Meet the Consultant - Brady Stevens
Hi, my name is Brady Stevens, and I’ve been with SAC Consulting for five years this summer. I am a Senior Consultant in the Food & Enterprise team, based at King’s Buildings in Edinburgh. I grew up in Western New York, USA, where I spent a lot of time around our family farmhouse in Attica. My uncle Rick ran a dairy farm across the road, later combining with our neighbours to merge into a single 3,000 cow dairy operation. Growing up around the farm and spending time in the woods and creeks in that part of the world established my strong attachments to rural life and nature.
After studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate, I came to Scotland to pursue a MSc in Environmental Protection and Management at SRUC where I enjoyed the opportunity to dive deeper into the practicalities of addressing big global issues like climate, nature and food. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and getting to grips with the Scottish context. In particular, the challenge of promoting integrated land use captured my curiosity: Given the diversity of landscapes and land capability for agriculture in Scotland, how can we meet the urgent needs of society, economy, and environment? How do we balance the necessities of food production, biodiversity regeneration, carbon sequestration, and enabling people to maintain or form a meaningful connection with Scotland’s land? In my role at SAC Consulting, I have led projects which have allowed me to approach these complex issues from a variety of angles: Modelling hypothetical land use scenarios and exploring trade-offs with communities of interest; Exploring the potential to fund nature regeneration projects through private or blended finance; Contributing to the conversation on how to assess and prioritise natural capital across diverse landscapes and farming systems; and working to ensure these changes are supported and led by Scotland’s rural communities and businesses, defraying any negative impacts and sharing equitably in the benefits.
Some of the projects I have worked on include a net zero plan for the Scottish red meat industry (Quality Meat Scotland), A University Innovation Funded knowledge exchange project to help upskill agricultural sector stakeholders about carbon and other ecosystem service markets. A key focus here being to explore the opportunities and implications of carbon management for the agriculture and rural sector going forward, bringing together stakeholders across industry, research, advisory services, education, policy and the non-governmental sector. I have also worked with the Cairngorms National Park to understand opportunities for local estates to increase their ecosystem service delivery for climate, nature, communities and the estate enterprises themselves.
A recent project that I’m proud of was our interim evaluation of the Nature Restoration Fund. Alongside colleagues, I provided a report to the Scottish Government and NatureScot about the progress achieved by the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) over its first three years. I visited some of the grant recipients across the Northeast and Highlands to interview them about their experience engaging with the NRF. It was incredibly inspiring to see the great work being delivered across farming landscapes in these regions: By de-channelising watercourses, re-wetting wetlands and wet woodlands, slowing the flow of rivers, installing wildlife-friendly fences, and other measures, farmers are creating and enhancing rare habitat types for local species. Better still, on those sites which had been funded in early NRF rounds (and therefore had completed their projects a year or more before I visited), I was shocked at how fast wildlife had moved in to thrive in these new habitat areas. Seeing practical actions like these having an impact drives my determination to contribute to reversing the decline and regenerating nature in Scotland.
I am grateful that in my role I’m able to work on issues and questions which are at the core of my personal passion and interest. I have had excellent collaborations and engagement with the natural capital and land use teams at Scottish Government, NatureScot and other agencies, eNGOs such as WWF Scotland and UNESCO Biospheres, and the breadth of other groups driving positive change in Scotland and the UK. I have a tremendous team around me, where I learn something new from my colleagues every day.
Outside of work, I enjoy getting out in these landscapes that I help to protect and shape, on my bicycle, in a rowing shell or in my walking boots.
Brady Stevens, Senior Consultant, Brady.Stevens@sac.co.uk
Posted by SAC Consulting on 16/06/2026
