Earth Today | Heir apparent

STEPHEN JONES is a new addition to the senior leadership of the consultancy firm, Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL); and he is keen to make his mark in the environment sector while transforming the company into a more integrated, platform-driven business.

“It means connecting our services — and relevant external ones — through a node-based architecture, where each part both feeds and is fed by the system. That allows us to deliver earlier, more consistent, and decision-focused insights through our environmental intelligence platform,” said the new managing director (MD).

Jones is the son of Eleanor Jones, co-founder, current chairperson and chief executive officer of ESL, which celebrated 35 years in operations on Wednesday, April 22 Earth Day 2026.

He is also committed to a culture-first approach to management.

“We place a strong emphasis on how we work, not just what we deliver. It’s about accountability, collaboration, and maintaining the standards that define ESL – integrity, discipline, and trust,” he told The Gleaner.

“We’ve found that when the culture is aligned, it naturally drives better execution, stronger client outcomes, and a more resilient organisation. Happier employees equal greater productivity,” he added.

Jones, whose background is in computer science, cybersecurity, finance, and international business, was previously ESL’s chief strategic officer (CSO) – a role he held for three years and which he said prepared him for this one.

“That period was focused on learning the business, aligning our services into a cohesive system, and identifying where we could expand our impact beyond traditional consulting. ESL already had deep technical credibility built over decades. The opportunity was to evolve that into something more integrated, where environmental insight directly informs financial, operational, and development decisions,” he explained.

“For too long … environmental considerations have been viewed as a constraint, a blocker to business. I saw an opportunity to use data to demonstrate the opposite … that integrating environmental factors at the right time can deliver stronger financial results than decisions that exclude them,” Jones added.

The Campion College old boy is also looking to deepen the integration of remote work, as part of “a broader move toward flexibility and scalability” while improving speed and access.

The next six months, he revealed, are to see, among other things, the implementation of “appropriate technologies to enable consistent, early delivery of lab reports” and the operationalisation of their Environmental Intelligence Platform that moves “environmental considerations earlier in the decision process and translate risk into financial terms”.

Ultimately, Jones said he aims to build a legacy of which the older Jones – a respected development professional and businesswoman with a commitment to environmental sustainability – can be proud.

“My mother, her partners, and her staff built ESL on integrity, credibility, discipline, and trust. My role is to build on that foundation in a way that reflects where the market is going, while reinforcing our identity through strong standards, accountability, results-driven processes, and our people,” he said.

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