About BIRK Consulting

Established in 2021, by Alexander Birk Ege, BIRK Consulting is a small firm specialising in advising and helping ambitious global climate efforts.

What we offer

BIRK Consulting offers support with:

  • Leading the development of new climate strategies - organisational or programmatic

  • Providing sparring, stress-testing and improving early stage ideas - helping their chances of becoming reality

  • Establish, refine or expand networks of purpose-driven organisations - to enhance collective impact

  • Assisting with the creation of new organisations, institutions or networks

  • Assessing existing strategies or incoming proposals/ideas

  • Running time-bound and clearly defined climate campaigns or projects

If you have a need, that is not described here - do not hesitate to reach out.

 

Our approach

BIRK Consulting only works with people and organisations who are ambitious about climate action, pushing the strategies and approaches that are desperately needed to avoid climate catastrophe. Our approach is rooted in what the science tells us are needed.

We want to understand, what it is you want to achieve and then we can suggest the best ways of getting these results. Our approach is people-centered, and we put a great deal of emphasis in co-creating and ensuring inclusion and ownership amongst all involved stakeholders.

Our expertise, within the climate field, centers around energy transition, energy and climate politics, strategic communications and sustainable finance.

We have experience working both with campaigns, rooted in front-line communities, as well as strategies and approached that includes working with governments and corporations.

Our speciality is working with philanthropy, and translating philanthropic goals and ambitions into impactful grant-making strategies.

 

Who is Alexander?

  • 37 year old Dane, living in Copenhagen with my wife and two daughters

  • Holds a Masters in International Development Studies and EU Studies from Roskilde University

  • Have spent the majority of his life working on addressing climate change, eradicating poverty and enhancing human and minority rights

  • Been a programme director within international climate philanthropy, overseeing several strategic and impactful programmes and more than 150 supported projects

  • Part of founding new organisations and initiatives, coordinating the efforts of more than 100 foundations and securing 30+ million USD support

  • Overseen climate strategy development in Europe, US, South-East and East Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa covering finance (public and private), communication, policy processes, power sector transformation, oil and gas transition, coal phase-outs and high-level political commitments

  • Helped found and shepherd global government initiatives

  • Has worked for several NGOs (CARE, ActionAid and CAN-International) as well as the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Why BIRK?

First and foremost Birk is Alexanders middlename. It is the Danish word for birch-trees (fun fact, the surname Ege is the name for oak trees!).

Second, the birch tree is one of the many tree sorts that will be endangered by rampant climate change - kinda like Alexander himself. One of the things that made Alexander start BIRK Consulting, was the urgency, the need to do everything in our power to stop climate change.

Finally, there is a cautionary tale within the birch trees. Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s a lot of Danish (and probably other European) cities wanted to increase their “green areas”, and do so quickly. As the birch tree are easy to plant, relatively cheap and easy to maintain, many cities chose to plant an extraordinary amount of birch trees. Yet birch trees unfortunately also have a large amount of pollen. So the extensive spread of birch trees in Danish cities, has had the knock-on effect of drastically increasing the number of people with pollen-allergies (esp. birch-pollen).

A reminder that the easy and quick solution, might not be the best long-term solution! Something BIRK Consulting will keep in mind.