Best consultancies

Brussels Office Since

2020

Firm Description

If sustainability cannot sustain, it is not sustainable!

At#SustainablePublicAffairs, we believe sustainability is about balance – achieving longevity through activities and innovations that are built to last. True sustainability requires a threefold approach: it must be competitive (economic angle), resource-efficient (environmental angle), and resilient (societal foundations).

The European Union is uniquely positioned to bring these elements together, creating a foundation for long-term prosperity in the broadest sense of the word.

However, achieving market-led sustainability means empowering the most innovative entrepreneurs to thrive. To do this, the EU must allow the best-in-class – the ones who consistently do more with less – to set the benchmark for others. Much like a bell curve in academia, these sustainability frontrunners should shape the standards for the entire market.

We are a First-of-a-Kind Public Affairs Agency dedicated exclusively to helping the EU’s market-makers turn exceptional sustainability performance into the norm. By ensuring that those who outperform EU environmental norms can reduce their green premium and leverage their leadership as a competitive advantage, we aim to drive systemic change. When we succeed, innovators thrive, the market strengthens, and the environment benefits. It’s a win-win-win. Let’s shape a sustainable future – together.

We exclusively work for clients on cases where they already outperform environmental norms. We then help make their performance the norm for the rest of the market. That way we make the environment better – while fostering policy-driven growth for our clients. It is important to enable regulators to opt for market-driven sustainability – as sustainability is unsustainable if it is not a business case! The Draghi report on EU competitiveness underpins this in a big way!

With our clients and other mission-aligned actors we sit and work together to raise the bar on EU climate and environmental policy out of Norrsken House Brussels – also known as the Permanent Representation of Sustainability to the EU.

Ownership Structure

SPRL with Willem Vriesendorp and Ellen Hof as shareholders.

Key Strengths

#SustainablePublicAffairs’ unique approach is based on three values:

Our first value is positivity. We bring positive energy to our work and advocate for causes we genuinely support. We focus on promoting our clients’ interests constructively, never acting against others or speaking negatively about competitors.

Integrity is standing up for what you believe in. As professionals, we only work for societal outcomes that we would want to see as private citizens as well. It means also that we recognize that while many sustainability gains will come from the cases we advocate for, it is always more sustainable to just consume, and subsequently produce, less.

Autonomy means that we do cases because we want to change the legislative framework. That is our purpose, and we are guided by that. Our clients are our partners to help get there / and not the other way around. We provided our own input to the EU 2040 targets and will always act in accordance with those objectives.

Number of Public Affairs Consultants

25

Key Clients

Examples of our clients / projects are: Cleantech Friendship Group, Fastned, Norrsken Foundation, Danfoss, Hydnum Steel, Ecocem, Cellular Agriculture Europe, Global Methane Hub, Novelis, Spark Climate Solutions, Stockholm Exergi, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc, Vaulted Deep, FEBEA, Environmental Defence Fund, LKAB, Resortecs, Corbion, IBMA, etc.

Thought Leadership

#SustainablePublicAffairs is the first purpose-driven public affairs agency that only takes on climate-positive cases and is guided by its #SustainabilityCharter. This pioneering (thought-)leadership has been recognised by and featured in news outlets like Politico and Le Monde, and by clients and fellow thought-leaders on several other occasions. The insights of #SustainablePublicAffairs are regularly reported on in Carbon Pulse, MLex, Financieel Dagblad, and other leading media. #SustainablePublicAffairs also takes a keen interest in academic thought leadership – an example being its contribution (as only the public affairs agency) to the Concurrences handbook on Competition Law, Climate Change & Environmental Sustainability.

Testimonials and why clients like to work with us

Because it is always better to let others speak about you, than to speak about yourself, please see the advert for the full version of testimonials!

All other clients are willing to give positive testimonials upon request.

Also, we are very happy to count Diederik Samsom, one of Brussels most influential thinkers and doers on [climate] policy among our colleagues.

Next to being recognized as one of the best PA consultancies in Brussels #SustainablePublicAffairs has been awarded the best sustainability-focused public affairs consultancy in the world by Corporate Vision in the Global Business Awards 2023. Also, it is the first EU affairs agency to have its positive impact on environment and society certified by B Corp.