Sustainability consultants need a professional body to maintain quality and credibility

The green industry needs a professional body like the RICS or RIBA to champion quality and consistency. Otherwise, sustainability risked being viewed as an “alternative medicine”, not a mainstream practice.

New effort is required to set and maintain standards within the field of sustainability consultancy. There are many people who call themselves sustainability consultants [or green building specialists]. If the field is going to have credibility, there must be a professional code of conduct. The main concern is whether sustainability consultants are staying true to the principles that underpin the field.

A structural engineer knows that whatever your client asks of you, the building she designs has to “stand up” The question is, If you are a sustainability consultant, are you doing your job properly if you fail to address global environmental issues?
Clients are being charged anything from £200 to £20,000 for similar work, and the price they pay does not always reflect the quality of the output.

To ensure standards are acceptable one would like to see mechanisms introduced and, possibly, an organisation founded, that would work to ensure that the credibility of sustainability consultancy is protected and enhanced. Universities all across UK are churning out students with a raft of sustainability-related qualifications, but there is no consensus on the principles of sustainability and no standardisation of the way sustainability consultancy is practised.

A lot of people believe that in the long term, we must educate the industry so that Sustainability Consultants are no longer needed. Although I agree that this needs to happen, in my view, we may still need the specialization of sustainability services just like the industry needs to appreciate cost in buildings, but still need the services of a quantity surveyor [cost consultant].

See the following articles for further reading:

Can you work as an environmental consultantwithout losing your soul?

Green consultants risk ‘witch doctor’ label
WSP director calls for standards for sustainability consultancy