“Our role is not to take sustainability away from organisations — it’s to help them build the confidence and capability to do it well themselves.”
Who we are
🔹 Experience and Approach
Trusted, experienced support to help you make better decisions — month after month.
🔹 Working together since 2003
Russell Layberry and Catherine Bottrill began working together at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and have spent over 20 years supporting organisations on their energy and sustainability journeys.
🔹 Deep technical expertise + practical delivery
Russell combines systems-level understanding of energy and carbon with hands-on experience — including over 300 energy audits and work across a wide range of buildings and estates.
🔹 Turning strategy into action
Catherine focuses on helping organisations translate sustainability ambition into practical programmes — working across leadership, finance, operations and communications teams.
🔹 Entrepreneurs and innovators
Russell and Catherine are also founders of Pilio, a company they spun-out from the University of Oxford in 2011 to deliver energy management and carbon footprinting software tools to support businesses climate action.
This experience of building and commercialising solutions gives them a strong understanding of both proven approaches and emerging innovation.
Catherine continues to lead Pilio with a focus on sustainability of the fashion and textile industry’s sourcing of raw materials, while Oxford Sustainability Services has been created to provide focused, ongoing advisory support to a small number of organisations.
🔹 Ongoing support that delivers value
Together, they provide consistent, senior-level input — helping organisations avoid unnecessary consultancy spend, make better decisions, and deliver meaningful progress over time.
Their work spans commercial businesses, cultural organisations and the public sector, combining analytical depth with real-world implementation.
Rather than producing standalone projects, they work alongside internal teams to build capability, prioritise action, and deliver practical outcomes.
A different approach
Many organisations invest heavily in sustainability reporting, strategies and frameworks — but often struggle to translate these into meaningful, sustained outcomes. Too often, sustainability is delivered externally rather than embedded internally.
We created Oxford Sustainability Services to take a different approach.
Instead of focusing on large consultancy projects, we provide ongoing advisory support — helping you make sensible decisions on energy, carbon and compliance, while building the confidence and capability to manage this work internally.
Our role is to bring clear judgement, technical insight and practical guidance. Your role is to own and deliver the work.
We focus on what is proportionate, achievable and aligned with how your organisation actually operates — avoiding unnecessary complexity and keeping attention on what will make a real difference over time.
Meet the experts
Dr. Russell Layberry
Energy and carbon specialist combining deep systems expertise with hands-on delivery across buildings, infrastructure and the transition to renewable energy.
Energy and carbon specialist with over 20 years’ experience in building energy systems, carbon footprinting and decarbonisation.
Russell combines deep technical expertise with hands-on delivery. He has completed over 400 energy audits across commercial and cultural buildings, is an ESOS Lead Assessor, and has trained hundreds of professionals in energy management and carbon reduction.
His background spans physics and energy systems — including a PhD in geophysics, postdoctoral work in climate modelling, and energy system modelling at the University of Oxford focused on decarbonising the built environment.
Alongside this, Russell has extensive practical experience as a trained electrician and Certified Energy Manager. His work covers building systems, embodied carbon, and the transition to renewable energy — including green tariffs, electrification, and low-carbon technologies.
He helps organisations understand their impacts in detail, assess technical options, and prioritise effective, real-world solutions.
Catherine Bottrill
Strategic sustainability advisor helping organisations translate carbon commitment and ambition into practical action and long-term organisational change.
Strategic sustainability advisor with over 20 years’ experience supporting organisations on carbon, policy and organisational change.
Catherine’s work spans carbon footprinting, sustainability strategy and the development of practical approaches to emissions reduction. She has experience working on climate policy and carbon market-based approaches, alongside delivering carbon management frameworks across multiple sectors.
She works with leadership teams and operational functions to embed sustainability into decision-making, business strategy and organisational culture — helping organisations translate ambition into practical, deliverable programmes.
With a background in environmental science and management (St Andrews, Yale and Surrey Universities) and experience founding and scaling sustainability-focused businesses,
Catherine specialises in building internal capability, developing clear priorities, and supporting sustained organisational change.
Contact us
Interested in working together? Book an introductory call to discuss your priorities.
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