Ramboll launches global service-line for strategic sustainability consulting

By Martin Christiansen As organisations keep raising their game in sustainability, many need a partner for change who can match their ambitions. This is why Ramboll is now launching a global service-line delivering strategic sustainability consulting to public and private organisations around the world.

The new service-line is the most recent addition to Ramboll’s list of hallmark services that provide global standard services across multiple countries, including climate adaptation, smart mobility, and environmental impact assessments.

Integrating sustainability

Ramboll’s broad expertise in adjacent areas is key to successful client relationships says Markus Diederich, Managing Director in Ramboll Management Consulting:

“In Ramboll, we are well positioned to help our clients address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. By combining our management consulting expertise with technical and environmental capabilities, we can truly integrate sustainability into our clients’ strategy, organisation, management systems, operations, and culture - realising the full value of integrated sustainability”. “Setting the right targets and defining a strategy is already hard enough, but clients typically need more hands-on support. We can provide concrete solutions for technical implementation and tangible sustainability outcomes, which is why they come to us,” says Diederich.

Making sustainability outcomes tangible

Those sustainability outcomes can be decreased emissions, reduced costs and waste through a circular approach, improved market position, and much more, explains Diederich who has high ambitions for both the new service-line and Ramboll’s Management Consulting division more broadly: "We are excited to expand our work to more countries and hope to become a global leader in strategic sustainability consulting over the coming years."

The actual sustainability consulting services will typically cover strategies, assessments, baselining, reduction roadmaps, management systems, and transformation support. All from a strategic sustainability point-of-view in both private, public, and semi-public organisations.

Building a unique team

The new unit is made up of selected teams from Ramboll’s management consulting and environment and health business and will comprise over 100 experts by mid-2021. Operating in Scandinavia, Germany and Belgium from the get-go, the new service-line will quickly ramp up in Norway, open in the UK and Finland during spring, and start operating in the US after summer.

The unit is aiming to swiftly grow in reach, based on strong client demand, and will also be ready to serve clients in France, the entire Benelux-region, and further such as Africa or Asia-Pacific - depending on the client’s location, explains Thomas Kræmer Schmidt, the Global Director in charge of Ramboll’s Strategic Sustainability Consulting:

“We are building a unique team with a strong base of management consultants, and we are always able to form specialist teams for our clients, drawing on 16,000 technically savvy colleagues around the world. We expect to bring new people in through expert hires, team hires, and perhaps smaller acquisitions along the way”.

One of those new hires is Axel Franck, a seasoned leader joining in Hamburg from Accenture´s Global Sustainability Strategy team. Another is Louise König, former IKEA and COOP sustainability lead and Sweden’s ‘Best Sustainability Leader’ 2018. More recently she served as Head of Sustainable Business Development for Ramboll in Sweden.

Currently, open positions are listed in Norway, Germany, Finland, and the UK.