Anna Sellars, Brady Stevens and Luisa Riascos Caipe have joined the Food & Enterprise team at SAC Consulting. Senior Rural Business Consultant Anna works on policy, economic analysis, and rural development. Brady, a Rural Business and Economics Consultant specialises in building natural capital through land use change. Food and Enterprise Consultant Luisa works in LCA modelling and food supply chain resilience.
Anna is currently working on policy and economic analysis, market research, sustainability and resource benchmarking, and rural development and diversification. She supports stakeholders across rural industry and regional governments with carbon assessments and action plans through her involvement in Agrecalc and Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Support Service, as well as advising on developing supply chains for novel crops and products.
Brady works across projects involving economic & policy analysis and specialising in building natural capital through land use, land use change and forestry. Brady combines technical skills from his earth and life sciences background with a track record of investigating policies at the centre of a just transition to a net zero economy, such as Scotland’s Regional Land Use Partnerships. Understanding how our landscapes will need to look to overcome our global, multi-pronged crises, and the necessary collaboration needed to realise these changes, are the centre of Brady’s interest. The creative combination of methods and resources (e.g. social / agricultural / climate research, stakeholder participation, blended finance) to address global challenges drive Brady’s passion in this field and is what he brings to his projects.
Luisa is the newest member of the Food and Enterprise team and is currently involved in assisting the development of LCA models, and projects on sustainability and resilience of food supply chains and systems, food security and rural resilience. Luisa’s recent work includes areas such as circular economy applications and research on sustainable packaging, particularly for fresh produce, and the effects of global shocks on food availability, local sourcing, and self-sufficiency. She is deeply passionate about food and contributing to creating a more resilient and equal system, from producers to consumers and the environment, hence she combines her technical skills with her interest in the right to food and food justice as holistic approaches to address food issues.
This now ten-strong Food & Enterprise team, led by Ceri Ritchie, Head of Food & Enterprise at SAC Consulting, provides a wealth of services including business skills & training; product development; brand, marketing & digital advice; waste reduction, resource efficiency & circular economy; economics, policy analysis, supply chain and project management. This expanded role sees the Food & Enterprise team working more closely with Environment & Woodlands’ colleagues developing a complementary service offering as part of a wider Food & Footprint group.
These developments align with the investment SRUC is making in the food side of the agri-food system with formation of two research-led centres with remits on Safe & Improved Foods and on Future Food Systems. These centres will act as focal points to address the grand challenges relevant to food production such as emerging pathogens, novel technologies, sustainable protein sources and sustainable food policies & systems.
Industry imperatives such as the overarching progress to net zero and addressing biodiversity loss while maintaining triple bottom line sustainability is the backdrop to these developments. Clients are currently battling on many fronts in the face of challenging and changing market issues. Anna, Brady & Luisa’s
experience confirms the team’s expanded remit to meet the growing demand from businesses, organisations & policy providers for support from experienced professionals to meet net-zero, circular economy and wider environmental targets.
Anna, Brady and Luisa can be contacted directly on:
Anna.sellars@sac.co.uk
Brady.stevens@sac.co.uk
Luisa.riascos@sac.co.uk
See pictured (left to right): Brady Stevens, Anna Sellars and Luisa Riascos.