The Transition Exchange
An initiative by Better Century and Transition Advisory Professionals, with Tom Beckett and Thomas Batra.
The Transition Exchange provides a peer-to-peer forum where practitioners share what genuinely works in turning Transition Plans into real action.
It is for those leading and delivering transition plans. Each workshop invites a topic of discussion, with a consultancy and practitioners across varying levels of seniority discussing how they have overcome challenges in delivering transition plans, followed by a Chatham House exchange in small groups to discuss the problem of the day.
We aim for every attendee to contribute to the solution, resulting in hivemind style solutions, that help accelerate action across the board – with insights and key interviews with leading practitioners shared on our LinkedIn group, where our community of practitioners can continue to engage in discussion between sessions.
Forthcoming digital workshops
We hold our digital workshops on the second Thursday of every other month.
An honest exchange of how to accelerate real action through transition plans
Session 1 – Thursday 8th October 2026 12:00am-13:30pm, BST
What is actually getting in the way of translating transition plans into action, and what has genuinely worked to break through it? This session opens the Transition Exchange where participants share learnings from delivering on transition ambition, and why a certain component worked and not others.
Speakers
 Noël Coenraad A London-based business and procurement strategist working at the intersection of science, business, and policy to drive scalable, net-zero supply chains that support a just and resilient energy future. With over seven years in the climate and energy sector, Noël has developed and implemented Net Zero Roadmaps targeting 20 million tons of CO₂e reduction annually and delivered First-of-a-kind sustainable innovations like offshore seaweed cultivation and circular EV charger. |
 Alex Hetherington Alex Hetherington is a climate change scenario analyst and sustainability practitioner, based in UK and South Africa. Since 2005 Alex has consulted directly to business on the development and implementation of sustainability strategies and then through Carbon Calculated, the carbon management consultancy he co-founded, carbon and climate change management. Recently, he has led financial quantification of climate-related impacts for Vodacom South Africa (part of Vodafone) and SPAR, which helped to inform their decarbonisation strategy. Alex also has a keen interest in sustainable finance and has advised to funds exceeding US$8.5bn in assets under management. |
 Kathrine Maceratta Kathrine has over 25 years’ experience at the intersection of corporate leadership and sustainability, working in both Latin America and the UK. She is the founder of Gaea Collaboration Ltd., a consultancy dedicated to driving systems change and supporting organisations in embedding sustainability into strategy and governance. Her career is twofold: 20 years in senior marketing and leadership roles at Unilever, followed by the past nine years as an independent impact consultant, partnering primarily with major FMCG companies such as Unilever, Danone, and Kellogg’s. This work is underpinned by advanced studies in Sustainability and Systems Thinking, culminating in a Master’s degree from Harvard University with a thesis on narratives that drive sustainable behaviour. Her research and practice focus on a holistic approach to business, aimed at designing new models grounded in circular and regenerative economics, and supported by governance that drives systemic change. |
Does engaging employees about climate and nature impact drive action?
Session 2 – Thursday 10th December 2026 12:00pm-1:30pm, GMT
What is actually getting in the way of translating transition plans into action, and what has genuinely worked to break through it? This session opens the Transition Exchange where participants share learnings from delivering on transition ambition, and why a certain component worked and not others.
How do you properly engage leadership and the board on transition plans?
Session 3 – Thursday 11th February 2027 12:00pm-1:30pm, GMT
Leadership support of transition plans is vital in setting culture and all-important budgets to align with the transition of the organisation. How can practitioners delivering a transition plan keep leadership and the board genuinely engaged and committed to delivery? This session explores what practitioners are doing to keep the leadership engaged in transition plans, and how to deal with leaders switching roles.
Join the Transition Exchange
The Transition Exchange is free to attend for those in roles developing or delivering a transition plan within or for an organisation. If this is you, then please apply for a place to join our series, or one of our workshops, by first of all applying through the below form. We will review your application and send you joining instructions for forthcoming sessions.
Criteria for selection
We select all those to join the community on the basis of the following criteria:
- In an inhouse role developing or delivering a transition plan, including Directors, Managers, HR leads and Officers (at all levels).
- Sole entrepreneur consultants working with one or more organisations, where the role of developing or delivering a transition plan for an organisation is their responsibility.
- Sustainability practitioners in larger consultancies, who are able to contribute to the operational work of the Transition Exchange
Online community
After you have joined at least one workshop, we will invite you to join our Private LinkedIn Group, to continue the conversation with your fellow Exchange members
Standing agenda for our workshops
- 20 sec Introductions from participants, as people join – 4 mins
- Transition Exchange Welcome – 3 mins
- Senior advisor speaker to set the scene – 5 mins
- Sharing of experiences for speakers – 10 mins
- Questions – 5 mins
- Workshops of 6-8 – 43mins
- Feedback from groups to build collective insights – 15 mins
- Closing – 5 mins
The partnership
The Transition Exchange is co-led by Tom Beckett of Better Century and Thomas Batra of Transition Advisory Professionals, combining two complementary capabilities:
- Technical expertise — Technical credibility on transition plan design, disclosure requirements and sector pathways, brought by Transition Advisory Professionals.
- Engagement support — Facilitation, community design and practitioner engagement, brought by Better Century, drawing on its work building tools and audiences around transition plan delivery.
This pairing is deliberate: it ensures sessions are grounded in credible technical practice while remaining genuinely useful and accessible to the practitioners doing the day-to-day work of implementation.
 Thomas Batra (co-host) Thomas is the founder of Transition Advisory Professionals, an advisory practice helping companies and investors deliver credible transition plans. He has spent eight years consulting on climate strategy, including six at KPMG, and has advised over 30 organisations on transition planning, decarbonisation, and sustainable investing – including global multinationals, large financial institutions, and philanthropic foundations. Thomas also works across the climate innovation ecosystem as a domain expert, and is particularly focused on how partnerships between established organisations and innovators can accelerate delivery on transition plans. As co-host, Thomas leads the technical framing of sessions, drawing on his experience of turning transition plans into practical business action. |
 Tom Beckett (co-host) Tom is an engagement consultant and environmental professional, with 25 years experience in delivering social and environmental justice through partnership building, fundraising, technology, and convenings. He is a trained Zoologist, and Environmental Scientist, who has run engagement campaigns in fundraising, policy making and industry transition. He led teams at his own fundraising consultancy, a major political party, the Wildlife Trusts and now advises multiple businesses and civil society organisations, whilst coaching on individual transition. He is the founder of Better Century CIC, a social enterprise, that delivers engagement work for businesses and civil society, to enable rapid transition to net zero and nature positive. As a co-host Tom ensures participation of all those attending, to ensure we tap into everyone’s wisdom to tackle the problem of the day. |