Member Story: Caroline Johnstone, Managing Director, Rawstone Consulting Ltd
How did you get into CR&S, and why did you choose this profession?
CR&S is a second career for me. After university I worked in an investment bank for several years and then in my late 20s went back to university to study Project Management in the Built Environment, thinking I wanted to be a Project Manager. The course had a heavy sustainability focus which ignited my enthusiasm for the subject, but I struggled to find work without any experience. I therefore applied for graduate roles as a mature student, and got a place on the graduate scheme for Miller Homes. Fortunately this programme offered opportunities to try working in both construction project management and sustainability. I much preferred the latter because of it’s variability, complexity and ultimately the positive impact the work has. After completing the graduate scheme I got a full time job working in sustainability and have progressed my career from there.
What do you need to do your job brilliantly?
I work as a sustainability consultant so I’m continually speaking to different clients with different challenges. It’s vital to be organised, remain on-top of the latest best practice, and be able to translate general best practice into best practice for that particular client, so that the recommendations we make can and will be delivered.
What are the most essential skills for working in CRS?
Aside from technical knowledge, you need to have data analysis skills (particularly if you want to work in climate change or environmental impacts, but equally relevant for social measures such as equity, diversity & inclusion and social value), good attention to detail (best practice reporting and standards tend to be very prescriptive), good communication and influencing skills (to get buy in from colleagues/clients on plans) and perhaps most importantly, be extremely good at strategic thinking and prioritising, because no company can do it all.
What advice would you give to others on getting into CR&S?
Be prepared to work your way up. We all want to have a big impact but to get to that point requires some grunt work. For example, nowadays I frequently develop net zero strategies for clients but that’s only possible because of the years I spent looking at invoices and conducting carbon calculations (which I still sometimes do today!). Although it can seem tedious at the time, getting to know carbon data in that granularity has given me lots of important insights, both into how to reduce emissions, and the technical carbon accounting rules, which all underpin a quality net zero strategy.