MEMBER FEATURE: TRAVERSE ADVISING

MEMBER FEATURE: a conversation with Jonathan Gregory, Managing Principal and Founder of Traverse Advising.

Jonathan Gregory has cultivated a deeply personal, collaborative, and pioneering approach to his work as an independent sustainability consultant. With a childhood spent exploring the woods and lakes of Northern New Hampshire, Jonathan has found a way to commit his life's work to finding solutions to improving the communities and helping protect the natural places he loves. He has a regional focus in advising clients in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, where he's spent over a dozen years advancing sustainability practices.

Though Traverse Advising itself is relatively new, Jonathan's deep roots and ties to the region as a long time New Hampshire resident and community organizer is reflective in his work. Many of his projects come from partnering with other consulting firms across New England, a collaborative approach that both requires and lends itself to developing strong and meaningful community connections. Furthermore, sustainably as a field is so large in scope that being able to work together with field experts is necessary. Jonathan's particular expertise and certifications are in the strategizing around and measuring of nonfinancial (i.e. social and environmental) performance metrics. In our time of much needed action on climate change and cultural identity, companies are realizing that financial vitality is not the sole ingredient to their long-term success.  

"My interests and skillsets," says Jonathan, "have always been on how one develops and maintains a business that operates sustainability. One big issue I see is overconsumption of natural resources and another is the carbon emissions that are a consequence of our consumption levels, which, from a systemic standpoint, the planet cannot sustain." In addressing these big issues, Jonathan encourages all organizations to rethink how they measure their performance from a Triple Bottom Line perspective. He has worked in the private, nonprofit, and public sector on carbon mitigation. With a degree in entrepreneurship and management, his work with clients is inherently opportunity focused. "It's the client that I've got a relationship with. I want to know what their goals and ambitions are and find ways to help them make progress to becoming a more sustainable organization. It takes intimacy and long term planning to get organizations to think along the lines of: We can do more with our operation. We can be more community based. We can be more resource conservative. We can be smarter and perform better. Because there are so many opportunities for organizations to improve their practices, there's so much they can do and it's so vital for us to make this progress."

Though one of our newest members, Traverse Advising has already jumped into growing and strengthening the NHBSR network to better assist other members in understanding their sustainability practices and goals. Jonathan has joined our new Measure What Matters NH committee and hopes to learn from others about their sustainability efforts and share his own experiences within the field. He finds immense value in organizations delving deep into their own processes to analyze and develop long term strategies for improving their social and environmental impact. We're so thrilled to welcome him on board!!

We hope you will connect with Jonathan at our Sustainability Slam on November 1 in Amherst or you can reach out to him at jonathan@traverseadvising.com!!