frankwork

A few days ago I wrote a post about big consulting firms, most of whom are starting to elbow themselves into the sustainability consulting market. If you’re looking for a job in sustainability consulting, places like Boston Consulting Group, A.T. Kearney, Accenture, and McKinsey all have growing practices. However, I think much of the innovative work in the sustainability consulting market is likely to be work performed by boutique firms over the next couple of years. Blu Skye Consulting in San Francisco, for example, is doing particularly interesting, deep work with Wal-Mart. There are a host of other firms that are positioning themselves to be players in the carbon trading market. And many of the people who are best educated on sustainability work for themselves or in small, boutique groups — such as Hunter Lovins at Natural Capitalism, Inc., Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute, and William McDonough and Michael Braungart at McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (which is now hiring a chemist and a project manager.) Then you’ve got all kinds of other boutiques, around the country: Strategic Sustainability Consulting in Maryland; Domani in New York, Chicago, and Denver; YRG Sustainability Consultants in New York and Denver; Natural Logic in the SF Bay Area, and many, many more. If you want a career in sustainability consulting, check out the boutiques — in a new market like sustainability, many of these have the equivalent, if not deeper, experience than the major firms.