As Director of Sustainable Economics UK at architecture, engineering, and consultancy company Ramboll, Stefanie O’Gorman seeks to define sustainability through an economic lens – supporting the firm’s commitment to being a ‘partner for sustainable change’, as set out in its manifesto.
“From a strategic perspective, we’re able to do things differently,” she says, adding that her work focuses on improving the quality of economic decisions across infrastructure, climate, and just transition challenges.
“For me, it’s about thinking about economics in the true sense,” she says. “The broader society, environment, finance, structures, how our economy works, and actually making decisions that are better decisions. Rather than thinking about GDP as the only indicator, we look at growth — what actually is driving that GDP? Is it good or bad? Or, on a project level, what are we considering when we make decisions?”
Driving resilience
O’Gorman believes that businesses need to view sustainability has having an enabling effect, rather than being considered a burden – “if you approach it with the mindset of ‘this is going to add cost’, you might end up in that position because you’re thinking about it the wrong way” – and as a means to drive long-term business and economic resilience.
By internalising potential risks such as supply chain vulnerabilities, or water stress, businesses are better positioned to make better decisions that safeguard growth, and turn sustainability into a strategic opportunity.
“It’s really about understanding where your costs and benefits are,” she adds. “In the climate sense, that’s largely about risk and resilience. This is not about being altruistic; it’s about a real cost on my balance sheet that I need to invest in.”
The role of leadership
O’Gorman sees leadership as the critical enabler for overcoming potential hurdles related to sustainability, particularly in addressing the ‘say-do gap’, where intentions often fail to translate into action due to internal pressures and short-term priorities.
“If you have strong leadership, you can deliver a lot and get through some of those barriers,” she says. “But another thing that’s important is language – using language that people understand and that’s relevant to them.
“It’s pointless preaching to people about doing something because it’s the right thing to do. It’s about meeting people where they are and saying, ‘From here, you can get to this next stage relatively easily. The step after that will be harder and require more fundamental change. How can we break that down?’”
Sustainability-related targets, such as net-zero goals, can be “overwhelming” for many private-sector actors, she adds, noting that while high-level aspirations can provide impetus, setting targets without having a clear plan in place can create reputational, financial, and operational risks.
“We’re seeing that over and over again – a company makes a statement saying ‘we’ll be net zero by 2030’, or something like that,” she says. “And I’m like, ‘do you even know what that means? Do you even understand where you are now, never mind where you need to get to going forward?’ There’s a naivety there that needs to be overcome.
“If the right answer for your business is an incremental journey, and you’re transparent about that, then that’s better than promising a massive step change and failing to deliver it.”
Climate finance
From a financing perspective, O’Gorman notes that challenges persist in unlocking climate finance, with many next-generation solutions – around decarbonisation, for example – often too small to attract large-scale investment, creating a gap between early-stage ideas and scalable solutions.
“It’s like you’re climbing a ladder, and there’s a couple of rungs missing, and everybody just falls off,” she says.
Public–private partnerships can play a role here, she notes, with the public sector de-risking early investments to encourage private capital. O’Gorman espouses the concept of “catalytic risk-taking”, where the public sector assumes calculated risks to unlock private investment for sustainability-related initiatives. A barrier, however, is that public and private actors rarely sing off the same hymn sheet.
“I’ve been in large workshops with both audiences in the room, and they’ll honestly say things like, ‘I didn’t realise that’s what that meant,’ or ‘I don’t know what that means’,” she says. “You might talk about a concept, but in their world it doesn’t resonate. There’s clearly an education piece needed to bridge that gap.”
Supply chain opportunity
For businesses looking to turn sustainability ambition into action, O’Gorman emphasises focusing on operations, product, and supply chain – especially the latter, which represents a “massive opportunity”, she says. By guiding and supporting suppliers, companies can drive compliance, resilience, and sustainability improvements.
“It’s about how they operate, how they think about resilience. But to achieve that, you need to give them the support to do it. Empowering your supply chain is an underutilised tool for turning words into action.”
Learn more about Ramboll at www.ramboll.com.
