Credentials
As a certified Digital Maturity Specialist, I have the skills to assess a company's systems inside and out. This allows us to ensure you have the capacity and infrastructure in place before we set out on a growth plan together. Assessments are 90% grant-funded leaving more capital in your hands without compromising on service or quality.
As Torrey Project alumni in the spring 2022 cohort, I learned about stakeholder engagement and how to support conscious companies in achieving profitable business outcomes results with transparency, authenticity and value alignment.
At BCIT School of Business, I specialized in entrepreneurship. I learned the foundational, technical aspects of the business including business models, pricing strategies, and business and marketing planning.
The SPS Story
Since I was little, I remember feeling ill at ease with the way the world was evolving. In 2008 I was newly graduated from the University of Vicotria and I took a role as a volunteer translator for the Provincial Aboriginal Youth Council's supporting their cultural exchange with a Mayan youth group called the Mojomayas. The experience impacted me deeply; I knew then there was too much to be done in the world to waste my effort, skills and privilege working for companies or on projects that weren't rooted in social or environmental impact.
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A year later I found myself travelling across Canada as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility program for Delta Hotels and Habitat for Humanity.
At that time CSR was in its infancy, but I knew I was not alone in my desire for impactful, meaningful work and it seemed to me the need and interest were growing.
The feeling I had growing up had become an insatiable curiosity I could not stop thinking about. In 2011 I went to business school. The question that guided me at that time was "What is wrong with the world?" the conclusion I came to was the deregulation of the market, social forces of unchecked greed and ignorance were driving the unethical treatment of people and the unsustainable extraction of the planet's resources. Having said that, I didn't see anything "wrong" with business as a career modality, nor with making money, I still don't. The theory I came out of business school ready to test in the real world was this: "Can companies make money and treat people fairly and be sustainable in their operation and impact?"
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In 2013, I got into the compostable packaging industry. This is where the rubber hit the road and I learned the complexities of what it means to try to implement new "sustainable" materials in business. The term "greenwashing" wasn't new and I knew it was a problem in the industry. What I learned was if I was going to make sustainable changes with my clients it wasn't going to be easy; I had to sell a service and a system as well as the product and be brutally honest about where the product as a negative impact or undesired effect. I worked in the uphill "zero waste" battle for 5 years and when it became clear the science, infrastructure, education and behaviour change still weren't aligned, I decided to keep one foot in the industry with my position on the board at Food Stash, but move my career efforts so that I could move faster and make a greater impact.
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At Fairware I started to learn about sales processes, ethical sourcing, new sustainable materials and supply chains. I had the opportunity to join Cliff Bar's In Good Company project and participate in a shoreline cleanup. In partnership with Living Lands and Waters, our team pulled out 30k lbs of waste from the Ohio River.
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I was happy, my clients were happy and everything was going great until 2020. During the upheaval the pandemic brought with it, I was one of many who felt the calling to rise to the challenge and do all we can to immediately change...well...just about everything. We need all kinds of people, minds, skills and passions to address the challenges of our time, and I started to look at how I can share the lessons, skills, network and resources I've cultivated for the last decade to help others to build thriving, sustainable businesses.
I want to hear from you. What's your story?
The SPS Hub
Helping our clients make the changes they need to grow revenue while developing their business to become more sustainable takes a village. After 10 years of inter-industry connection building and silo-breaking, we have found the best-in-class partnerships that are part of the SPS Hub helping our clients reach their goals.
Our partners deliver on-point and on-budget, powerful offerings. They meet our high standard of service and "get it" when it comes to sustainability and understanding what our clients need. They are all passionate founders and business leaders, just like you, and they share your values when it comes to working in service of people and the planet.
There are sales agreements in place at SPS with each of these companies. Sometimes we work as a team collaborating on projects, and other times we refer business to each other if a direct connection makes the most sense to our client. Our partnerships are built over time, with trust and only after we have worked together to develop deep relationships.
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Meet our partners.
Land Acknowledgement
We live and work on the stolen lands around Turtle Island (North America). Brianna lives and works on the unceded territories of the xÊ·məθkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and SelÌ“ÃlÌ“witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Brianna is the daughter of white settlers who immigrated from the United States to Canada and traced back to further, Ireland, Italy and Germany. She is dedicated to learning how to better support the indigenous people of this land in healing from the harm inflicted by colonialism, a genocide from which she, as a white person, continues to benefit.
We are in the messy part of reconciliation which is about moving from acknowledgement to action. In addition to funded services provided for BIPOC people, we are evaluating what form our actions, both financial and behavioural, will take. We are open and available for conversations with indigenous folks at any time, about any topic, especially where we can do better as a consultant to other businesses.
What Our Clients Say
Amanda Presgraves, Chief Innovation Officer, Spira
While our startup team at Spira was redeveloping its sales systems, Brianna helped us deconstruct and rebuild our approach. With her Digital Advising expertise, Brianna identified our team's unique challenges with a GAP analysis and diligently worked to educate the team and scale systems that fit. Brianna has a keen understanding of culture and the human-side of business that really allows her to design and implement lasting solutions (while making her energizing to work alongside!).