Why This Conversation Matters

Most professional firms now publish long sustainability reports. They measure travel, electricity, and waste. But Jeff Twentyman says that’s only a fraction of the truth.

“The biggest part of a professional firm’s footprint is what its advice leads to,” he says.

“If the outcomes of that advice make the world worse, you can’t hide behind a green office or a recycling policy.”

It’s a simple idea, but one that cuts deep. Because it means law, finance, and consulting firms are not neutral. Their work shapes decisions that echo far beyond their buildings.

Jeff has spent more than three decades in that world. A former partner at Slaughter and May, he helped build the firm’s sustainability practice and responsible business programme. Today, he teaches at UCL, is chair of Blueprint for a Better Business, sits on the board of the Green Finance Institute, and supports purpose-led entrepreneurs. His focus is always the same: how responsibility becomes real.

From City Law to Public Purpose

Jeff didn’t plan to become a governance adviser. “I started out as a deal lawyer,” he says. “It was all about getting transactions done.”

But over time, he began to ask tougher questions. “I realised we never talked about what those deals actually meant,” he says.

“We looked at legality and efficiency, but not whether the outcome was good for society.”

That shift in perspective eventually led him to lead sustainability and responsible business at Slaughter and May. It also connected him to organisations like A Blueprint for Better Business, which challenges companies to serve the common good, and the Green Finance Institute, which pushes financial systems toward climate alignment.

His current work, he says, is about “helping people make sense of what responsibility really looks like in practice.”

Seeing the Real Footprint

In the early 2000s, law firms began to focus on their carbon emissions. “We all looked at the easy stuff,” Jeff recalls.

“Recycling, energy use, travel. And those things matter. But they’re small compared to what your advice enables.”

He offers a blunt example. “If a firm helps a client structure a deal that prolongs fossil fuel extraction, then your real footprint is that project’s emissions. You can’t offset that by switching to LED bulbs.”

This way of thinking — linking a firm’s ethics to its influence — remains rare in professional services. It’s uncomfortable. It asks firms to take moral ownership of their role in the system, not just manage their own operations.

But Jeff insists it’s where the real opportunity lies.

“Once you start looking at the impact of your work, you can choose differently. You can ask: is this something we’re proud to enable?”

Doing, Not Saying

Jeff’s career now blends boardroom work with teaching, coaching, and mentoring. He advises leaders on governance and sits with early-stage founders trying to scale responsibly. “I like variety,” he says with a smile. “I need a bit of turmoil in my life to stay interested.”

He’s also quick to challenge empty talk. “There’s a lot of saying and not enough doing,” he says.

“Firms make big claims about purpose, but integrity is what you do when no one’s watching.”

Jeff believes progress depends on honesty about trade-offs. “Sometimes you can’t please every stakeholder. Responsibility isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being transparent about what you’re choosing and why.”

The Hard Part of Change

The episode’s discussion centres on a research paper about the attitude–behaviour gap — why people who care about the planet still fly, eat meat, or overconsume. Jeff finds the topic fascinating, but warns against easy answers.

“Information doesn’t automatically change behaviour,” he says.

“People know what’s right, but we’re built for comfort and convenience.”

The paper links self-awareness, or “dispositional mindfulness,” to better choices. Jeff agrees it helps. “Mindfulness gives people a pause button. It lets you notice what you’re about to do before you do it.”

But he adds, “That’s not enough on its own. We also need incentives and rules. Sometimes governments have to make the hard calls people won’t make individually. We can’t rely on everyone becoming a monk.”

Hope and Momentum

Despite his realism, Jeff remains hopeful. He sees evidence of cultural change in daily life. “Look at diet,” he says.

“Ten years ago, vegetarianism was fringe. Now it’s mainstream. Electric cars, the same story. Change starts quietly and then tips.”

He also sees frustration among companies that want clearer direction. “Many businesses actually want stronger regulation. They’re tired of guessing what ‘good’ looks like.”

And while politics can feel stuck, Jeff believes people are moving ahead anyway. “Citizens are often braver than their leaders. You see it in communities adapting to droughts, floods, or energy shocks. They don’t need to be told it’s real — they’re living it.”

A Simple but Radical Idea

When asked what single change could make the biggest difference, Jeff doesn’t hesitate. “I’d choose equality,” he says.

“If we valued every human life equally, we’d act very differently.”

He explains that inequality fuels fear and mistrust. “When some people have too much and others have nothing, it’s very hard to cooperate. Climate change needs collective effort, but inequality makes that impossible.”

It’s a striking answer — less about technology, more about values. “We have to start treating fairness as part of sustainability,” he says. “It’s not a side issue. It’s the foundation.”

Responsibility Starts with Reality

In the end, Jeff’s message is practical, not idealistic. He wants professional firms to own the influence they hold and align their work with the outcomes they claim to support.

“For me, responsibility starts with being real,” he says.

“Look honestly at what you do. Be clear about your impact. And if you don’t like what you see, change it.”

It’s the kind of clarity that cuts through policy talk and brand language. Responsibility, as Jeff defines it, is not about saying the right thing. It’s about choosing the right thing — and accepting the weight that comes with it.

When Emma Scott joined Kent as Vice President of Sustainability, she walked into a century-old engineering company built on oil and gas. Her brief was simple on paper: make it sustainable. In reality, it meant rebuilding trust, inside and out, in an industry many no longer believe can change.

A Blank Page, Heavy with History

Emma’s role didn’t exist before she arrived. Kent’s leadership had decided the company needed a sustainability strategy, but not much else.

“There were good things happening,” Emma recalls, “but there was no strategy. Everything was in isolation.”

The CEO’s response was to give her complete freedom. “He said, ‘I trust you. Go and do what you need to do.’ It was empowering,” she says, “but also a little scary.”

That trust became both an opportunity and a burden. Building sustainability “from scratch” meant taking a hard look at an organisation still tied to fossil fuels, and at how much it would take to change that.

Finding the Facts Before the Promises

When Emma started, Kent didn’t even know its global emissions baseline. “We had no real insight into where the big impacts were,” she admits.

Her small team, just two people, spent months collecting data from projects across dozens of countries. What they found confirmed what many suspected: one large Middle East site accounted for most of the company’s emissions.

“It was sobering,” she says. “But at least we knew where to start.”

The project became their pilot for change, swapping diesel for solar, tracking every tonne of carbon, and sharing what worked and what didn’t. “We can’t boil the ocean,” she says. “So we picked the biggest beast first.”

Why She Stays Inside the System

Kent’s deep roots in oil and gas invite scepticism. How can a company built to serve fossil fuel clients claim to be part of the transition?

Emma doesn’t dodge the question. “I’d rather be inside, helping to make change, than outside throwing stones,” she says.

“The lights still need to stay on. The question is: how do we do it better?”

She knows that balance is fragile. Kent now invests heavily in renewables and low-carbon work, but it still depends on the old energy system to survive. “We choose both,” she says. “But we choose to do both more responsibly.”

The Myth of ‘Net Zero’

Emma’s thinking sharpened when she read Digging to Zero, a Reuters investigation into decarbonising mining. She quotes a line from Fortescue Metals’ CEO: “The word ‘net’ is killing us.”

“I completely agree,” she says. “We need real zero — cutting emissions, not offsetting them.”

Kent’s own progress mirrors that stance. Rather than buying offsets, it’s testing new solar systems for its high-emitting sites. “One of them’s basically a container full of panels and batteries,” she laughs. “You pull it out of the truck, and it replaces a diesel generator.”

It’s practical, small-scale work, but real. “It’s not perfect,” she says. “But it’s honest.”

The Price of Transparency

If there’s one principle Emma refuses to compromise, it’s honesty. “We don’t want to be accused of greenwashing,” she says.

“Everything we say has to be true and clear.”

That sounds simple, but she knows how uncomfortable truth can be when progress is slow. “We’ve had to publish data that isn’t flattering,” she admits. “But hiding it would be worse.”

She works closely with Kent’s communications team to keep sustainability updates factual. “There’s a lot of jargon in our field,” she says. “People confuse sustainability with ESG. I want to make it simple and real.”

From Awareness to Ownership

Emma wants sustainability to become everyone’s job, not a specialist’s. “Education is the biggest priority,” she says.

“People need to understand how it helps them do their work better.”

She’s also pushing inclusion and well-being as part of the same mission. “Belonging is sustainability too,” she says. “It’s about people as much as carbon.”

Her long-term goal is to make herself redundant. “When sustainability’s fully embedded, I’ll have worked myself out of a job,” she smiles. “That’s success.”

Let’s Get Real

If she could change one thing about business overnight, it would be forced honesty. “Give every corporation a dose of truth serum,” she says.

“Be honest about your impacts and what you’re doing to improve.”

She wants sustainability reports to stop pretending. “They should show the good and the bad,” she says. “If they were truly honest, the world would look very different.”

For Emma, responsibility starts with reality. Her journey isn’t about perfection, it’s about staying in the uncomfortable middle, where progress depends on truth more than image.