Lorne Michael Cousins

My work is with the leadership teams and functional departments of large companies, helping them move on a sustainability mandate they already have on paper. I have done it for twenty-five years, across China and the Asia-Pacific, from Fulcrum Point in Shanghai.

The throughline has been one conviction. Sustainability is not a brochure. It is a technical discipline that can be taught, measured, and practised, and it belongs in the daily decisions of every department.

“Practicality without passion is like a tree without roots. My work is grounded in the need for practical actions that move the needle towards building a sustainable business.”

Lorne Michael Cousins

I run corporate training in formats built for different audiences. Executive Sessions for leadership teams. Departmental Training for functional teams. Workforce Briefings for the wider organization. Each runs the same way: I facilitate myself, the content is built on your operations, and the session ends with a named action and a calendar commitment before anyone leaves the room.

My method rests on two foundations. The first is a structured facilitation approach for leadership teams that span functions and cannot rely on hierarchy to force a decision. It takes a leadership group that has a strategy on paper and produces one committed first action, across four phases. The second is a rigorous, independently developed science-based reference system that sets the threshold conditions a business must meet to be sustainable in absolute terms. I use it to show the gaps that conventional reporting frameworks leave unaddressed. Most clients already report against GRI, ISSB, TCFD, or their own taxonomy. I do not replace those. I adapt the training to whichever framework you use.

The services

• Asia-based, where most engagements are scoped and delivered
• Selective international work in Europe and North America for clients with global teams

Current

• Founder, Fulcrum Point Sustainability Consulting Co., Ltd. Shanghai, 2020 to present
• Senior Fellow and Council Director, The Conference Board. Sustainability Leaders Council and Asia AI Strategy Implementation Council
• Founding Member, Sustainability Directory

Lecturing, past and present

• Duke Kunshan University
• CEIBS, China Europe International Business School
• EMLyon Business School
• University of Nottingham

A short list of the work that shaped how I practise.

• GHG inventory verification. Automotive, FMCG, and industrial manufacturing in China
• ISO 14001 environmental management audits across global supply chains
• Biofuel supply-chain assessments, Asia-Pacific origin to European delivery
• Corporate ESG reporting integration for Fortune 500 clients operating in China
• Executive education programs across Asia-Pacific

• Master of Environmental Management (MEM), UNSW Australia
• Practitioner (PIEMA), Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, UK
• Accredited Advisor, Future-Fit Business Benchmark
• Practitioner, Strategic Doing

I lecture in sustainability for executive and graduate audiences across Asia-Pacific. I write and speak on running sustainability inside Chinese corporate culture, on the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, and on the gap between sustainability strategy and operational delivery.

Ongoing roles include Council Director for the Sustainability Leaders Council and the Asia AI Strategy Implementation Council at The Conference Board, executive education at EMLyon Business School, and contributions to the Future-Fit Foundation’s practitioner community.