Meet Our Partners: Pangolin Associates
Turning sustainability ambitions into meaningful action requires more than good intentions. Organisations need robust data, technical expertise and practical strategies to understand their impacts, reduce them and communicate their progress with confidence.
That’s where our professional services partner Pangolin Associates comes in. A leading Australian climate and sustainability consultancy, Pangolin combines deep technical expertise with a practical, science-driven approach to help organisations reduce their environmental impact and succeed in a decarbonising economy. Its work spans greenhouse gas assessments, Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), circular economy strategies, climate reporting and more.
Our partnership brings together Pangolin’s expertise in measuring impacts and developing evidence-based sustainability strategies with GECA’s independent verification and certification capabilities. Together, we can help organisations move from understanding their environmental impacts to taking credible action and communicating outcomes that can stand up to scrutiny.
We spoke with the Pangolin Associates team about the challenges businesses face in navigating sustainability data, growing expectations around environmental claims, and how credible data and independent verification can help organisations turn sustainability commitments into trusted outcomes.
For those who may not be familiar with Pangolin Associates, can you tell us a little about the organisation and the work you do?
Pangolin Associates is an Australian climate consultancy that has been helping organisations navigate climate change since 2010. We started as a small independent consultancy with the goal of building a business that creates genuine positive impact.
Today, we work with organisations of all sizes across Australia to measure emissions, understand climate-related risks, and develop practical strategies to reduce emissions and build resilience. Our team brings together expertise in climate science, engineering, policy, and climate finance to help clients make informed decisions and prepare for a lower-carbon future.
Sustainability data is becoming increasingly important for organisations. What are some of the biggest challenges businesses face when trying to measure and understand their environmental impact?
Sustainability data is becoming more important and more complicated. Organisations struggle with missing data, inconsistent data, and supplier gaps, especially across Scope 3 emissions. Information sits in scattered systems, methodologies are complex, and standards continue to evolve. The result is a patchwork of proxies, assumptions, and manual work just to build a baseline. Until data becomes more consistent and centralised, measuring environmental impact will remain one of sustainability's biggest operational challenges.
We help organisations make sense of the chaos. When data is patchy or scattered, our team pulls it together, fills the gaps with smart assumptions, and turns it into something clear and usable. We work directly with our clients, tidy up messy spreadsheets, and guide teams through the tricky parts of emissions accounting. The goal at Pangolin Associates is simple: to give organisations numbers they can trust and a smoother path to reducing their impact.
Many organisations are investing in carbon accounting, Life Cycle Assessments, and sustainability strategies. How are you seeing expectations evolve around transparency and accountability in environmental claims?
At Pangolin Associates, we're seeing growing demand for higher-quality emissions data, stronger governance processes, and assurance of sustainability information.
As reporting requirements evolve and scrutiny of greenwashing increases, accountability is becoming a key differentiator. Businesses that invest in accurate measurement, verification, and clear disclosure are better positioned to meet stakeholder expectations, comply with emerging regulations, and make informed decisions that support their decarbonisation and net zero ambitions.
We are also seeing a shift towards greater third-party validation of environmental claims. For example, Life Cycle Assessments are increasingly being independently verified, enabling organisations to communicate their results externally with greater confidence while reducing greenwashing risk.
What attracted Pangolin Associates to partner with GECA?
We work with a small group of trusted partners who bring expertise that complements our own, and GECA was a natural fit. It's an independent leader in the market and shares our commitment to helping organisations make genuine, evidence-based sustainability improvements.
By partnering with GECA, we're able to offer our clients a more complete solution. We can help organisations understand and reduce the environmental impacts of their products across the entire lifecycle, while GECA provides independent certification and verification. As environmental claims come under increasing scrutiny, having trusted third-party verification gives clients greater confidence and credibility in the market.
How do you see Pangolin Associates' technical expertise and GECA's verification and certification services complementing one another?
Pangolin Associates and GECA bring different but highly complementary strengths. We help organisations measure and understand their environmental impacts through services such as carbon accounting, Life Cycle Assessment, and climate strategy. GECA then provides the independent verification and certification that gives those outcomes greater recognition and credibility in the market.
As expectations around environmental claims continue to increase, organisations need more than good data. They need confidence that their claims can stand up to scrutiny. By combining Pangolin Associates' technical expertise with GECA's independent certification, we're helping clients move from measurement to trusted, third-party verified outcomes.
Can you share an example of the type of client or project that could benefit from both Pangolin Associates' services and GECA's independent verification or certification?
A good example would be a client that has invested in a Life Cycle Assessment and wants to use the results in external communications, marketing materials, or sustainability claims. In these cases, Pangolin Associates can provide the technical assessment, while GECA's independent verification or certification adds credibility and assurance to the claims being made.
We see particular value in the construction and building products sector, where manufacturers are increasingly required to provide verified environmental information to support tenders, green building ratings, and procurement requirements. Having both a robust Life Cycle Assessment and independent third-party certification helps organisations differentiate themselves in the market, reduce greenwashing risk, and provide customers with confidence that their environmental claims are accurate, transparent, and independently validated.
Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see for organisations that invest in credible sustainability data and independent verification?
At Pangolin Associates, we see credible sustainability data and independent verification as an important foundation for organisations looking to take meaningful climate action. While reporting frameworks and voluntary certification programs may evolve, the need for reliable, trusted data remains constant. We are seeing growing expectations from investors, customers, employees, and regulators for sustainability information that is transparent, robust, and independently verified.
Our experience shows that organisations with credible data are better equipped to make informed decisions, identify emissions reduction opportunities, respond to changing reporting requirements, and demonstrate measurable progress. Independent verification provides confidence that sustainability claims are backed by evidence, helping organisations build trust with stakeholders and communicate their progress with confidence.