We operate in Australia, South Africa and Canada and our network of associates and consultants has experience globally. We bring senior-level skills sets and deal exclusively with business owners, senior executives, investors and key brand decision makers.

We give personal attention to clients with the view to becoming trusted advisors for life. We are professional in everything we do and strive to add value beyond what is charged.

We are creative, innovative and stay at the cutting edge of sustainability, business and branding thinking.

We don’t deliver boiler plate consultant solutions or standardised reports. Instead we offer elegant, intelligent solutions that help build robust sustainable brands. It’s a bit like creating Sushi instead of slopping up Meat and Potatoes.

Lynton Burger
lynton@sustbrands.com

Lynton is a sustainability and branding specialist with twenty years diverse business development, branding, environmental management and corporate sustainability strategy experience. During this time Lynton has worked for an impressive list of corporate, government and donor agency clients in southern Africa, Europe, Canada, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Australia.

After completing ecology degrees (BSc, BSc Hons and MSc) from Rhodes University, Lynton embarked on a 10-year career in marine environmental management and sustainable development consulting that included working for Archipelago Marine Research in Canada, and for the Environmental Evaluation Unit, at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa.

In 2000, shortly after completing his MBA at UCT’s Graduate School of Business, Lynton co-founded Ecobe EMS, an environmental management and strategy consultancy. After three years of rapid growth, Ecobe was bought out by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), the world’s largest environmental consultancy, to form ERM Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd. Lynton played a lead role in negotiating the deal and stayed on as Managing Director of ERM SA for a year, before leaving to establish SustBrands.

Lynton is a Non-Executive Director of Sustainable Capital, a sustainable investment fund based in Mauritius – see www.sustainablecapital.mu. Lynton also served as a Non-Executive Director of EcoAfrica Travel for five years, until it’s sale in early 2009.

Lynton is based in Byron Bay, Australia.

Bridget Wise
bridget@sustbrands.com

Bridget brings nine years of international experience working with organisations to identify, measure, manage, monitor and communicate their response to environmental imperatives. Whilst working for global consultancies ERM and URS in South Africa and the UK, Bridget has managed and participated in projects for corporate and government clients in the UK, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin.

Bridget has particular experience in the area of corporate sustainability report assurance and has completed assignments for leading global and European brands including Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, B&Q, Kingfisher plc, Imerys and The Body Shop; and has also provided assistance in projects for MacDonald’s, The Coca Cola Company, E.ON (Powergen) and HSBC.

Bridget holds MSc (Environmental Biotechnology) and BA (Hons) degrees from Rhodes University in South Africa and also has formal Environmental Management System (EMS) training.
Areas of specific experience include assessing and assisting corporate responsibility strategy; sustainability performance reporting; providing third party assurance for sustainability reports and non-financial disclosure; development of environmental management systems and undertaking environmental audits and assessments.

Bridget is based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Maíread Cleary
mairead@sustbrands.com

Mairéad has over seven years of engineering experience, specialising in renewable energy. During this time Mairéad has assessed the suitability of renewable energy projects ranging from wind farm development to small-scale solar and conducted their subsequent design and viability, taking into consideration all environmental impacts of such ventures.

Mairéad completed a BEng degree in Ireland and went on to work for engineering firms internationally, carving her way into environmental and renewable energy work as her passion for conservation and sustainability grew. An ongoing interest in environmental, social and personal change led her to complete a Postgrad Cert in History & Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Melbourne.

Her interest in sustainability stems from her love of the outdoors, both mountain and sea and Mairéad is particularly impassioned about raising awareness around environmental fragility, highlighting the value of sustainable practice and working to combine human development with environmental sustainability.  

Mairéad actively practises sustainability in her life, believes strongly in the ethics and principles of sustainable living and is passionate about promoting a healthy environment and ethical humanism.  

Jennifer Kowalyk
jen@sustbrands.com

Jennifer Kowalyk has nine years of environmental consulting experience in the areas of corporate environmental compliance auditing, due diligence auditing, compliance program development, training and environmental permitting. From her experience in environmental assessment across a multitude of industry sectors, she brings exceptional knowledge of environmental imperatives in the corporate setting, and a keen ability to identify and give advice on priority areas.

While employed by ERM in South Africa and Hong Kong, Jennifer undertook and managed environmental assessments in more than 15 countries, throughout Africa, the Indian Ocean and Asia. She has extensive project management experience and has managed multi-site audit and compliance programmes for a number of international companies.

Jennifer has undertaken projects for international companies including Kraft, Woolworths, Sasol, Sara Lee, Diageo and Cadburys. Jennifer holds a MPhil (Environmental Science), BSc (Hons) and is completing a BA.

Jennifer is also the founder and owner of Cocoon Bedding which imports and sells a range of exclusive, sustainably-harvested mulberry silk bedding products. See www.cocoonbedding.com

Jennifer is based in Cape Town.

Shabeer Ebrahim
shabeer@sustbrands.com

With over 20 years experience within both the retail and business sectors, SustBrands Associate Shabeer has affected transformation and growth within some of North America's largest retailers - including Polo, Ralph Lauren, Ports International, Club Monaco, Banana Republic (Gap Inc.), Bebe and Holt Renfrew - as well as with a broad cross section of industries ranging from nationwide franchises, ecotourism and hospitality to phyto pharmaceuticals, e-commerce-based businesses and natural cleaning companies.

Shabeer works alongside business owners, executive teams and organizational leaders to arrive at holistic, co-creative and sustainable solutions, cultivating environments of excellence and authenticity in the workplace and inspiring individuals toward greater meaning, purpose and balance in both their personal and working lives.

Shabeer is based in Western Canada.

Christina Smith-Ebrahim
christina@sustbrands.com

A desire to further her understanding of our planet's history, geography, its diversity of peoples, cultures, societies, religions and economies, coupled with a lust for travel, led SustBrands Associate Christina to complete her BA in International Relations at UBC (with a thematic focus on peace and conflict studies and a geographical focus on East Asia) concurrent to several periods of employment in Japan - in intercultural business education and English language corporate communication - and travel within over 25 countries in Europe, East and South East Asia and Central America.

Emerging from this chapter with far more questions than answers and acutely aware that the number of global challenges vastly outweighed the solutions being put forward, Christina began seeking out local and global business examples of socially and environmentally restorative best practices to share with others. Discovering that few vehicles existed to effectively source, circulate and implement these practices and ideas, an inspired and co-creative conduit for change seemed both timely and necessary.

Christina is based in Western Canada.