ESG consultants can be helpful—especially for first-time ESG setup. But for most mid-market suppliers, the pain isn’t one report. It’s the repeat work: the same emissions, workforce, policy, and risk questions arriving in different Excel sheets and portals from multiple customers. That’s where ESG consultants become expensive: they turn a recurring operational need into a recurring project.
The high-intent cost breakdown (what suppliers really pay)
When suppliers ask “What do ESG consultants cost?”, the visible quote is only part of the answer. For questionnaire-heavy suppliers, the real cost is: consultant fees + internal time + delays + rework.
A typical supplier engagement can easily start at €10k+ for a single project once you factor in workshops, data consolidation, drafting, and formatting. If you have multiple customers, it often repeats 2–6 times per year in slightly different formats.
- Consultant fees: often €10k–€50k+ per year depending on volume, scope, and how many questionnaires repeat
- Internal hours: 20–50 hours per questionnaire across Finance, HR, Operations, Quality, and leadership review
- Rework: follow-ups and revisions caused by inconsistent numbers, missing evidence, and mismatched narratives
- Revenue impact: slower onboarding or renewal decisions when ESG responses are late or incomplete
Why consultant-led ESG keeps repeating
Most ESG consultants deliver a document, not an operating system. The next time a customer sends a questionnaire, you still have the same core problems: data lives in silos and answers aren’t reusable.
Even if a consultant wrote strong narrative text once, the numbers change every quarter/year, and buyers increasingly want evidence. Without a structured dataset and attached documentation, you end up paying again for the same “find, reconcile, rewrite” cycle.
Consultants vs Complezy: a practical comparison
For suppliers, the lowest-cost model is usually not “no consultants” — it’s “use expertise once, then run the recurring workflow with software.”
Complezy is built for recurring supplier ESG questionnaires: centralize the data once, auto-fill new questionnaires, attach evidence, and export consistently.
- Consultant-led: great for one-off strategy and first-time setup, but expensive to repeat per customer and per cycle
- Complezy-led: build a reusable ESG workspace once and reuse answers across customers with consistent metrics and evidence
- Outcome: fewer internal hours, fewer follow-ups, faster submissions, and a clearer audit trail
A quick ROI check before you hire (use this calculator)
If you’re comparing ESG consultants vs software, the simplest way is to quantify your current effort: number of questionnaires per year × hours per questionnaire × blended hourly cost — then add the consultant fees you’re paying (or being quoted).
Use Complezy’s ROI calculator to estimate the savings from switching to a reusable data + auto-fill workflow: https://complezy.com/tools/roi-calculator
Curious how much time and cost you can save with AI question matching and auto-fill ESG responses? Use our free ROI calculator—click the button below.
Calculate your ESG questionnaire ROIKey takeaway
If ESG consultants cost suppliers €10k+ repeatedly, it’s usually because ESG is being handled as a project instead of a repeatable process. Build a reusable dataset, attach evidence once, and standardize exports — then reuse it across every customer questionnaire. That’s how you reduce cost, respond faster, and protect revenue without adding headcount.