SLR CONSULTING

Bradley Andrews, CEO of SLR Consulting, has made it his mission to carve out a different path, describing SLR as a“ global pure-play sustainability company” that acts as the essential bridge between deep technical environmental science and commercial reality. Under Bradley’ s leadership, SLR has positioned itself at the intersection of three critical pillars: technical expertise, strategic advice and digital foresight.

What really sets SLR apart from the rest is its people. The firm is powered by“ 5,000 of the world’ s smartest scientists, engineers and social scientists,” many of whom have“ master’ s and PhD-level expertise in their field,” Bradley says. With work spanning lizards in the Chilean mountains to groundwater in Western Australia, Bradley assures that SLR’ s strategic advice is never untethered from physical reality.

This technical rigour sits at the core of the firm’ s ability to help clients move beyond standard reporting.“ The markets don’ t reward ambition, they reward execution,” Bradley says, as he explains that, in his view, sustainability is no longer a boardroom aspiration, and more of a“ contact sport” that requires tangible outcomes in the physical world.

Moving from compliance to performance The current shift from theory to practice is creating a reevaluation of how firms view their environmental responsibilities. For SLR, however, it is important that the term sustainability is used correctly, recognising it as the balance between environmental, social and economic factors. Bradley reflects that sustainability has somewhat come to signify the environment, which has further narrowed to focus solely on carbon. Although he notes the importance of this, he states that it’ s equally vital to strike the right balance.

“ It has to be balanced with the needs of society and the community,” he says.“ It has to be economically viable, and it has to encompass other parts of the environment other than just carbon – whether that’ s biodiversity, ocean health, soils or air quality.

“ The biggest thing in today’ s market is the triple bottom line – the balance of economic, social and environmental.”

Most concerning for Bradley is that he believes sustainability“ has stopped being a reporting topic” and has now become“ a performance topic.” Yet he insists that“ the markets don’ t reward ambition, they reward execution.”

He says that five years ago SLR’ s clients could establish net-zero targets and map how they will work with the community,“ and that was enough”. Now, it’ s something businesses need to prove.

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