Our Story

Eracura (a celtic goddess of the circle of life) was formed by Dr Karen Booth and Michelle Francis. We started Eracura because we know that there are many businesses out there that have not yet grasped that any enterprise that embraces sustainable development can still be commercially successful, indeed it is a great way to be even more successful.

It is a challenge to understand exactly what sustainability means for any one business, as it is a complex area. However, it is not all hair shirts and lentils (thankfully!).

It’s about understanding:

the value your organisation can add to the communities it serves
the benefits the organisation can bring to the environment, and
making your organisation more attractive to employees, customers and clients.

Note page with 'Our Story' handwritten upon it.

Starting down this path is likely to involve some changes. However, our approach will lead you through any changes as painlessly as possible, because we take the time to:

understand your challenges
offer insights to help you develop, and
identify areas where you could focus activity.

We have real life experience, not just learned from a book, and as a result can offer practical and informed support to both challenge and engage with organisations. This means your strategy or project is the best it can be.

Our career paths are so similar we have wondered whether we were separated at birth!

Read a bit more about us below:

Dr Karen Booth – Director

Karen Booth

I have worked as an environment and sustainability professional for 30 years, in consultancy and also heading sustainability teams in the public and private sectors. It all seems a long way from my days as a water pollution researcher and dreams of sailing off with Jacques Cousteau. Those years have helped me build up a track record in successful strategic thinking specialising in sustainability/corporate social responsibility and delivering culture change.

I have worked on a range of sustainability projects, including policy and strategy development and implementation, rail franchising, sustainable procurement, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), Strategic EIA, auditing/Environmental Management System implementation and stakeholder/community engagement. I consider myself a straight talker and cannot be doing with flannel. Two spells as a Trustee/Director for the charities CarPlus and The Environment Council, have given me first-hand experience of issues facing the third sector.

Michelle Francis – Director

Michelle Francis

I have worked as an environment and sustainability professional for 24 years in consultancy and the public and private sectors, setting up my first business in 2004. I specialise in advising a range of clients on sustainability best practice and environmental management, helping companies and organisations develop their approach to sustainability. I have acted in a variety of roles: heading up in-house teams; as an interim and through consultancy support. I am passionate about helping to improve clients’ performance and working with them to engender the culture change needed to become more sustainable.

I have helped on all sides of the procurement journey, developing specifications and evaluating proposals on one hand and writing and mobilising successful bids on the other (not on the same job we should be clear!) As a board member of both the natural environment regulator and the pollution regulator in Scotland I have gained an insight into stakeholder expectations and how boards operate and think. I am a solutions oriented person and thrive on helping find the win – win approach. This is a long way from the undergraduate research I carried out in the rainforests of what was then called Zaire!

Associates

We are lucky enough to work with a number of associates whose breadth and depth of experience adds to and complements our own, enabling us to offer a broad range of services to clients.

Ann Durrant - Sustainability Specialist

Ann is a highly experienced sustainability specialist who loves helping organisations benefit from improving their social and environmental impacts, and she excels in problem solving and seeing challenges as opportunities. After nine years owning and managing the sustainability specialists M4C and then 18 months with the Global sustainability specialists Anthesis, she is now operating on a freelance basis.

She has worked across a range of industries including railways, further education and pharmaceuticals, and specialises in project management, training and facilitation, systems implementation, behaviour change, strategy development and implementation and change management. She also is a believer in smiling and having fun!

Dr Ian McCubbin - Carbon and GHG Specialist

Ian has over 30 years’ consultancy experience in the carbon assessment, climate change and sustainable energy fields, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions assessments, climate change risk, resilience and adaptation, and sustainable energy analyses. Before becoming freelance in 2016, Ian worked for seven years at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) where he was involved in a wide variety of carbon and climate assessment projects for clients across the private sector. Previous to ERM, he worked for twenty years at AEA Technology (now Ricardo AEA), on renewable energy programme and project management for public sector clients, including the then Department of Energy.

Ian’s track record includes analysis of GHG emissions and climate change risks within Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and proposed major infrastructure projects majoring on transport projects. He has led GHG assessment workstreams for the HS2 and Cross Rail 2 projects and has extensive experience of analysing the GHG performance of traction service options for a number of rail franchise bids. Ian has also completed GHG and climate risk assessments for a proposed pilot power generation and Carbon Capture (CCS) facility and a major UK telecommunications provider.

Trisha McAuley OBE - Consumer and CSR Specialist

Trisha is an independent consumer expert. For over 20 years, until 2014, she was a senior executive in UK and Scottish consumer organisations, and is the former Scottish Director of Consumer Futures. She was awarded an OBE for services to consumer affairs in 2015. She has been an influential public policy leader, working effectively with parliaments, governments, regulators, business and public services at strategic level.

Trisha established her own consultancy in 2014, which helps leaders and organisations, in the private, public and voluntary sectors, build mutual value by bringing the interests of consumers, customers and communities to the heart of strategy, policy and services. Clients have included Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, Ofcom Communications Consumer Panel, Queen Margaret University, One Big Switch, Policy Hub Scotland, Energy Action Scotland and the Scottish Government. Trisha is also an experienced Non-Executive Director, holding a Board portfolio that spans health, social care, regulators and regulated businesses across the UK.

Sallie Ryan - Marketing and Social Value Specialist

Sallie has 30 years’ experience working across a range of sectors including social enterprise, charitable, social housing, construction, financial services, business consultancy and creative including 10 years’ experience specialising in social value, social enterprise, best value procurement, continuous improvement and general consultancy in the public, third and private, working closely with Chief Executive and leadership teams. Through her role as Partnership and Business Manager with Social Enterprise West Midlands CIC (until June 2016) Sallie led on all consultancy delivery and is a specialist in social value including social impact, CSR strategy, engaging supply chains, organisational development, feasibility studies and tendering.

With her experience Sallie is in much demand and has been a speaker for the National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, Public Health England, Chamber of Commerce, employability forums, regional charity groups, procurement consortia groups and various supply chain conferences. Sallie believes passionately in supporting and enabling ‘values-led’ organisations, through marketing, tendering, partnering and mentoring.