Implementing ESG strategies with Simone Rennie

"One of the biggest challenges for founders is balancing short-term costs with the long-term gains of ESG efforts."

We’re joined by Simone Rennie, Co-CEO of Rennie, a leading consulting business helping organisations transition to a sustainable future. Rennie is a rapidly growing company with a focus on energy transition, net-zero ambitions, and bespoke client solutions.

In this episode, Simone shares her insights on:

• The key challenges founders face when integrating ESG principles into their business strategies.
• Why aligning ESG goals with your business values and core purpose is essential.
• How Rennie has achieved rapid growth while maintaining a strong organisational culture.
• The three pillars of Rennie’s employee value proposition.
• Practical advice for founders just starting their ESG journey, including how to identify meaningful goals and balance short-term costs with long-term gains.

Guest: Simone Rennie, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Rennie
Host: Mark Bryan, Partner at Pemba Capital Partners
Producer: Martine McMahon

Transcript

This series is produced on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. Pemba respectfully acknowledges traditional custodians throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connections to country and culture and we pay our respects to elders and leaders past and present. A very warm welcome to View to the Summit, the Pemba podcast for founders looking to scale to their next summit.

For many of our regular followers, we hope you enjoy this episode and for our new listeners, it's great to have you on the journey with us. I'm Mark Bryan, a partner at Pemba. And today we're delighted to have Simone Rennie, co CEO of Rennie. Rennie is a leading consulting business that helps organisations across various sectors, transition to a sustainable future.

Rennie is experiencing explosive client growth and expanding the team at a rapid pace. And we're also proud to have Rennie. as a Pember partner company. Simone has a wealth of experience spanning multiple roles and markets. Prior to Rennie, [00:01:00] Simone was responsible for energy market regulation at the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Simone's also held senior roles within Ernst Young's Global Power and Utilities Practice, the Queensland Water Commission, and the London Development Agency. So Simone, welcome. We're thrilled to have you on the pod. 

Simone Rennie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks very much for inviting me. 

Mark Bryan: Not at all. So Simone, let's dive right in.

Can you please tell us about your career journey, how you came to found and be co CEO of Rennie and particularly what inspires you at [00:01:30] Rennie? 

Simone Rennie: Well, Mark, as you, as you touched upon, I've had a bit of a varied career journey, uh, to date. Um, I started out in law, uh, then moved into policy in government, then did a number of governance roles, including that role that you mentioned at the London Development Agency in the lead up to the London Olympics, 

Mark Bryan: which was 

Simone Rennie: quite exciting.

Then I moved into consulting in EY with a particular focus on, uh, regulation reform in the energy sector. And I also spent some time with AEMO, the Australian energy market operator, as you touched on, where I got to really [00:02:00] understand, I guess, the challenges around the energy transition and the broader decarbonisation transition as well.

And so when my husband, Matt Rennie decided he was ready for a new challenge, we decided to join forces and set up UpRent Advisory. And, um, we could really see, I guess, the opportunity that was being created around the energy transition, the race to net zero and the broader sustainability and ESG imperatives.

And we can also see a place in the market for a new multidisciplinary advisory firm. Where a [00:02:30] focus on culture and values was going to be important. And we also saw a demand for a bespoke approach to client service, given, um, the complexities around the transition. 

Mark Bryan: So Simone, given your extensive background in energy market regulation and the various senior roles that you've held, what do you see as the biggest challenges that founders face when integrating ESG principles into their businesses?

Simone Rennie: Yeah, it's a great question. And as a founder, I can certainly appreciate that it can be very challenging to focus on ESG when you're so busy [00:03:00] running the business, growing the business and worrying about, you know, next month's payroll, for example. So I think there's a few key challenges. The first one I think relates to educating and aligning the team, um, especially in a small or growing business where there may be limited resources or expertise in ESG.

It takes time, but without internal buy in, ESG initiatives are more likely to face resistance or sort of less likely to kind of get off the ground. And, and also it makes it harder to integrate ESG into sort of decision making and, and, [00:03:30] and BAU. What we find is that this can often lead to surface level initiatives, uh, which might be a great announceable, but may not have the impact you're seeking over time.

I think, I think another challenge relates to setting meaningful ESG goals and, and managing the trade offs around that. Um, it's important to set. A number of smaller, realistic goals initially and, and to track progress and, and measure their impact. But pursuing SG goals often involves trade offs like choosing between, you know, a sustainable supplier for example, or a lower, lower cost [00:04:00] supplier.

And founders, uh, sort of need to balance these competing priorities and determine which areas, um, best align with their kind of business goals and, and core values and, and also where they're at on the maturity journey. Yep. And then probably finally, um, balancing short term costs with longer term gains can be a challenge.

ESG initiatives often require that upfront investment or effort, which can be a strain on cash flow for businesses that are starting out, for example. It's important to sort of convince stakeholders that ESG efforts will [00:04:30] actually yield benefits. And one way to do this is to sort of really spend some time identifying and clearly articulating what the risk of doing nothing is, in terms of value erosion, for example, or what the benefit of ESG initiatives might be to preserve value.

But also what the potentials are for value creation. And that might be, you know, new revenue streams or, or attracting new capital. 

Mark Bryan: I'm imagining Simone that actually that resistance across businesses is reducing as founders and business leaders now becoming more and more aware [00:05:00] of the benefits of, of a coherent ESG strategy.

Simone Rennie: Absolutely. 

Mark Bryan: That's really insightful. Thank you, Simone. Can you please share now some success stories or examples of businesses that have effectively implemented ESG? ESG strategies and the impact it's had both on their operations and their reputations. 

Simone Rennie: Sure. Um, we've been really fortunate to work with, you know, a range of great clients on various aspects of the ESG strategies and their net zero transition plans or their broader sustainability journeys.

And, but I think [00:05:30] there's probably two kind of current examples that we're particularly proud of as a firm. The first relate to the work we're doing with a significant player in the energy market. Okay. We've been working closely with this client over the last year or so to help them transition their portfolio towards renewable energy.

And um, this is involved supporting them with innovative partnership models for investing in renewable energy as well as embedding sustainability into their renewable energy project assessment processes. Okay. Um, aligned to their corporate sort of [00:06:00] sustainability objectives. And this work's really been central to their, to their transition journey.

And the second example relates to some work we've been doing with a client in the very hard to abate mining industry, which is around defining their decarbonization roadmap and supporting the development of the decarbonization initiatives and their business cases to support that. We've delivered this work for both their Australian and North American operations, which has been fantastic.

And it's been really critical to them meeting their safeguard obligations [00:06:30] locally, but also their kind of global emissions reduction targets and ambitions globally. And also been really important to them securing social license for their operations. 

Mark Bryan: Excellent. Excellent. They're, they're great examples, Simone.

Thank you. And so for founders just starting out, what are the first steps they should take to begin their ESG journey? ensure really what are the core elements of a successful ESG strategy? 

Simone Rennie: I tend to focus on three key elements. Um, when people embarking on, on their ESG strategies. [00:07:00] The first is really focusing on those ESG risks and opportunities that are most relevant to your business and to your key stakeholders.

Materiality assessments can be a useful input here, but looking at best practice and what your competitors are doing can be really useful guides, but it's also really important to keep it very relevant to your, your individual context or your own sort of situation. Secondly, I think aligning your ESG strategy to your business's core purpose, values and objectives is also important.

Ideally, an [00:07:30] ESG or sustainability strategy would be integrated with corporate strategy. That really helps to achieve buy in, places accountability where it needs to be placed. And it also supports resource allocation for investment in ESG initiatives. And thirdly, Developing a fit for purpose ESG strategy.

It's a, it's a bit linked to what I said earlier, but it's important not to bite off more than you can chew. I think keep it proportionate, keep it real, plan to mature your approach over time 

Mark Bryan: and 

Simone Rennie: importantly, be transparent around that. [00:08:00] 

Mark Bryan: Absolutely. Critical. Yeah, that's great. Great answer. Now, Simone, I'd love to switch gears now and delve into Rennie, if we can, and the growth being achieved and some of the ways that you've achieved this growth.

So Rennie's been achieving stellar growth over the recent years, this year alone. I understand the head count has doubled in the business, which is amazing. A critical aspect of any business, particularly a services and consulting business is of course the people. So to that end, can you talk about how you structured the [00:08:30] employee value proposition at Rennie?

Simone Rennie: Yeah. Great question. We are fundamentally a people business, and so you're absolutely right that the employee value proposition is, is critical to our success. Uh, we, we focused on creating an EVP that we think is authentic, uh, that resonates with employees and hopefully differentiates Rennie in the consulting market.

It's sort of really been focused on three key things. Firstly, We are really focused on actively living our values and those are authenticity, excellence, [00:09:00] resilience, and, and one team. And, and we really hold ourselves to account for that. Secondly, uh, delivering on our mission. So we help clients navigate the transition to a net zero sustainable future, as you mentioned earlier.

And I think our team is really motivated by the opportunity to make a positive impact through our work with clients. So that seems to attract people. And finally, uh, creating a great place where people really want to work is important. So central to that for us is absolutely recognizing and [00:09:30] rewarding our team for their amazing work and also supporting a healthy work life balance and, and we think it's possible.

Mark Bryan: Simone, they're, they're great, uh, values, authenticity, excellence, resilience. One team I think would all agree, really core parts of the business and a, and a great way to live. How do you, as a management team, a leadership team, install those values into the business? 

Simone Rennie: I think it absolutely starts at the top.

So as a leadership cohort, we are all aligned on the values and [00:10:00] we really recognise and are committed to the fact that we are really the custodians of those values. So the way in which we lead, the way in which we lead our teams, the way in which we work with our clients should be reflecting those in all cases.

The other thing we do is we spend a lot of time with people when they come into the organization to sort of ensure that there's that kind of values alignment and cultural fit. And our onboarding process, um, spends a fair bit of time on this as well. And so people really get to understand who we are and what's important to us as they're coming into the [00:10:30] organization.

And then it's about embedding them in sort of policies, processes, the way we do things, the way we work with clients. And so we've, um, we spent a lot of time working out how best to do that for us. It's also about being transparent around how we're living the values day to day through our decision making, but also trading them off.

And so as a leadership team, we're, we're kind of quite committed to actually making decisions through the lens of those four values and then communicating to the team, you know, how we've [00:11:00] reflected those in, in the decisions and what we've had to trade off in order to do so. 

Mark Bryan: Yeah, well, it's certainly working very well, so well done there.

That's a great approach. Culture obviously is increasingly important in today's corporate world. How does Rennie prioritize culture and values? 

Simone Rennie: Yeah, culture is, is one of those biggest challenges I think in a fast growing firm. You know, we've got all these people joining us, like you said, they're all coming with different experiences and, and different ways of working.

And so we've placed people [00:11:30] in culture and leadership as key pillars in our corporate strategy. And we really try to focus on helping new starters understand the Rennie way, and that's both through the way we engage with each other as one team, and also the way in which we engage with our clients. We think that if we can stay true to what makes Rennie special, by recruiting and onboarding effectively, and ensuring that our leaders are the custodians of our values and culture, Then we'll really be able to nourish and sustain our culture as we grow.

Mark Bryan: Simone, we love to ask all of our guests on View to the [00:12:00] Summit about your non negotiables and your values that are important to you. They could be two to three values that either you live by or indeed you expect of others. 

Simone Rennie: Yeah, I think for me, it's authenticity and integrity that they're my non negotiables, um, both personally and professionally.

In fact, Authenticity, as I said earlier, is one of those core values at Renny, and I think people are more likely to connect with leaders who demonstrate transparency, [00:12:30] integrity, and a more genuine or real approach to leadership. Um, and I think that in turn creates an environment where people can be themselves and, and be the best.

Um, and so that's what I try to encourage. Authenticity and integrity are a core to the way we want to work with clients as well as they really build that sort of trust and credibility. And I hope that I'm instilling these values in my kids as well. 

Mark Bryan: Yeah, no, that's good. Yeah, absolutely. So Simone, you've embarked on an ambitious plan to build a leading multidisciplinary sustainability consulting [00:13:00] business.

Could you highlight three key challenges to date? And how you're overcoming them? 

Simone Rennie: Great question. Um, yeah, we, look, we see building a high quality consulting business as a craft in many ways. And it kind of requires four key sort of foundational elements. And they are brand permission, a clearly defined solution set, uh, the right capability to deliver it, and also strong client relationships.

And so, you know, at the start, our initial challenge was really about getting this [00:13:30] right. We worked really hard to, to build the Renny brand. Lots of people used to say to us, you've got a marketing machine behind you, which just wasn't true, but it was an important component of, of this. Uh, we, we really wanted to sort of ensure that we're clearly articulating our mission and values and our offerings, uh, to the market and attracting our foundation team was important as well.

And then building out those client relationships. I think. Our second key challenge was really about getting the architecture right. So putting in place the systems and assist the [00:14:00] structures and the policies and the processes that were going to enable our growth. We did this by anticipating our needs ahead of time and making those sort of sensible no regret investment decisions, 

Mark Bryan: which 

Simone Rennie: has been, which has been helpful.

And then I think our current challenge relates to maintaining our culture as I've sort of touched on already. But we think this is also important as we start to consider potential acquisitions moving forward. Where cultural alignment is, is really key to successful integration. We say that, yeah, as [00:14:30] being super important both for existing team members, but also new team members.

Mark Bryan: Yeah, absolutely. It's critical. And finally, our regular listeners will be very familiar with this question. More generally, we love to ask our guests to flag any latest hacks, tips, or apps, or indeed recent books that you might have read. That you think our founder listeners will benefit from could be either from an ESG perspective or a growth standpoint.

Simone Rennie: Hmm. I think I'll offer a tip for this one, Mark. When we started out, a colleague [00:15:00] recommended to us that we speak with other founders, which we did. And, um, that proved really helpful. We spoke to several founders and leaders of consulting firms who were very generous, um, with their time for us. And it was really helpful to sort of hear about their experiences around, you know, what worked well, what didn't work so well, and what to watch out for.

I would strongly encourage other founders to do that. Some of those things really resonated with us and some things may not. But what we found is that over time, some of those [00:15:30] insights have become more relevant to us as our business has, has evolved. And so I think, um, that's a really useful tip and I hope that we can pay it forward.

Mark Bryan: Great. Well, that's exactly what you've been doing today. So thank you. Thank you very much, Simone, for taking the time to, to join us on view to the summit today. There's so much great insight and direction there, and we really appreciate your support and congratulate you on all your successes. In particular, it was really interesting to hear the three elements of an ESG strategy.

That being relevant to the [00:16:00] industry, aligning to the core purpose and being fit for purpose. And I loved hearing about the values as well. Authenticity, excellence, resilience, and one team. All great values. So thanks again. Well done on the business and best of luck for the remaining part of the year.

Thanks Simone. 

Simone Rennie: Thanks Mark. 

Mark Bryan: I hope you enjoyed this episode of View to the Summit. Hit the follow button so you don't miss an episode and rate and review if you like what you heard. Thank you for [00:16:30] listening.