Our fractional and interim sustainability professionals get you where you need to be – fast
Expert. Cost Effective. Flexible.
Not every firm needs a full-time senior sustainability hire all the time. A fractional or interim CSO is ideal for firms starting their sustainability journey or facing a new ESG related challenge
Rhizome strategy offers flexible, cost effective resources that are committed to building your sustainability capability. We work to ensure that when we leave, you are set up for ongoing success.
There are many reasons why a firm might be reluctant to hire a full-time Chief Sustainability Officer. After all, it is an overhead cost you’d prefer not to have, nor feel you can justify, but neither is it a satisfactory solution to bolt sustainability onto someone else’s job description or to hire a junior resource for this important job.
Sustainability is complex and needs senior buy-in, but is characterised by periods of heavy lifting followed by less complex BAU delivery. Hiring a seasoned sustainability expert on a fractional or interim basis is the ideal solution. Pick 2 – 3 days a week, or 3-month FT, or totally ad hoc. We flex to your needs.
Our fractional and interim sustainability professionals work across sustainability strategy, implementation and accountability. Our work is often with mid-market companies seeking to scale up their sustainability capabilities or smaller firms starting out setting their sustainability strategy. We are also well suited to providing that extra expertise boost needed when a firm is first-time filing a new regulatory disclosure or seeking a ratings scorecard.
Our agile and cost-effective solution is designed to move you ahead quickly. Our mission is to get you to the point of transition where a lower cost and less experienced hire can confidently take on the task.
Our solutions move you from sustainability strategy creation through implementation
and execution to delivery and accountability
Implementation
Get going with the how.
- Data gathering
- Process development
- Metrics, reporting and analysis
- Organisation structure, roles & responsibilities
Accountability
Move to business-as-usual.
- Embed processes
- Track performance
- Report progress
- Disclosures and compliance
- Communicate with stakeholders
What does fractional mean?
What is a fractional CSO?
Fractional is new terminology that describes part-time executive positions. Fractional hiring involves bringing in specialist professionals on a part-time or project basis rather than hiring full-time employees.
A fractional CSO is a part-time Chief Sustainability Officer who becomes part of your business operation as a member of your senior leadership team (so, for example, will be assigned a business email by you), which makes it different from hiring a consultant on a contract basis.
Your fractional CSO will design and embed your sustainability strategy and lead your sustainability function team. If you don’t already have staff with ESG responsibility, they will build and coach a new team as part of their remit.
They are dedicated to your organisation for the agreed contract time per week and contract duration, but they may work for other companies and on other projects outside of that dedicated time, provided there are no conflicts of interest.