“Real change comes when you believe in it”

Martina Goss, FCA, continues to broaden her skill set to support sustainable entrepreneurship and ESG progress in Ireland and beyond

Martina Goss, FCA, is leveraging her financial knowledge and expertise in business strategy and lean methodologies to help start-ups and SMEs succeed, innovate and build sustainable strategies aligned with Ireland’s climate goals. Here, she tells Accountancy Ireland about the career path that has seen her pivot from finance to supporting Ireland’s entrepreneurial community and more besides. 

Q. What first sparked your interest in sustainability and the whole area of environmental, social and governance? 

I have always had a love of nature. I grew up in rural Ireland and, today, I live in the countryside in Co. Louth surrounded by mountains, nature and wildlife. 

A few years ago, I pivoted my career away from pure finance to what I do now, offering training and business coaching to start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

That shift brought me into contact with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the entrepreneurs doing amazing things on the ground to progress these goals.

I look at environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in a holistic way.
I’m not just interested in nature and climate change, but also in the human aspect—the ‘S’ in ‘ESG’ and, in particular, the focus of the fourth UN SDG on ensuring inclusive, equitable and quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

To this end, I began working in 2023 as a facilitator with Global Youth Forum, a non-profit in Kenya that offers life-skills coaching, mentoring and sports programmes to young people with the aim of equipping them with the skills to improve their lives by securing a job or starting a business.

Q. Tell us about that career pivot: what prompted it? 

I started my career in practice before transitioning into industry where I held financial roles in many different organisations. 

Then, in 2015, I did Chartered Accountants Ireland’s first ever Diploma in Strategic Finance and Business Analytics. That was the turning point for me. 

By complete chance, while I was looking for a project for the course, I met an entrepreneur who was taking part in New Frontiers, Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme.

He had a sustainable business idea for flood defence and wanted support from someone with a business background. I needed an idea for my diploma, so we did this match transaction. 

At that stage, I knew I wanted to move beyond focusing solely on the numbers of a business.

Fast forward a few years and I became the programme manager of New Frontiers at both Dundalk Institute of Technology and Invent, DCU’s commercialisation and technology transfer unit.

Whilst managing that programme, I was introduced, not just to the world of start-ups and innovation but also entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses in alignment with the UN’s SDGs.

Later, I reskilled as a Lean Start Up Coach, training with Ash Maurya, the founder of Leanstack in the US. He is the author and creator of the Lean Canvas, a business modelling tool used by businesses worldwide.

Q. Can you describe the work you do today and the services you offer? 

I work predominantly with start-ups and SMEs, helping them with their business strategy, reimagining their business models and innovating in a sustainable manner, so they can successfully launch or reinvent products and services.

My work combines my expertise as a Chartered Accountant and Lean Start-up Coach and increasingly incorporates ESG.

Last year, I completed my second course with Chartered Accountants Ireland, this time a certificate in sustainability strategy, risk and reporting.

Innovation is a big focus for many of my clients. They understand the world is rapidly changing and they know they need to reassess their business model, but they may feel a little stuck or challenged as to where to start. 

They may have new products or services they want to launch, or they might want to adapt what they are already doing to changing customer needs and market trends. 

At the forefront of my work is the idea that you must always listen to the market—to what your customers want and the problem you solve for them.
 
We do a deep dive into their business model. We look at why the company exists—what problem does it solve for customers? What is its vision? What are its goals and strategy to compete? 

We look at trends in the marketplace, we talk to the company’s customers and stakeholders. We use that information, both qualitative and quantitative, to reimagine the company’s business model and its products and services. The aim is to create a business model that is financially viable, desirable for its customers and sustainable for the planet. 

Q. Where does ESG come into the work you do with these companies? 

It comes back to that critical piece in any business strategy—listening to the market trends and responding to customer needs. Developing new products and services is the perfect opportunity to blend sustainability and innovation together into one.

More people today are thinking about sustainable products and sustainable business practices because they are concerned about the climate crisis and the need to decarbonise our economies.

This is a market trend, so, by embedding sustainable practices into their strategy and operations, start-ups and SMEs can help to ensure long term viability.

There is a cost involved at the outset, but it is worth mentioning that, by incorporating Lean practices into their business model, businesses can eliminate costly waste.

There is often so much waste in organisations. Lean start-up principles, when applied to new product development, can have a considerable ESG impact on a business because they fundamentally seek to minimise waste. 

Q. What would you like to see happen now to support the advancement of ESG in Ireland and beyond? 

From my perspective working with businesses, I think what is required to galvanise the ESG movement is a change in mindset.

Businesses are run by people, so the shift in mindset is down to the individual—to each and every one of us. 

This starts with small changes in our personal lives where we can embrace a more minimalist way of living, consume less and cut down on the excess in our lives. We buy too much. We have too much waste. 

The Sustainable Progress Index 2025, published in February by Social Justice Ireland, ranked Ireland ninth out of 14 comparable EU countries overall, but placed us in the bottom five for nine SDGs, including responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).

According to Social Justice Ireland, we continue to generate a significant amount of municipal waste per capita, while the recycling rate of our municipal waste and circular material use is low.

So, I think we all need to think about our own consumption, and about what we can do to cut down on the waste we generate. 

I believe that, if each one of us was just one percent better, the collective impact would be massive.

These changes at an individual level can then feed into new businesses and start-ups launched by people with ESG principles at their core, in terms of what they are bringing to market or how their businesses operate with sustainability, minimal waste and other societal benefits at their core. 

Critically, as Chartered Accountants, we have quite a vast skill set we can apply to helping businesses delivering ESG benefits.

For younger generations, ESG is already instilled in their mindset. They care about the future of the planet, about climate change and a fair and just society. 

Businesses today can’t afford to overlook this fundamental shift in what people and the market wants. 

Real change comes when you believe in it and work towards it.