advantage looks like. Organisations that understand circularity early won’t just stay compliant — they’ll innovate faster, reduce costs, and build resilience long before their competitors realise what’s happening.
Circularity is becoming a strategic differentiator, not an environmental add‑on. And the circular economy represents a multi‑trillion‑dollar value shift for those ready to redesign how value is created, captured, and regenerated.
Why Workshops Are the Best Way to Get Started
Circularity can feel abstract until people see the system — and that’s where workshops like the Circular Economy Collage make all the difference. They bring the concepts to life in a way that is fast, visual, energising, and genuinely fun. People suddenly understand how design, procurement, operations, and customer experience all connect. They start spotting opportunities they didn’t know existed. And most importantly, they build a shared language that helps teams move from “we’ve heard of this” to “we can act on this.” Those “ohhh… now I get it” moments are what unlock momentum.
How I Support Organisations
I help organisations build the practical, systems‑level understanding needed to act on circularity with confidence. My workshops support teams to:
understand the interconnected challenges of climate, biodiversity, and pollution, and how circularity addresses all three
explore circular design and upstream opportunities through hands‑on, engaging exercises
identify circularity opportunities relevant to their products, services, and operations
embed green soft skills into onboarding, employee upskilling, team development, and conferences
When people understand the system, circularity stops feeling like an obligation — and starts becoming a source of innovation, resilience, and competitive advantage.
I’ve shared more thoughts on this topic in my LinkedIn post about our January 2026 circularity workshop — you can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7417168792587501568/?originTrackingId=buQBQYQTF3itgFDxFGORtQ%3D%3D