Margin. Focus. Control.

Growth advisory for Australian environmental consulting firms

Greenhat helps Australian firms move beyond headcount-led growth by tightening pricing, service-line focus, sales discipline, and management cadence.

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Environmental industry focus Sector-specific advice on markets, service lines, pricing, utilisation, and delivery models

Software experience Productisation, pricing-model design, and recurring-revenue discipline applied to specialist consulting work

Operator-led, MBA-trained Advice from an ex-CEO with 3 exits, 2 BRW Fast Starters, and 1 BRW Fast 100 business

The Constraint

Busy teams. Tighter margins. More complexity.

Environmental consulting firms rarely stall because the technical work is weak. The constraint is usually commercial: how they choose markets, price risk, package expertise, sell work, and manage delivery economics. The model that worked at ten people often starts to strain at 10+ headcount.

Where it shows up

Revenue grows, but profit and management control do not keep pace
Pricing decisions depend on habit, history, or fear of client pushback
The founder or managing director is still pulled into sales, pricing, and escalation
Repeatable expertise is sold as if every engagement were fully custom
Client and market choices remain reactive despite cyclical demand

How We Help

Redesign the commercial levers behind the consulting work

Greenhat starts by identifying the commercial constraint, then works with management to redesign the practical levers that determine margin, focus, and growth quality.

Commercial Constraint Diagnostic

Find the issue most limiting margin, growth quality, or management control across pricing, utilisation, pipeline, service lines, and delivery economics.

Commercial Model Redesign

Redesign pricing, market focus, service-line structure, proposal discipline, and client selection so the firm is not relying only on more headcount.

Execution Support

Proposal and qualification discipline
Pricing and margin review cadence
Service-line accountability
Founder dependency reduction
M&A, integration, or turnaround support where relevant

Process

A practical engagement tied to operating decisions

01
Diagnose
Review pricing, pipeline, utilisation, service-line economics, client mix, delivery constraints, and founder bottlenecks.
02
Prioritise
Identify the constraint with the greatest effect on margin, focus, or management control, then agree the decisions that need to change.
03
Redesign
Build the new pricing logic, service-line structure, market focus, sales discipline, or management cadence with the leadership team.
04
Execute
Support implementation far enough that the new commercial model becomes part of how the firm sells, prices, delivers, and reviews work.

About Us

Greenhat is the advisory and operating platform of Ben Starr, built from two decades of experience scaling technical businesses across consulting, SaaS, IoT hardware, and environmental infrastructure markets.

Greenhat exists to help professional service companies commercialise their technological expertise in a scalable and profitable manner. Greenhat works with firms typically between 10 and 50 staff to improve utilisation, project profitability, positioning, operational systems, recurring revenue, and long-term enterprise value.

Before founding Greenhat, Ben scaled a multidisciplinary consulting business from 2 to 50 staff, built globally recognised technical capability in niche disciplines, and later applied SaaS growth and productisation methods inside software and technology businesses. That included recurring revenue models, partner-led growth, product spin-outs, training businesses, and commercial systems designed to scale beyond founder-led delivery. Ben has an Executive Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science.

Track Record

Previous Projects

These examples relate to organisations founded, led, acquired, operated, or commercially redesigned by the Greenhat Group principal.

SigSense Built channel strategy for a regulated infrastructure rollout

Developed the commercial strategy, distributor model, and market positioning for SigSense, helping establish a leading channel position in the NSW non-urban telemetry rollout market.

Focus areas

Channel strategy
Regulatory market positioning
Distribution growth
Commercial scaling

eagle.io Repositioned a technical SaaS platform for environmental markets

Led the commercial repositioning of eagle.io into a specialist environmental monitoring platform, improving pricing alignment, partner engagement, and market focus prior to acquisition.

Focus areas

SaaS positioning
Pricing strategy
Partner ecosystems
Market segmentation

FSA Supported acquisition integration and operational stabilisation

Led operational and commercial restructuring activities following the acquisition of FSA, supporting leadership transition, organisational stability, and integration into a broader consulting group.

Focus areas

Post-acquisition integration
Leadership transition
Operational stabilisation
Commercial restructuring

O2 Environment Engineering Scaled a specialist environmental consulting business

Helped scale O2 Environment Engineering from a small technical consultancy into a multidisciplinary environmental business through service-line focus, operational structure, regulator engagement, and commercial systems development.

Focus areas

Service-line strategy
Consulting operations
Growth management
Commercial systems

Turbid Commercialised a specialist stormwater treatment offering

Developed the commercial model and go-to-market strategy for Turbid, supporting regulatory acceptance, market adoption, and recurring supply revenue growth.

Focus areas

Product commercialisation
Regulatory strategy
Go-to-market design
Recurring revenue development

O2 Marine Established a specialist marine consulting capability

Supported the launch and scaling of a marine environmental consultancy by aligning specialist personnel, operational systems, safety capability, and project delivery structure.

Focus areas

Specialist consulting operations
Service-line development
Operational systems
Capability scaling

Testimonials

What operators say about working with Ben

"Ben was instrumental in the establishment and growth of O2 Marine."

Chris Lane CEO, O2 Marine

"Ben was instrumental in making the O2 group as successful as it is today."

Graeme Uechtritz Director, Turbid

"Ben's direction and ability to grasp problems is a key reason O2 evolved so quickly."

Terry Clark Director, Topo

Start Here

Book a Commercial Constraint Call

Tell us where the firm is starting to strain: pricing, margin, utilisation, sales discipline, service-line focus, founder dependency, acquisition, integration, or turnaround.

Based in Brisbane, Australia, working nationally

Focus Environmental consulting and similar project-based professional services firms