what we do

We advise boards and senior management on ESG strategy, priorities and direction — from a single high-risk company to a whole portfolio. Our founder is a Certified Advisory Board Chair with experience advising the boards and senior management teams of power, water, transmission and infrastructure operators in Africa and Asia.

When a fund or company needs senior ESG leadership at pace, we step in as interim or fractional Head of ESG — running the function from the inside, advising boards on the highest-risk companies, upgrading the management system to meet DFI and EU regulatory commitments (including Article 8 and 9 funds), and building the in-house team. We have held these roles for infrastructure and renewable-energy fund managers investing across Africa and Asia.

We provide strategic advice to senior managers on complex technical challenges and investor questions and support day-to-day performance by mentoring ESG officers and providing technical capacity to embed good international practice. 

We have spent many years undertaking E&S due diligence against the IFC Performance Standards, across many geographies and sectors. We focus on pragmatic solutions investee companies can understand and implement - treating due diligence as the start of a process of enhancing performance and creating value. 

We have in-depth knowledge of (and our team members have authored some) established and emerging ESG tools and guidelines designed to bring good international industry practices to companies operating in emerging markets. We help clients build capacity and adopt efficient ESG programmes that grow investible, impactful companies.

We advise boards and senior management on programmes to strengthen health and safety culture through risk assessments, operating procedures and training for workers and site managers. 

We regularly build Environmental and Social Management Systems (ESMS) for investment funds, banks and project companies, based on the material E&S of the business and the interests of its stakeholders.

Each year we train hundreds of professionals across Asia and Africa. We deliver bespoke in-house training to banks and funds and run masterclasses on behalf of investors for their investees, on implementing an ESMS, managing E&S risk and creating value.

We help our clients manage labour standards among contractors and in the supply chain, improving workers' accommodation, ensuring contract workers know their rights and are appropriately paid for the work they do. 

We help clients develop diversity and inclusion strategies, assess risks including gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH), and adopt appropriate measures across their workforce and host communities. 

Strong governance underpins good E&S management. We help funds develop governance management systems, run governance assessments and prepare action plans for companies.

For greenfield projects we help clients manage the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment process — preparing Terms of Reference, reviewing consultants’ reports and ensuring management plans are built into design, construction and operation — to avoid delays in approval. 

We work with fund managers to develop their impact strategies and measure the material impacts across the lives of their investments. Measuring the contribution to achieving the SDGs and the ESG value created in companies is an important measure of the success of an investment.