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Advisor on Standby

Case Study: Advisor on Standby for VP of CSR in Apparel Sector

A global apparel company knew that securing long-term growth would involve fulfilling consumers’ desire to have less stuff and produce less waste. Accomplishing this task required developing a trailblazing sustainability strategy. An impressive in-house team was in place, but the task involved responding to internal inquiries and making data-driven decisions at an accelerating pace.

Expert in her job, but overstretched
The VP CSR had numerous major projects on her plate. Decisions required research or knowledge about what other companies were doing and industry best practices. The biggest challenge for members of the team was limited availability of time.

Info was needed on a range of topics
Overall Strategies eased this burden by providing research and guidance on sustainability related questions as they came up. This support included a range of topics including questions such as:

  • How do companies normally do materiality assessments?

  • How is GRI’s guidance used to determine items reported in a Corporate Sustainability Report?

  • How different are GRI’s new standards from the previous version?

  • Are companies starting to produce human rights reports? Which companies have done so?

  • How would we go about producing a heat map of risks in our supply chain?

  • How many companies have a human rights director and what does their job description look like?

  • What is the process of getting certified as a B Corp? What are the categories in the criteria and how are they scored?


Ad hoc advising and research sped things along, increased impact
Overall Strategies served as a standby advisor, providing answers to these questions as they came up. This allowed the VP of CSR to make decisions confidently and expeditiously. She was able to access the support she needed without hiring an extra person, which kept things from getting backed up.

How it works

  • In-house sustainability leader or senior executive (if there is no sustainability team) subscribes to the service. This secures access to Overall Strategies as a partner and advisor

  • Get in touch with questions

  • Overall Strategies will provide high-level guidance or info as requested, or match you with a specialized expert in the network who can advise on issues ranging from human rights in supply chains to reporting to waste.

  • If more in-depth work is needed on the same topic (e.g. supplier research, facility audits, communications support), then the appropriate expert can provide support at the hourly rate


Monthly subscription cost: $500/month

  • relationship management + access to network of experts

Hourly rates for expert guidance and research: $200/hour

Typical one-year engagement
Months 1-3 = 5 hours/month (spend of $1000/month)
Months 4-6 = 20 hours/month (spend of $4000/month)
Month 7 = 5 hours/month (spend of $1000/month)
Months 8-12 = 10 hours/month (spend of $2000)

Subscription fee: $6000
General Advice and Project Related Support: $25,000