Over the past decade, the figure of the business consultant has undergone a quiet but profound transformation. Not a superficial change, but a substantial redefinition of the mandate: what is expected of those who support a company, what skills they need to bring to the table, and above all what value they are called upon to generate.
At the center of this transformation is sustainability. Or rather, the way sustainability has entered companies: no longer as a reputational choice, but as a structural, regulatory, and strategic requirement.
From a Side Function to the Heart of Strategy
For a long time, consultants working on environmental or social issues operated at the margins of business. Certifications, the occasional corporate social responsibility project, a sustainability report handed over to the communications department. Useful work, but largely separate from the decisions that actually mattered.
With the entry into force of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Omnibus I package, definitively approved through Directive (EU) 2026/470, this landscape has changed irreversibly. ESG reporting has become a regulatory obligation for companies that simultaneously exceed 1,000 employees and 450 million euros in net turnover, applicable from financial year 2027 onwards. But the real impact goes well beyond the companies directly subject to these rules: through what is known as the supply chain effect, large companies collect ESG data from their suppliers and partners, drawing a much wider range of businesses into the sustainability ecosystem, including many SMEs with no direct obligations.
In this context, the consultant has become the point of contact between a constantly evolving regulatory framework and a business community that often finds itself having to respond to new, complex, and urgent demands.
A Professional Profile That Has Reinvented Itself
Today’s ESG consultant bears little resemblance to the one of ten years ago. The scope of the role has expanded to encompass the entire corporate strategy, and the skills required reflect this complexity.
Knowing the regulations is no longer enough. They need to be translated into concrete processes: collecting and managing environmental data, building measurable KPIs, producing reports according to international standards such as GRI, and analysing risks across the supply chain. At the same time, the ability to engage with very different stakeholders is essential: senior management, the CFO, the compliance team, suppliers, and investors. The ESG consultant is, by nature, a cross-functional figure.
As Emiliano Micalizio of Ramboll outlined in his contribution published in the TOP.ESG Consulenti 2025 guide, the professional of the new era must master four core capabilities: understanding policy, applying science, integrating sustainability into corporate strategy, and being able to move from strategy to execution. This is not an incremental update on the past, but a genuine paradigm shift.
This transformation has also reached professional figures traditionally distant from the topic: accountants, labour consultants, and auditors now find themselves having to answer their clients’ ESG questions, and are investing in specialist training and certifications to do so. The sustainable consulting market is growing strongly, with structural demand outpacing the supply of genuinely prepared professionals.
TreeBlock One: The Platform Built for Those Who Guide Companies
This is the context in which TreeBlock One was developed: an all-in-one platform by TreeBlock designed for professionals who support companies on their ESG journey. The goal is to free consultants from administrative burdens and give back time for strategic work, less fragmented activity, more value for the client.
At the core of this shift is TreeBy, TreeBlock’s artificial intelligence, which analyses ESG data, generates operational insights, and monitors KPIs in real time. The platform integrates the main international reporting standards, including ESRS, GRI, GHG Protocol, and VSME. TreeBlock is among the few organisations in Italy to have obtained GRI and SASB licences, having passed their respective audits. For the consultant, this means being able to offer clients certified reports that are internationally recognised and stand up to any level of scrutiny.
Operationally, TreeBlock One is available in three configurations, Essential, Premium, or Custom, with analytical dashboards, e-learning modules, and the ability to build tailored quotes for each client by combining services across measurement and reporting, sustainable practices, support, and integrations. The concrete benefits for end clients range from more efficient data management and stronger brand reputation, to access to preferential interest rates under EBA guidelines and the ability to unlock sustainability-related tax incentives.
There is also a dimension that goes beyond the tools themselves: an ESG Marketplace where consultants can offer their own solutions to companies within the network, opening an additional business channel. Joining the TreeBlock ecosystem means becoming part of a community of professionals and companies that have already chosen to be part of the change.
Conclusion
The ESG consultant is not a role heading towards stability. It is a role heading towards growth. The reasons are structural. As regulatory obligations extend further along the supply chain, more and more companies, including those that today feel far removed from the topic, will need to manage ESG data, reporting, and sustainability strategies. And almost none of them will do it alone.
To this adds a market dynamic that is difficult to reverse: banks and investors already factor in a company’s ESG profile when assessing access to credit and financing. Large clients require it from their suppliers. Talent, especially younger generations, increasingly choose where to work based on an organisation’s values. Sustainability, in other words, has become a genuine competitive variable, and those who fail to address it face a concrete disadvantage.
In this context, the ESG consultant is the figure who turns complexity into direction. Not an obligation to be outsourced, but a partner to build with. And that is precisely why demand will keep growing, far faster than the market can today produce professionals truly equal to the task.