Upskilling in sustainability at Bridgehouse
October 2023

As a business we encourage our team members to undertake certifications and qualifications, and we are always delighted to see upskilling happening within the team. And as a responsible brand and a B Corp, we are especially happy to have a team member on board with sustainability training to help us with our goal of prioritising purpose alongside profit.
So we sat down with our team member to ask them about their experience of completing this course, what they learned and how they can use this newfound expertise to support their clients and team members.
What made you want to achieve a certificate in sustainability?
I have always been passionate about the environment and have been openly advocating for climate action as of late, so it felt like a natural progression to learn how to create positive impacts for the organisations I work for and help shape responsible business practices. More generally, as a Governance professional, I think it is important to understand how to identify and assess ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)-related risks and opportunities and how to integrate them into an organisation’s risk management framework, decision making processes and corporate strategy, as these are the burning topics of our times.
What main topics did the course teach you about?
Throughout the course I examined the basics of analysing and integrating the impacts of climate change and sustainability targets into business planning and financial analysis. I also had an opportunity to review how to establish robust data processes, controls, and metrics to monitor broader ESG performance with a view to reporting findings to the wider stakeholder groups; and learnt how regulation is driving change and why sustainability is relevant for the C-suite.
What are the three things you enjoyed most about this endeavour?
I enjoyed expanding my knowledge of sustainability and ESG-related matters, hearing from leaders who are positively influencing change within their organisations and – finally – getting to grips with the confusing reporting landscape and alphabet soup of frameworks.
How important do you think it is that businesses prioritise sustainability?
Massively. Our planet has finite resources and a specific number of boundaries within which humanity can safely operate. Businesses will not be able survive in the long-term if it they do not consider the impact of their actions to nature and the communities they serve.
What takeaways from your course will you be implementing into your role with clients?
I mainly work with smaller organisations, who are not subject to mandatory reporting requirements and may feel that sustainability and ESG-related matters are for the larger emitters. My key takeaway is to help smaller businesses understand how they might be impacted by value chain assessments and how they may be vulnerable to climate risk and changing stakeholder perceptions.
What would you say to someone else considering this certification?
There are a number of ESG and sustainability certificates available, do your research and select the one that is the best fit for your line of work and organisation.
Bridgehouse would like to thank our team for taking time to achieve extra certifications which enrich both our company expertise and provides added value for our clients. We look forward to seeing how this new expertise can continue to help us on our journey to becoming the most responsible business we can be.

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