Advisory Services
The team at the Doughty Centre is committed to test and share research through working on real and current issues or unanswered questions and giving advice. Working closely with organisations we form partnerships and enable the practical application of research that will shape the future practice of driving sustainability and responsibility into the heart of successful organisations.
Our focus is to help with key challenges, advise how to capitalise on opportunities from being a responsible and sustainable business, and bring our knowledge to enable the successful embedding of corporate responsibility and sustainability into your organisation.
Our approach
We work with organisations that are genuinely committed to improving their ethical and sustainability performance as a responsible enterprise.
We believe that the most effective interventions are not to do things to or for an organisation; but rather, to work closely with the organisation. We like to define this style of consultancy as being a 'Guide on the Side'.
The first step will be for the organisation to assign a team to work with us at the Doughty Centre. Our approach is to empower the team to adopt the strategy advice and guidance received and to implement the plan themselves with our support.
For assignments, we work with specific members of our internal staff with advisory and research experience, and and also work with a range of freelance associates who are highly skilled and experienced in specific aspects of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability; or have in-depth expertise in a particular business sector. We offer Advisory Services, such as:
- help to identify environmental, social and governance materiality, including mapping stakeholders and identifying the ‘To be’ ambition for the organisation
- support the organisation during the implementation of a new strategy
- help develop an engaging employee strategy specific to the organisation’s culture and climate
- research and report writing
- facilitating training sessions, visioning workshops and strategy days
- review current strategies and offer guidance on how to make changes
- benchmark an organisation and its sustainability initiatives to help identify areas of strength and where further development is needed
- help organisations just getting started on the sustainability journey with advice on where to start, what team to develop and critical success factors for integrating sustainable mindset into the organisation
- diagnose enablers and barriers to implementing a sustainability strategy and advise on ways forward
- mentor new sustainability teams or team members
- training and development, for example lead discussions with stakeholder or board committees to help engage and clarify what responsible and sustainable business means, or oversee the development of the leadership of the organisation, for example through our Non-Executive Director and Cranfield’s Business Leadership courses.
For enquiries, please contact Nadine Exter, Centre Lead Advisor: nadine.exter@cranfield.ac.uk