Evora Global, a sustainability consultancy and ESG software provider serving the real estate sector, saved the equivalent of 12 full-time employees by building multi-hub offshore teams through Potentiam in Iasi, Romania and Bangalore, India. The Romania hub handles data management and operations, while the India hub accelerates software development, freeing Evora's UK-based consultants from operational tasks and enabling faster product delivery to clients navigating an increasingly complex ESG regulatory landscape.
This case study examines how Evora solved a scaling challenge that founder Chris Bennett described vividly: the business had become structurally unbalanced as it grew. By deploying function-specific offshore teams across two continents, Evora straightened its trajectory and built a model other sustainability consultancies can replicate as the global ESG consulting market accelerates toward USD 180 billion by 2031.
Key Takeaway
Evora Global saved 12 FTE equivalent of work by building dedicated offshore teams in Romania (data management and operations) and India (software development) through Potentiam. The multi-hub model freed senior consultants from operational tasks, accelerated ESG software delivery, and gave Evora the structural capacity to scale in a market growing at 25.68% CAGR.
12 FTE
Work Equivalent Saved
Operational tasks redistributed offshore
2 Hubs
Romania + India
Function-specific geographic model
45-80%
Labour Cost Reduction
Romania 45%, India up to 80% vs UK
$180B
Market by 2031
ESG consulting market projection
Sources: Mordor Intelligence 2026, The Scalers 2025, Evora Global case study results
Evora Global provides sustainability consultancy and ESG software to the real estate sector, helping property owners and fund managers navigate environmental compliance. As regulatory mandates like the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive brought over 50,000 firms into mandatory disclosure scope, demand for Evora's services surged. But growth created a structural problem.
Founder Chris Bennett described the challenge in architectural terms: the business had started to lean. Rather than growing vertically in a balanced way, Evora's expansion was creating instability. Senior consultants, hired for their strategic expertise in ESG advisory and client engagement, were spending increasing amounts of time on operational data management, routine reporting, and administrative tasks. The more the business grew, the more it leaned.
This pattern is common across the sustainability consulting sector. The industry faces an acute talent deficit, with approximately 1.2 million skilled workers currently lacking in the green economy, a figure projected to reach 1.7 million by 2027. Green hiring growth from 2021 to 2025 outpaced the share of workers acquiring green skills by a ratio of two to one. For consultancies like Evora, hiring more UK-based consultants to handle operational work was neither economically viable nor strategically sound.
Simultaneously, Evora needed to accelerate its software development. ESG software for real estate requires sophisticated functionality: energy performance tracking, emissions quantification, compliance dashboards, and investor reporting tools. Building this in London at UK developer rates would strain the cost model of a mid-market consultancy, yet without strong software products, Evora risked losing ground to better-funded competitors.
Evora Global's decision to build teams across two locations, rather than consolidating everything in one offshore hub, reflects a maturing understanding of how different functions benefit from different geographic strengths. Romania and India each offer distinct advantages that align with the specific work being performed in each hub.
The multi-hub approach specialises each location by function. Iasi handles data management and operations, work that benefits from real-time collaboration with UK consultants during overlapping business hours. Bangalore focuses on software development, where access to one of the world's deepest engineering talent pools enables rapid product iteration. This geographic specialisation avoids forcing one location to be adequate at everything.
Iasi, Romania: Data & Operations Hub
Functions: ESG data management, energy data compilation, operational support, reporting, quality assurance
Time zone: GMT+2, enabling full-day overlap with UK teams
Talent pool: 202,000+ active IT specialists in Romania, third-fastest-growing major city in Europe
Cost advantage: 45-50% below UK rates for equivalent capability
Bangalore, India: Software Development Hub
Functions: ESG software development, platform engineering, AI/ML integration, product iteration
Time zone: GMT+5:30, enabling follow-the-sun development cycles
Talent pool: 50% of India's AI/ML talent, 5.8 million software engineers nationally
Cost advantage: 70-80% below UK rates for software development
COO Robin Morris-Weston highlighted what made the Romania hub particularly effective. The Iasi team demonstrated strong system-thinking capability combined with an efficiency-focused working culture, a combination ideal for the structured, detail-intensive work of ESG data management where accuracy and process discipline matter as much as technical skill.
Research supports this approach. Multi-hub offshoring models combining Eastern European nearshore capacity with Indian offshore resources create advantages including round-the-clock productivity, reduced management overhead through functional specialisation, and enhanced resilience through geographic diversification.
Iasi has transformed from a traditional university city into one of Europe's most dynamic technology hubs, making it an increasingly attractive location for data-intensive operations like ESG consulting support. The city's growth trajectory and talent infrastructure explain why Potentiam established a hub there and why Evora's data operations thrive in this environment.
Since Romania joined the European Union in 2007, Iasi has become the third-fastest-growing major city in Europe (alongside Wroclaw), behind only Dublin and Valletta, with an average annual economic growth rate of approximately 5%. The Palas Campus business park, completed in 2022, provides 60,000 square metres of modern office space and hosts multinational companies including Microsoft and Amazon.
Romania's technology ecosystem ranks impressively by international standards. The country holds over 202,000 active IT specialists, placing it fourth in Europe by talent pool size and first in Europe for certified IT specialists per 1,000 inhabitants. Romanian developers rank third globally in technical competency benchmarks, ahead of the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
| Factor | Iasi, Romania | Bangalore, India |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Function | Data management, operations | Software development |
| Senior Engineer Monthly Cost | ~£4,366 fully loaded | ~£1,000-1,250 fully loaded |
| UK Equivalent Cost | ~£7,917/month | ~£7,917/month |
| Cost Saving vs UK | ~45% | ~75-80% |
| Time Zone Offset from UK | +2 hours (full overlap) | +5.5 hours (partial overlap) |
| Data Protection | EU GDPR (native compliance) | India DPDP Act 2023 |
| Key Talent Metric | 1st in Europe: certified IT specialists per capita | 50% of India's AI/ML talent |
Sources: The Scalers 2025, BeeCoded 2025, PlugScale 2026
For ESG data operations specifically, Romania's EU membership provides a critical regulatory advantage. Client data handled by the Iasi team receives native GDPR protection, identical to data processed in the United Kingdom. This eliminates the compliance complexity that arises when sensitive property performance data, energy consumption records, and investor reporting information crosses into jurisdictions without equivalent data protection frameworks.
Bangalore is the undisputed centre of India's technology economy and a natural choice for Evora's software development needs. The city holds nearly 50% of India's artificial intelligence and machine learning talent and supports almost every modern technology field, from AI and biotechnology to fintech, robotics, and green technology.
For a sustainability consultancy building ESG software, this breadth of capability is essential. ESG platforms for real estate require machine learning models for energy performance prediction, real-time monitoring dashboards, automated compliance reporting against multiple regulatory frameworks, and investor-facing analytics. Building these features in London, where a senior software engineer commands approximately £110,200 annually in fully loaded costs, would be prohibitively expensive for a mid-market consultancy. In Bangalore, the average software engineer salary stands at approximately 9.7 lakhs per annum (roughly £9,300), creating a cost differential that makes ambitious software development economically feasible.
India accounts for approximately 57% of the global offshore market, with over 1,800 global capability centres established throughout the country. The Bangalore hub also enables a follow-the-sun development cycle: with a 5.5-hour time offset from the UK, work completed during Indian business hours can be reviewed and built upon when the UK team starts their day, accelerating development timelines without requiring any single team to work extended hours.
Potentiam's implementation approach for Evora followed a structured methodology designed to build both hubs as genuine extensions of Evora's organisation rather than arms-length outsourcing arrangements. The process leveraged Potentiam's operational experience, built from scaling EnergyQuote JHA to over 300 employees across multiple geographies before the firm's acquisition by Accenture.
Operational Analysis and Function Mapping
Potentiam worked with Evora's leadership to identify which functions were consuming senior consultant time and map them to the most appropriate offshore location. Data management, energy auditing support, and operational administration were assigned to Romania for its time-zone alignment and system-thinking culture. Software development was directed to Bangalore for its depth of engineering talent and cost efficiency.
Talent Acquisition and Team Assembly
Potentiam recruited professionals matched to Evora's specific requirements in both locations. In Iasi, this meant finding data professionals with analytical rigour, process discipline, and the capacity to work within ESG reporting frameworks. In Bangalore, the focus was on software engineers with experience in data-intensive platforms, dashboard development, and compliance-driven application architecture.
Integration and Workflow Design
Rather than creating isolated offshore units, Potentiam designed workflows that embedded both hubs into Evora's existing operational framework. Communication protocols, handoff procedures, quality benchmarks, and escalation paths were defined before team deployment. The Romania hub operated in near-real-time with London, while the Bangalore hub followed structured asynchronous handoff processes optimised for the time-zone gap.
Ongoing Support and Optimisation
Potentiam provided continuous HR business partner support in both locations, managing retention, professional development, and operational continuity. Performance metrics were tracked, processes refined, and team capacity adjusted as Evora's needs evolved. This ongoing partnership model ensures offshore teams improve in productivity and capability over time.
This implementation approach reflects the operational DNA that Potentiam's founders developed while building EnergyQuote JHA. That energy consultancy scaled to over 300 employees across multiple countries before its exit to Accenture, giving Potentiam's team direct experience with multi-hub coordination and quality management across geographies.
Potentiam builds embedded offshore teams for energy and sustainability consultancies across Romania, India, South Africa, and Brazil.
Explore Energy Consulting SolutionsThe multi-hub offshore model delivered measurable operational transformation for Evora Global. The headline result, saving the equivalent of 12 full-time employees of work, reflects a fundamental shift in how the business allocates its most valuable resource: the time and attention of its UK-based consultants.
Consultant liberation: Senior sustainability consultants were freed from data management, operational reporting, and administrative tasks that had been consuming their time. This allowed Evora's most experienced professionals to focus on client-facing advisory work, strategic analysis, and the high-value consulting engagements that drive revenue and differentiation in the ESG market.
Software development acceleration: The Bangalore hub enabled Evora to build and iterate on its ESG software platform at a pace that would have been impossible with UK-only development resources. In a market where digital platforms and analytics are expanding at 19.25% annually, this capability represents a strategic advantage over consultancies relying solely on manual advisory models.
Structural rebalancing: The "leaning tower" that Chris Bennett described was straightened. Instead of senior UK professionals being pulled into operational execution, the business achieved a clean separation between strategic functions (retained in London) and operational/technical functions (distributed across Romania and India). This structural clarity enables sustainable scaling without the instability that comes from overloading expensive resources with low-value tasks.
"I would say to other businesses who are thinking of offshoring start that conversation quickly as you will be amazed at the range and depth of capability."
Chris Bennett, Founder, Evora Global
The sustainability consulting market is experiencing unprecedented expansion, creating structural demand for the kind of offshore capacity that Evora has built. The global market was valued at USD 57.51 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 180.53 billion by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate of 25.68%. This growth is not cyclical; it is driven by legislative mandates that will not reverse.
The regulatory environment for real estate ESG has intensified significantly across multiple frameworks. Understanding the scope of these overlapping requirements explains why consultancies like Evora need offshore capacity to manage the data and compliance workload.
| Regulation | Impact on Real Estate | Firms in Scope | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU CSRD | Mandatory ESG reporting on energy, emissions, social impact | 50,000+ | Phased 2024-2028 |
| SFDR | Fund-level sustainability disclosure for real estate investors | All EU fund managers | Active |
| UK MEES | EPC Band C requirement for all private rental properties | All UK private landlords | 1 Oct 2030 |
| EU Taxonomy | Classification criteria for sustainable real estate assets | Capital-raising firms | Active |
| EPBD | Nearly zero-energy building standards, decarbonisation by 2050 | All EU buildings | Phased to 2050 |
Sources: Healthy Workers 2026, Jones Day 2026, GRESB 2025
The financial stakes are material. According to Deloitte's 2025 outlook, commercial real estate firms face average increases of 15-20% in compliance and operational costs, while properties without smart building features experience 25% longer vacancy periods. The UK's MEES framework requires landlords to invest up to £10,000 per property to achieve compliance, with local authorities empowered to issue penalties of up to £30,000 per breach per property.
This regulatory proliferation creates enormous data management workloads. Every property in a client portfolio needs energy performance tracking, emissions quantification, and compliance monitoring across multiple frameworks. This is precisely the operational work that Evora's Romania hub handles, freeing consultants to focus on strategic advisory.
The financial case for offshore ESG teams varies significantly depending on the functions being deployed and the locations selected. Evora's dual-hub approach optimises cost efficiency by matching each location's economic profile to the work being performed there.
For data management and operations roles deployed to Romania, a senior professional costs approximately £4,366 monthly (fully loaded) compared to £7,917 in the UK, representing a 45% cost reduction. This nearshore premium, relative to deeper offshore destinations, buys real-time collaboration capability and EU regulatory alignment, both critical for handling sensitive ESG client data.
For software development deployed to Bangalore, the cost differential is more dramatic. A senior software engineer in the UK commands approximately £110,200 annually in fully loaded costs. In Bangalore, equivalent talent costs approximately £12,000-15,000 annually, representing a 75-80% cost reduction. For a team of four developers, the annual cost in India approximates £112,000 compared with £360,000 in the UK. This cost efficiency makes it feasible for a mid-market consultancy like Evora to build proprietary ESG software that would otherwise require venture-backed funding.
The combined effect is a blended cost structure delivering 40-60% overall labour cost reduction on functions moved offshore. When combined with productivity gains from freeing senior consultants (as demonstrated by Evora's 12 FTE saving), the total financial impact extends well beyond salary arbitrage.
Key Considerations for Multi-Hub Offshoring
Management complexity: Operating across two offshore locations requires more sophisticated coordination than a single-hub model. Clear function mapping, defined communication protocols, and experienced management are essential. This is where working with a partner like Potentiam, rather than attempting to build both hubs independently, reduces implementation risk significantly.
Data security across jurisdictions: Romania's EU GDPR compliance simplifies data handling for European client data. India-based development teams should operate within secure environments with appropriate access controls, particularly when working with commercially sensitive property performance information.
Cultural alignment takes investment: Each location has its own working culture and communication norms. Romania's efficiency-focused approach suits structured data operations, while Bangalore's entrepreneurial technology culture aligns with product development. Understanding and working with these cultural strengths, rather than against them, drives better outcomes.
Evora's experience offers several transferable principles for sustainability consultancies facing similar scaling pressures. The ESG consulting market's growth rate of 25.68% CAGR means that the operational challenges Evora encountered will become increasingly common across the sector.
Match functions to locations: Rather than seeking one offshore location that does everything adequately, identify which functions benefit from nearshore time-zone alignment (data operations, client-adjacent work) and which benefit from deeper offshore cost efficiency (software development, technical product work). Evora's Romania-India split is a template that other consultancies can adapt to their specific function mix.
Separate strategic from operational work: The biggest efficiency gain came from freeing senior consultants to focus on high-value advisory. Many consultancies underestimate how much consultant time is consumed by operational tasks, including data compilation, report formatting, and compliance checking, that can be executed by well-trained offshore teams at lower cost and often with greater consistency.
Build product capability through offshore engineering: For consultancies developing proprietary ESG software, Bangalore's talent pool and cost structure make ambitious product development feasible. Digital platforms and analytics are the fastest-growing segment of the sustainability consulting market (expanding at 19.25% annually), and consultancies without software capability will increasingly lose ground to those that have it.
Start the conversation early: Chris Bennett's advice to other businesses considering offshoring was direct: start the conversation quickly, because the range and depth of capability available will exceed expectations. The talent shortage in ESG consulting (1.2 million workers short and widening) means that firms waiting for the UK labour market to solve their scaling problem will be waiting indefinitely.
Evora's partnership with Potentiam also illustrates the value of working with an offshoring partner that has direct operational experience in energy and consulting. Potentiam's founders built and scaled EnergyQuote JHA to over 300 employees before its acquisition by Accenture. This sector-specific experience distinguishes strategic offshoring partnerships from generic recruitment agencies or BPO providers.
ESG offshoring involves building dedicated offshore teams to handle data management, operations, and software development for sustainability and ESG consulting firms. Rather than outsourcing individual projects, firms like Evora Global build embedded teams that operate as extensions of their UK organisation. These teams handle operational functions such as energy data compilation, compliance reporting, and platform development, freeing UK-based consultants to focus on strategic advisory and client engagement.
A multi-hub model enables firms to match each location's strengths to specific functions. Romania offers near-identical working hours to the UK (GMT+2), native GDPR compliance, and strong system-thinking capabilities, making it ideal for data management and operations. India provides access to 5.8 million software engineers at 75-80% cost savings versus the UK, making it the optimal location for software development and platform engineering. Combining both locations provides geographic resilience, round-the-clock productivity, and function-specific optimisation.
Cost savings depend on the function and location. Romania-based data and operations teams typically deliver 45-50% labour cost savings compared to UK equivalents. India-based software development teams achieve 70-80% savings. For a blended team across both locations, overall labour cost reductions of 40-60% are typical. However, the greater financial impact often comes from productivity gains: Evora saved 12 FTE equivalent of work by redistributing operational tasks offshore, allowing senior consultants to generate more advisory revenue.
Romanian data professionals typically hold bachelor's or master's degrees in technical fields. For ESG-specific work, Potentiam recruits professionals with analytical backgrounds, experience in data management systems, and the capacity to work within structured compliance frameworks. The emphasis is on system-thinking capability and process discipline, qualities that Romania's workforce demonstrates consistently.
Romania operates under EU GDPR natively as an EU Member State, providing identical data protection to UK standards. ESG client data receives the same legal protection when handled by the Iasi team as it would in London. Potentiam implements enterprise-grade security infrastructure, access controls, and audit trails. For India-based teams, secure development environments with appropriate access restrictions protect sensitive data throughout the development lifecycle.
Initial team deployment through Potentiam typically takes 4-8 weeks from engagement to team members starting work. For data operations roles, trained professionals can reach full productivity within weeks of deployment. Software development teams typically require a longer ramp-up as they learn the existing codebase and architectural conventions. Potentiam's structured onboarding process accelerates this timeline compared to firms attempting to build offshore teams independently.
Ready to Build Your Offshore ESG Team?
Whether you need data operations support in Romania, software development capacity in India, or a multi-hub model combining both, Potentiam builds embedded offshore teams for sustainability and energy consultancies. Our founders scaled EnergyQuote JHA to 300+ employees before its acquisition by Accenture, and that operational experience powers every engagement.
Potentiam
Strategic Offshoring Consultancy, Potentiam
Potentiam is a London-based strategic offshoring consultancy that helps mid-sized companies scale by building high-performing, embedded offshore teams across South Africa, Romania, India, and Brazil. Founded by operators who scaled EnergyQuote JHA to 300+ employees before its acquisition by Accenture in 2015.
Sources: Mordor Intelligence 2026, Taggd 2026, Monocle 2024, BeeCoded 2025, PlugScale 2026, The Scalers 2025, Jones Day 2026, Healthy Workers 2026