Jun 10, 2026 · 12 min · 6 segments
Clare Toombs joins Alex in the studio to share her journey from tech consulting in Australia to ESG and sustainability advisory at FuturePlus. Clare reflects on what sparked her passion for…
Clare ToombsGuestAlex SmithHostYou joined us as a FuturePlus advisor, so supporting clients through going through the process of using the tech.
And that's a really important part for us is that.
tech with human.
Is there really anything that surprised you around the businesses that you've been working with now and you've been supporting clients over the last few months about how they're approaching sustainability and sort of how we can support them? For me,
Well, I'm not sure if it's a surprise, but the biggest thing that I've noticed is that sustainability is... still an afterthought um and still quite siloed you know the efforts that it it's often handballed off to someone who has 10 other things on their plate that wears four different hats and so it's um Still really quite a challenge, despite all the evidence to the contrary that says that, you know, embedding it from the beginning and really kind of making sure it's integrated into your business strategy, your operations, your decisions.
why it's not just doing the right thing for the sake of doing it, but also doing it because you'll have a more resilient, risk-free, more efficient, more productive business.
Yeah, and that for me, I mean, the fact that it's still, yeah, and I suppose not as integrated as we would, I think, love to see, right? I mean, I spent a lot of my professional career probably being a little naive.
I wanted people to want to do this because it's the right thing to do because, you know, out of the goodness of their hearts.
But I went to an event a few years ago and someone said something and I can't remember the exact wording, but it was just around being, really being pragmatic in order to make a difference.
I mean, I didn't want to work with organisations that I didn't believe in that I thought were kind of contributing to it.
Something else for me coming into this role is, and I think I see this even in publications and in news and social media, how there's a real focus on climate or environment.
But the other themes, you know, the social aspects of sustainability, the diversity and inclusion, economic lens, I think that they're still not
fully understood.
Especially not in the mixture of impacts or the interrelationship between the impact that if you do something on climate, it may have a social effect or if you do something economic, it might have an impact on inclusion and that.
That bigger picture of understanding what you're doing as an organisation across a sort of 360 degree view, as you say, rather than siloing into we're doing a thing, therefore the box is ticked.
Actually, that's not how businesses run on any other part of their strategy.
You joined us as a FuturePlus advisor, so supporting clients through going through the process of using the tech.
And that's a really important part for us is that.
tech with human.
Is there really anything that surprised you around the businesses that you've been working with now and you've been supporting clients over the last few months about how they're approaching sustainability and sort of how we can support them? For me,
Well, I'm not sure if it's a surprise, but the biggest thing that I've noticed is that sustainability is... still an afterthought um and still quite siloed you know the efforts that it it's often handballed off to someone who has 10 other things on their plate that wears four different hats and so it's um Still really quite a challenge, despite all the evidence to the contrary that says that, you know, embedding it from the beginning and really kind of making sure it's integrated into your business strategy, your operations, your decisions.
why it's not just doing the right thing for the sake of doing it, but also doing it because you'll have a more resilient, risk-free, more efficient, more productive business.
Yeah, and that for me, I mean, the fact that it's still, yeah, and I suppose not as integrated as we would, I think, love to see, right? I mean, I spent a lot of my professional career probably being a little naive.
I wanted people to want to do this because it's the right thing to do because, you know, out of the goodness of their hearts.
But I went to an event a few years ago and someone said something and I can't remember the exact wording, but it was just around being, really being pragmatic in order to make a difference.
I mean, I didn't want to work with organisations that I didn't believe in that I thought were kind of contributing to it.
Something else for me coming into this role is, and I think I see this even in publications and in news and social media, how there's a real focus on climate or environment.
But the other themes, you know, the social aspects of sustainability, the diversity and inclusion, economic lens, I think that they're still not
fully understood.
Especially not in the mixture of impacts or the interrelationship between the impact that if you do something on climate, it may have a social effect or if you do something economic, it might have an impact on inclusion and that.
That bigger picture of understanding what you're doing as an organisation across a sort of 360 degree view, as you say, rather than siloing into we're doing a thing, therefore the box is ticked.
Actually, that's not how businesses run on any other part of their strategy.
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