Sustainability Consulting
Good stewardship starts with good sense
Practical sustainability solutions that protect your business and add real value, not just a report for your shelf.
Sustainability has become a loaded word
Your customers are sending questionnaires you can’t answer. Supply chains are asking for ESG data you don’t have. European markets have requirements you’ve never heard of. And internally, your team wants to do the right thing but nobody knows where to start.
Strip away the politics and it comes down to something simple: being a good steward of what you’ve been given. Your environment. Your people. Your resources. That’s not a trend. It’s common sense. But turning that into a real program takes someone who’s done it before.
Practical, not political
We’re not the typical sustainability consultants. We don’t push cookie-cutter frameworks or sell you a program that looks good on paper but doesn’t fit your operation.
We start by asking the right questions about your business: your mission, your differentiation strategy, where sustainability could actually add value. Then we help you weave in the opportunities that make sense for your operation, not a generic framework that doesn’t.
Services
GHG Emissions Inventory
Greenhouse gas inventories across all scopes. We focus inward first, finding operational efficiencies before expanding outward to supply chain impacts.
Sustainability Assessments & Reporting
We evaluate your entire operation to find the most impactful opportunities. You get a clear picture of where you stand and what to prioritize.
ESG Framework & Reporting
GRI, SASB, CDP, or another structure. We help you determine which framework fits your industry and tell your story accurately.
Sustainability Program Development
From startup to refinement to ongoing maintenance. Goals, metrics, and a roadmap your team can actually follow.From startup to refinement to ongoing maintenance. Goals, metrics, and a roadmap your team can actually follow.
Vendor & Client Questionnaire Support
Clients regularly come to us with sustainability questionnaires from automotive OEMs, retailers, and Fortune 500 manufacturers. We help you understand what’s being asked, respond accurately, and build internal systems so you’re ready next time.
EU & International Compliance Support
European markets have sustainability requirements that don’t exist in the US, including Annex 1 reporting. We help you understand what’s required and meet those standards without overhauling your operation.
Sustainability Leadership & Team Coaching
We work alongside your sustainability team, or help you build one. AER acts as a coach, helping your people lead sustainability from within.
Accreditation Support
Third-party credentials that verify your sustainability commitment or demonstrate a continuous improvement posture. We guide you through the process.
What “sustainability” actually means at AER
Compliance is the floor. Sustainability is the next level.
You have to be compliant before you can be sustainable. Regulations are the baseline. Sustainability is what happens when you decide to go further, because it’s the right thing to do and it’s good for business.
We think about stewardship in three areas: environmental (handling your resources and waste responsibly), human (protecting the people who work for you), and economic (not overbuying, not overspending, making every dollar count). When you get those three right, sustainability stops being a buzzword and starts being how you operate.
Good stewardship isn’t partisan. It’s something people across every background, faith, and perspective can rally behind. We’ve never been the lowest-cost option, but we can do more with less and make sure every dollar you spend on sustainability adds real value.
How sustainability fits the Confidence Cycle
A practical process for building real sustainability programs
01
Discover
We start by understanding your operations: what’s working, what’s risky, and where small changes can make the biggest impact — not just for today, but for the future.
02
Strengthen
We put practical systems and solutions in place, from documentation and safety processes to waste management and environmental improvements.
03
Sustain
We stay connected, monitor changes, and help make adjustments as your needs evolve. Confidence grows with every cycle.
Frequently asked questions
Compliance is what regulations require. Sustainability is the next level of stewardship, going beyond the minimum because it adds value to your business, your people, and your community. You need to be compliant before you can be sustainable, but not everything that’s good sustainability practice is a regulatory requirement. AER handles both, and we can help you see where one ends and the other begins.
Strip away the politics and what you’ve got is stewardship. Being responsible with what you’ve been entrusted with — your environment, your people, your resources — isn’t a partisan idea. People across every background, faith, and perspective can rally behind it. We focus on practical work that protects your business and the things that matter, regardless of which side anyone’s on.
ESG is one framework. The real question is whether you’re being a good steward of your operation. Most clients come in skeptical of the buzzwords and find that practical sustainability work — reducing waste, lowering energy costs, responding to customer questions — makes business sense regardless of what you call it.
That’s the most common way these conversations begin. A customer sends a questionnaire or an RFP asks about your sustainability practices, and you realize you don’t have a program in place. We start with an evaluation of your current state, identify the opportunities that add the most value, and build a plan you can actually execute.
Done right, it does both. We focus on opportunities that protect your compliance position and add real value: lower disposal costs, more efficient operations, stronger customer relationships. Sustainability that doesn’t make business sense isn’t sustainable.
We measure your greenhouse gas emissions across all applicable scopes. We start with Scope 1 and 2 (your direct operations and energy use) to find internal efficiencies first, then expand to Scope 3 (supply chain) when it makes sense for your business. The deliverable is a clear inventory that supports reporting, goal-setting, and decision-making.
Contact us
Let’s talk about what sustainability looks like for your operation.
Every site is different, with its own opportunities, constraints, and goals. We’ll start with a conversation, understand your situation, and give you a straight answer about where to begin.