About Rationale
Rationale is a public sector advisory firm specializing in helping central and local governments make informed investment decisions. Their work spans various sectors, including infrastructure, buildings, water, social investment, and organisational change. Rationale are trusted advisors who take the approach that nothing is impossible. Their focus is on improving places for people by helping public sector organisations make well-informed investment decisions. Whether it's infrastructure, strategy or support, it’s about creating a better world by improving the places we live, work and play.
Edward Guy is the Managing Director, Jimmy Sygrove is a Senior Advisor who leads marketing and Craig McClean is the Chief Financial Officer.
Challenges acting quickly on their sustainability strategy
Rationale had been increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their operations, particularly their travel. As a company with offices in Arrowtown, Dunedin and Wellington and working nationwide, they were looking for a way to measure and act on their carbon footprint and better align with their clients' growing sustainability expectations, particularly in government procurement processes.
Edward explains, “we realise that we are creating emissions by the way we operate... we work for government, and there’s an expectation that we communicate what we are doing about the climate. Being able to demonstrate that to our clients is really important.”
But developing a comprehensive sustainability strategy was delayed due to other business priorities, and traditional carbon-offsetting methods were too complex and time-consuming. “We had a sustainability policy on our agenda for some time but never quite got around to it,” Edward admitted.
CarbonInvoice as the right solution
CarbonInvoice provided Rationale with a simple and efficient solution to measure and mitigate their carbon emissions. The process was quick and required minimal input from the team.
The team were impressed by how CarbonInvoice used their financial data to calculate emissions and provide tangible results—funding the planting of native trees in the very communities where Rationale operates.
The seamless integration of CarbonInvoice with their existing processes has been a big advantage for Rationale. Craig McLean shared his initial skepticism "I was a little bit skeptical when I was told that an organisation wanted access to our Xero account. But Carlos and the team were great at answering all my questions and putting my mind at ease, giving me the reassurance that the process was secure.”
Craig also appreciated the simplicity and no need to change how they operate "The process was genuinely seamless. We just go through our normal business process, create our invoices, and CarbonInvoice handles the rest."
Since 1 July 2023 Rationale has been partnered with CarbonInvoice and has funded over 950 native trees in the Otago and Wellington regions - see their progress here.
How Rationale is benefiting
Engaging clients is a big benefit for Rationale. Being able to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability has strengthened client relationships, particularly with government clients. Edward emphasised the importance of this, noting, “It’s a given that you’ll be asked by the clients we work with what you’re doing for the environment, and now we can easily show that we’re doing something real and meaningful.” The team has received positive feedback from clients who appreciate Rationale's proactive approach, with some even saying it’s “another reason why we love working with Rationale.”
Marketing efforts have benefited - the partnership with CarbonInvoice has allowed Rationale to further incorporate sustainability into their story telling. Jimmy Sygrove, Senior Advisor, shared how the easy-to-use platform has made it simple to communicate their environmental initiatives to clients. “We put it on our invoices, and clients love seeing that we’ve planted trees because of the work we did with them. It’s tangible, and it fits perfectly with our approach to sustainability,” Jimmy explained.
Team engagement has been positive with Rationale sharing their growing tree count and some of the projects which Rationale contributions have supported. Jimmy summarises, ”We feel that this is the perfect model for Rationale – we are all passionate about the outdoors and the team regularly take part in native planting and restoration projects in our communities. It's great that these projects use trees provided through CarbonInvoice, so it’s a bit of a circular economy for us.”
