With a Ph.D. from the University of Athens, Elli brings to Black Sun an extensive background in research, evaluation and analysis, specifically within sustainability topics and transitions. Find out about her approach to helping companies succeed through action – and use their results as the seeds of impactful stakeholder engagement.
With the creation of Positive Change Group, Black Sun Global is entering a new era of expanded activities and services. Working now as part of a like-minded collective, we are taking a new approach to what we deliver in the complex stakeholder economy. As Director of Insights and Innovation, my role is to explore and drive new products and services within our consultancy. That includes enhancing our regulatory and reporting services, building out our ESG & Sustainability products, and generally keeping my eyes open to innovative ways to meet our clients’ needs.
I studied Economics and Management at Oxford followed by a Masters in European, economics politics and a PhD in international relations, and I have a research background in corporate reporting and sustainability. This combination instilled in me a passion to help companies realise the business case for doing good by people and the planet.
The simple truth is that our natural resources are being depleted, our human capital is at risk and governments and regulators can’t turn this around on their own. The private sector needs to be part of the solution, or the resources they need to run their business will no longer be available to them.
I think to be successful in my role, I need to focus on helping companies understand where they are today and the huge opportunity they have to become a more responsible business. For different companies, that gap may be big and it may be small, but within that gap is where I want Black Sun to make a big difference.
My team’s focus is on helping cultivate knowledge of ESG and sustainability issues at our clients, to help spread that knowledge throughout the business, and ultimately put it into action. My goal is for our clients to be empowered to cut through the noise and focus on long-term impact, where sustainability issues become both huge risk and huge opportunity, instead of short-term results.
Our clients are facing a plethora of challenges. Sustainability teams are being stretched to the limit, not only because of increasing regulations and stakeholder expectations, but also because it’s difficult to get internal buy-in. And I believe that goes back to the education piece. It’s hard to get buy-in on complex issues – and sustainability issues are hugely complex.
For example, today, thanks in part to the media and in part to the visible effects of climate change, there is a heavy focus on climate. However, biodiversity loss is happening at a shocking pace, which is having adverse impacts on the ecosystems that support us – and 50% of the global economy depends on biodiversity.[1] So how should our companies embrace this issue and include it in their strategies? That’s what we want to help them figure out.
The sustainability debate has moved from individual solutions to collective engagement, so we believe in taking a collective approach. That means building connections between our clients and helping them learn from each other. Over the years we have held several roundtables under Chatham House rules, where we gather clients to discuss a relevant topic. We find they get great value from these events – people learn from each other and can begin to work towards shared goals.
We also recognise there’s a growing movement to partner with NGOs around human rights and other sustainability issues. We want to bring momentum to that movement by building alliances, and part of that work is engaging the C-suite – ensuring they understand how their businesses can get involved and how it can benefit their employees and their results.
I think two things are critical for the future of our work. The first is greenwashing. It’s a risk many companies face as they work to engage stakeholders with creative communication. But the risk can be mitigated if companies focus on their actions first and let authentic communications flow from there. At Black Sun, we work from the SPARC mantra, where our communications are Specific, Provable, Authentic, Relevant and Clear – and we are committed to ensuring that the action comes first.
The second is C-level and board-level commitment. For companies’ sustainability strategies to succeed, senior leadership needs to take a more proactive role in defining and promoting the actions and initiatives needed to create lasting systemic change. We can see this commitment taking hold at some of our clients and will do our best to see this progress – because we believe it’s essential to our clients’ future resilience and success.
Want to discuss your ESG or sustainability challenges with Elli?
[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/biodiversity-nature-loss-cop15/ 50% of the global economy is under threat from biodiversity loss, 3 February 2023
Black Sun is a global group of strategic advisors, consultants and stakeholder engagement specialists. We believe that brands and businesses can have a big impact on our society – they can shape more ethical practices, build more inclusive communities and deliver more sustainable performance. Ultimately, they can spark positive change in the world.
We partner with visionary companies to define and communicate their purpose, strategy and culture and bring to life their value creation story. Our services and solutions directly address the business-critical concerns of today; best-practice disclosure and accountability through reporting; protecting reputation and building trust with digital communications and helping businesses to effectively communicate their long-term responsibility and sustainability story.
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