Mahirah Khanom, 2nd Year Geography Undergraduate

My experience with the Student Consultancy Project at Queen Mary University of London

Taking part in the Student Consultancy Project (SCP) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) was an incredible opportunity to apply my academic learning to a real-world sustainability challenge. Over the course of two weeks, I worked alongside a team of students to support Bywaters, a leading environmental and recycling company, in developing strategies to reach their net-zero emissions target by 2030.

This project started with an introductory session where we learned about the SCP framework, followed by an initial client meeting with Bywaters. From there, we dove into project management skills and attended a presentation accelerator to help us communicate our ideas effectively. These early sessions really helped us prepare for the week ahead, building our confidence as consultants in training.

Our brief was to explore practical ways Bywaters could reduce their emissions and reach net zero by 2030. Our team decided to focus on two core strategies: electrifying the fleet and the use of biofuels. This involved analysing detailed Excel data on the company’s historical emissions from 2021 to 2024, identifying trends, and assessing which interventions would be most feasible and impactful over the next five years.

During the second week, we presented our ideas in a practice run and received super helpful feedback, which we used to refine our final client presentation. The week concluded with a reflection session where we looked back on our learning and progress. Throughout the project, it was clear how much value teamwork and communication played in making our recommendations as strong and actionable as possible.

What made this experience truly stand out was the chance to work on a real-life consultancy brief, especially one focused on such a critical and timely issue – reaching net zero. Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, and it felt incredibly meaningful to contribute ideas toward a company’s transition to a more sustainable future. It's a topic that so many organisations are urgently addressing, and being part of that conversation, even as a student, was empowering.

If you’re a student looking to challenge yourself, build consultancy skills, and make a difference, I can’t recommend the SCP experience highly enough!

Blog post written by Mahirah Khanom, current second-year Geography undergraduate student (2025).