What to Expect from an ESG Strategy Engagement
If you're considering hiring an ESG consultant, or you've already decided to and you're trying to figure out what you're actually signing up for, this post is for you.
A lot of companies come into their first ESG engagement with either too high or too low expectations. Some think it's mostly paperwork. Others think it'll transform the business overnight. The reality is more straightforward: it's structured work with a clear output, and it takes time to do it right.
Here's what a typical 6-12 month ESG strategy engagement looks like in practice.
Why 6-12 months
The most common question I get is some version of "how long will this take?" The honest answer is 6-12 months for a full first engagement, depending on what you're starting with and what you're trying to achieve by the end.
The reason it takes that long isn't complexity for its own sake. It's that the work has distinct phases, and each one depends on the previous. You can't build a roadmap before you have a baseline. You can't set targets before you have a roadmap. And you can't report progress before you have targets.
Another reason is how ESG falls within your priority list. Many clients are interested in keeping ESG projects moving, but not at the expense of critical work. 6-12 months provides enough time to develop and implement on a realistic timeline.
Phase 1: Getting the baseline (months 1-3)
This is the foundation phase and it's where most of the heavy lifting happens.
The primary output is a greenhouse gas inventory covering your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This is the baseline everything else is built on. For most companies doing this for the first time, gathering the data is the hardest part. Energy bills, travel records, supplier information, facility data, cloud computing usage. It comes from many different parts of the business, and someone has to track it all down.
Alongside the carbon footprint, this phase typically includes a review of what ESG-related work the company is already doing, what external requests are driving the engagement, and what stakeholders are actually asking for. The goal is to understand the company's current reality before making any decisions about what to prioritize.
This phase is also where scope gets defined clearly. What will this engagement cover? What are we not doing right now? What are the requests we need to respond to, and by when?
Phase 2: Building the strategy (months 3-6)
With the baseline in place, the work shifts to strategy.
This typically means a sustainability roadmap: a prioritized plan that identifies which issues are most material to the business, what initiatives to pursue, what targets to set, and who internally is responsible for each area. The roadmap is practical, not aspirational. It's calibrated to what the company can actually execute, not what would look impressive in a report.
For companies with specific investor or customer requests, this phase is where those get directly addressed. If a GP is asking for an ESG summary, we build the structure for that. If a customer is requiring a carbon footprint and a reduction plan, we build toward that. The strategy isn't developed in a vacuum. It's anchored to the actual external requirements driving the work.
This is also usually when the sustainability policy gets written or updated, ESG metrics get defined, and internal teams get aligned on roles and responsibilities. If you're still figuring out how to find the right consultant, this guide on how to hire an ESG consultant walks through what to look for.
Phase 3: Implementation and reporting (months 6-12)
The third phase is where the strategy gets put into action and the first reporting cycle happens.
Implementation looks different for every company, but typically includes things like updating RFP language and supplier questionnaires, preparing investor or customer-facing ESG summaries, beginning work on emissions reduction initiatives, and setting up the internal processes needed to track and report progress year over year.
The reporting piece is important and often underestimated. ESG reporting isn't just a document, it's a cadence. By the end of a first engagement, the goal is for the company to have the structure in place to report progress annually without starting from scratch each time.
What it requires from your team
An ESG engagement isn't something that happens entirely on the consultant's side. It requires access to data, time from internal stakeholders, and decision-making from leadership.
The companies that get the most out of these engagements typically have one internal point person who owns the relationship and can get things done across departments. That person doesn't need to be a sustainability expert. They need to be organized, have internal credibility, and be able to get time on people's calendars.
Leadership involvement matters too. Decisions about what to prioritize, what targets to set, and what to commit to publicly can't be made by a consultant alone. The best engagements are collaborative. I bring the expertise and execution, the company brings the context and the decision-making authority.
What you get at the end
By the end of a 6-12 month engagement, most companies have:
A completed greenhouse gas inventory for at least one base year
A sustainability roadmap with prioritized initiatives and clear ownership
A sustainability policy that reflects what the company is actually committed to
Responses to whatever external requests were driving the work
An annual reporting structure they can sustain going forward
The goal isn't to hand over a stack of documents and walk away. It's to build enough internal capacity that the company can continue the work after the engagement ends, with or without ongoing support.
Is this the right scope for your company?
Not every company needs a full 6-12 month engagement. Some companies have a single request to respond to and need a defined project with a clear deliverable. Others are further along and need ongoing fractional support rather than a structured first engagement.
If you're not sure what scope is right for your situation, the best starting point is a conversation about what's actually being asked of you and what you're trying to have in place by a specific date. From there it's usually pretty clear what kind of engagement makes sense.
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