My fundamental professional goal is to identify and open profitable opportunities for my clients that also preserve and enhance social and natural capital – through strategic management and communication. My creative and collaborative style allows me to zero-in on the real issues and find matching solutions to corporate environmental, social and governance challenges. My experience as a strategic advisor includes work with global and local, public and private sector corporations as well as government and the not-for-profit sector.

I am a dedicated problem solver. Through my work, lectures and writings, I work to demonstrate the manner in which businesses and stakeholders interact and influence decision-making.

As Director & Leader, Sustainable Business Solutions for PwC, I work with and guide a leading management advisory practice considered crucial for businesses to thrive in the evolving economy.

Specialties: An experienced, multi-dimensional professional with years of success leading top international businesses’ corporate responsibility,,sustainability and corporate affairs teams, which protected and enhanced the licence to operate, corporate reputation, brand and profit.

Experience includes: finance, insurance, conventional and renewable energy, carbon, metals & mining, retail, pulp & paper, real estate, among others.

Articles by Nelson

Sustainability Practitioner, Subject-matter Expert or Gunslinger? Who should you choose?

Recently I was drinking an organic fair-trade soy latte while chatting with a long-time sustainability consulting colleague of mine who asked me what I thought about the sustainability consulting shops that were popping up all over the place.

The short answer – I couldn’t be happier.  For one thing, for sustainability old-timers like me, it further validates the relevance and need for the sustainability consulting marketplace.  For another, it breeds competition and innovation, which I love.  Moreover, I figure, the more people there are making noise the more people will be busy justifying the business case for sustainability, which is quite helpful.

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Corporate sustainability: Practical advice for convincing the C-Suite

Corporate sustainability makes a lot of sense.  Reduce your costs and risk, increase profit, strengthen reputation, protect and conserve natural resources and social value while enhancing share value…what’s not to love?  So why is it that so many internal sustainability champions struggle to move their initiatives forward?  Perhaps it’s not the proposition at all – maybe it’s the approach.

I was determined to find the answer, after all, if I could understand what prevented the C-Suite from immediately grasping and acting upon the sustainability proposition I would become a more effective advisor.  So….I convened a round table of like-mined sustainability colleagues to learn why the C-Suite moved so slowly on the sustainability front and here is what I found:

  • It delayed the process.  As the old political axiom goes, ‘if you don’t know, delay – and maybe the ask will go away’
  • Change is most often rejected when presented head-on
  • Sustainability is regarded by many as just a “tick-box” exercise
  • Competing for resources with a known entity (aka business as usual) with known returns is a tough slog

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  • TSSS EVENT: Sport and Sustainability: A Focus on the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games (FREE Livestream)

    Pam AM TorontoJoin TSSS on April 1st as our panel explores the power of sport to reach people and communities like nothing else can. Topics to be discussed include: Community Engagement, Sustainable Purchasing, Importance of a Clear Vision, Diversity and Inclusion, Branding and Leaving a Legacy. Learn more
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