Shirley Parsons partnered with a leading construction organisation to appoint their first dedicated Carbon Specialist, a newly created and strategically critical role. By combining deep market insight, benchmarking, and a targeted research-led search, we helped define the role, attract high-quality candidates, and deliver a hire who quickly drove measurable impact on carbon strategy, internal capability, and commercial outcomes.
The organisation recognised increasing client expectations for life-cycle carbon transparency, the need to set credible baselines and science-based targets, and growing regulatory and reporting obligations. Carbon strategy was also identified as a key commercial differentiator in competitive bids. However, the organisation did not yet have dedicated internal capability to meet these demands at scale.
To address this strategic gap, the leadership team decided to create its first ever Carbon Specialist role, a position designed to lead carbon strategy, drive internal capability, and deliver long-term value. Given this was a new and critical hire, the organisation engaged Shirley Parsons to provide strategic talent advisory and executive search support.
Shirley Parsons partnered closely with organisational leaders to define the role’s scope, outcomes, and long-term impact. Leveraging deep insight into carbon, climate, and sustainability talent markets, we:
Our approach ensured the search was informed by strategic market data and structured to attract professionals capable of driving both technical delivery and organisational influence.
Within one week of commencing the search, Shirley Parsons delivered a high-quality shortlist of four candidates – all of whom progressed to interview and reflected strong diversity, with 50% female representation. The successful candidate was selected early in the interview process and accepted the offer.
Since joining the business, the new Carbon Specialist has delivered clear value by:
Within four months, their impact and leadership were recognised through a promotion into a broader sustainability management remit, where they continue to shape the organisation’s sustainability strategy and delivery.
