Intro to Andy Young and Emma Saunders
Hello everyone, as we’re in the process of expanding our team, we thought it would be a good time to reintroduce ourselves and our company.
Introduction to Achieve Goal 12
Achieve Goal 12 is a sustainability consulting company specialising in helping companies address their sustainability challenges through hands on support. Our goal is to help businesses tackle their sustainability challenges and fulfil their goals. We are motivated to help our clients implement practices into their business and build their own capability to allow them to independently manage their sustainability goals.
Introduction to Andy
Andy Young is the Managing Director and Founder of Achieve Goal 12. Andy has 20 years of experience in managing sustainability issues, working in retail, manufacturing, and running Achieve Goal 12. He has a significant amount of knowledge and experience in developing sustainability strategies but also understands the importance of taking complex sustainability issues and language and making it accessible for everyone. His focus is not just on high-level strategy but ensuring actions are implemented by properly embedding them within commercial and operational processes.
Andy is a chartered environmentalist, a food sector speciality and sustainability mentor that offers free support for people wanting to get into the sector.
What motives you to do a good job: I love working with good people that care about the issues and want to make an impact, I enjoy a healthy level of challenge and having a variety of projects to work on which keeps things fresh.
Why do you enjoy working at Achieve Goal 12: I like the autonomy, and I think the fact that we get to do cool projects that we are passionate about and interested in. I enjoy helping people understand sustainability, how they’re job impacts it and seeing them build greater knowledge and capability within their organisations. We have a great team of permanent and associate consultants, working with a number of clients and working in this way helps to ensure that work is varied and our clients get the best possible outcome.
Ideal client: I like clients that are enthusiastic and collaborative, where they want to do a good job but need guidance on what the most appropriate actions are.
Why is goal 12 important: I believe it is the most impactful of the sustainable development goals as it is the one that focuses on the impacts of our current economic system. If we tackle goal 12 I believe many of the other goals begin to improve.
Introduction to Emma
Emma is a Sustainability Consultant at Achieve Goal 12. Prior to working at Achieve Goal 12 Emma graduated from Keele University with a First Class-Honours in Environment and Sustainability (BSc). She has worked on a range of projects such as calculating carbon footprints and developing carbon reduction plans in line with PPN 06/21 requirements, supported multiple clients to achieve Ecovadis Gold rating, led Achieve Goal 12 to become a B Corp certified company, helped a client to achieve ISO 14001 certification, conducted a gap analysis to identify our client’s level of compliance with CSRD requirements based on the ESRS topical standards and has helped clients to implement strategies to help embed sustainability across their entire value chain.
What motivates me to do a good job: my main motivation for doing a good job is seeing our clients achieve their sustainability goals, I love being a part of the process of working with our clients to help them achieve their goals. It’s always great to see our clients making progress towards becoming more sustainable and increasing their level of ambition as their confidence grows.
Why do I enjoy working at Achieve Goal 12: I enjoy working at Achieve Goal 12 because I always feel valued. Working in a small team allows me to provide my opinion and feel like a valued member of the team when it comes to decision making. I’m regularly given the opportunity to work and lead multiple different projects for clients and for our company. I was given the exciting task of leading Achieve Goal 12 to become B Corp certified last year! Alongside our main team we also work with other industry experts, this has given me the opportunity to work, collaborate and engage with a range of different people which has allowed me to deepen my skills and knowledge.
Ideal Client: My ideal client is a company that really wants to make a difference and improve their sustainability performance to ensure they are having a positive impact on both the environment and society. I love developing strategies for clients and helping them to embed sustainability into their own operations and supply chain by setting targets, collecting relevant KPI data, building reports and providing guidance based on each individual company. Engaging with clients is definitely a highlight of my job as it allows me to connect with different people across a wide range of industries and help them make a difference to society and the environment based on their individual wants and needs.
Why is Goal 12 Important: Goal 12 refers to the Sustainable Development Goal 12 which promotes sustainable consumption and production. I think this goal is particularly important because overconsumption is having a negative impact on both society and the environment. Overconsumption can lead to and cause a depletion in resources, increased pollution, lack of human rights within the supply chain, increased waste ending up in landfill and many more negative impacts on both society and the environment. For these reasons it is important that companies find ways to contribute to achieving goal 12 because it promotes circular economy principles including promoting the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources, halving food waste, efficient management of chemicals and waste, promotes the prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse of waste and sustainability reporting to ensure accountability. By implementing these mechanisms companies can help to contribute towards a sustainable future for all.
Together, we can make a difference. Contact us here.