Southern Enterprise Awards 2025/ 34 Best ESG Consultancy 2025 Businesses of all sizes are faced with mounting pressures to enhance their environmental, social, and governance practices. As the global mindset shifts towards sustainability and responsibility, it is no longer only listed and public limited companies that are under the spotlight; all companies are under scrutiny—whether from customers, partners, regulators, or stakeholders—to navigate these daunting regulations. Enter Flourish CSR, an expert consultancy dedicated to supporting businesses of all sizes as they embark on their ESG journey. We spoke to Louise McCabe, Co-Founder, Director, and Responsible Business Consultant at Flourish CSR, as the consultancy is named in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2025. Based in Bath, Flourish CSR is an awardwinning business providing ESG expertise, practical guidance, and communication support to clients at every stage of their journey to becoming a sustainable and responsible business. The consultancy serves a wide range of clientele, predominantly fashion and apparel brands and retailers, but also consumer goods and services, manufacturers, charities, membership organisations, and service providers across an array of industries, from venture capital, PR companies, and medical services providers to manufacturers, charities, and NGO-led collaborations. Flourish CSR was Co-Founded in 2019 by Louise McCabe and Tara Luckman, who had previously worked together at ASOS. An experienced CSR Director, Louise created the ASOS “Fashion with Integrity” strategy from scratch in 2008, transforming ASOS over ten years into an industry leader in ethical trade, sustainability, and inclusion. She also played an instrumental role in influencing the UK fashion industry in its approach to Modern Slavery reporting, commended by the ILO, animal welfare, and the celebration of diversity and body confidence in consumer communications. As the Head of Responsible Sourcing Tara led the ASOS product sustainability strategy from raw materials to recycling, introducing circular methodologies and an industry leading partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Tara is experienced across a gamut of environmental challenges for fashion, ranging from chemical compliance to customer engagement, and actively participates in national and global sustainability initiatives for fashion, including Global Fashion Agenda, Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Textile Exchange, ZDHC, and the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan UK. Together, Louise and Tara have propelled Flourish CSR to stand as a leading responsible business consultancy, helping companies build and communicate an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy along with associated policies, programmes, communications, and reporting. The pair are dedicated to sharing their experience and commitment for the good off the wider industry and, since Flourish CSR’s inception, a substantial portion of their work has centred on collaborative, cross-sector initiatives that tackle environmental and social challenges. “We’ve realised how transferrable the skills and experience we’ve gained over 20 years in fashion and textiles truly are,” Louise shared. “We’ve travelled the same road as our clients and we work with them as one of the team— we’re very hands-on, pragmatic, and can adapt to the client’s needs, whether that’s a deep dive on a particular topic, a root and branch assessment of existing ESG practices vs. client, investor or reporting requirements, or a light touch of ‘discovery assessment’ to identify priority areas and quick wins.” Flourish CSR worked closely with Cascale on the redevelopment of its brand and retailer ESG assessment module, the Higg Brand and Retail Module. This module provides a comprehensive assessment of an organisation’s sustainability performance against the most relevant environmental, social, and governance issues across the industry. This project has made Flourish CSR a proud member of a team dedicated to helping global fashion businesses understand their ESG progress, identify areas for improvement, and consistently benchmark their performance year-over-year. The landscape of ESG compliance continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements and shifts in public behaviour. Increasing ESG regulations are being introduced to the UK, including the adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s S1 and S2 standards to create the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, and the UK Sustainability Disclosure Requirements framework, which will require companies to disclose climate impact in 2026. Companies must now prepare for stricter ESG compliance and transparency, with changes that reflect the UK’s growing emphasis on corporate responsibility and sustainability. Flourish CSR will lead the charge in this development. Louise told us: “2025 has already been a really strong year for us, with busy months spent helping clients develop a robust approach to forthcoming environmental and social reporting requirements. We are finding a lot of companies who supply public bodies, such as the government or NHS, are seeking help with improving their supply chain management and modern slavery approaches. This line of work is right in our sweet spot, and we are looking forward to getting stuck into helping theses businesses thrive.” Company: Flourish CSR Web Address: www.flourishcsr.co.uk
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