Growing value and profit for a corporate finance firm through a carbon footprint assessment

Lexington Corporate Finance is a financial services firm headquartered in Cardiff that advises clients on all sorts of important business transactions. Following a recent 2024 acquisition by FRP, the firm is now known on the market as FRP Corporate Finance.

Challenge

With a stellar reputation and track record in Wales and the South West of England, the team at Lexington and our client, Warren Lewis, came across a new and, to an extent, expected challenge.

They knew there were opportunities to work more efficiently, but they didn’t know how or where to start. And the second part to that challenge – they wanted to offer an ESG and net-zero advisory service to meet increasing client demand – a capability they didn’t have in-house.

The only problem was, everyone was already working at capacity, and upskilling the team wasn’t a viable option. It would’ve been too long and costly.

Rather than doing it themselves, they decided to bring in an expert partner that would lead the work, engage the team, and share knowledge where needed.

Our Approach

Jonathan and Warren met following a local event and immediately clicked. A strong grasp on project management and deep sustainability expertise was the blend of skills Lexington needed.

Jonathan scoped out the work and we co-designed and agreed a solution within days.

We carried out a comprehensive review of Lexington’s emissions through our discovery package. Over 6 weeks, we delivered a carbon footprint assessment for Lexington, covering Scope 1, 2 and chosen Scope 3 categories. Taking everyone’s busy schedules into account, we put in weekly touch points with the team and made sure we engaged stakeholders only when necessary and at the appropriate level.

We simplified the data collection and made it easy for office manager Lucy and the rest of the team to supply the information we needed.

Green Ibex were cooperative in navigating our diaries and we found the weekly touchpoint on our carbon assessment project particularly valuable.

Lucy Evans, Office Manager, Lexington Corporate Finance

The Aha moment

The ability to do a pilot with their own emissions first before they extend the service to clients was key. It’s what gave Lexington the confidence to go ahead. We removed as much risk from the process as possible and made it a no-brainer.

The results

Through the carbon footprint assessment, we identified a spike in our gas bill that represented a huge opportunity for cost saving. We marked this as a priority action in the final report, along with other quick wins.

To maximise the strategic value of the work and raise awareness among the team, we mapped out upcoming net-zero regulations in financial services. Through this, we pinpointed some clear improvement opportunities before handing over our strategic recommendations.

The impact

“This work gave us visibility of the areas in our business where we weren’t being efficient (like energy consumption) – and could save money right away through very simple steps. Green Ibex gave us clarity and the tools to action these – and focus where it mattered most.

“Anyone that works in finance knows that anything that reduces cost improves EBITDA, and a business’ valuation is a multiple of its profit. This was an extremely valuable exercise for us ahead of an important transaction of our own.”

This work also gave Lexington, and now FRP, a flywheel for easy carbon measurement and reporting that they now use on a regular basis.

It also boosted their competitive advantage and position. Through Green Ibex, they can now offer strategic net-zero support directly to their clients instead of letting them figure it out on their own.

Going through an important phase in your business growth and want to maximise your green credentials? Give us a shout.