Sustainability, Energy and Climate Change

With increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, sea-level rise, and more frequent and intense severe weather events, organizations are bracing for change. Managing for these risks has become more prevalent, with increased emphasis on energy efficiency, conservation of water resources, consideration of sustainable products and disclosure of organizational sustainability performance.

In our experience, successful sustainability programs are integrated with an organization’s key business objectives, tailored to specific operating constraints, aligned with the organizational culture, and inclusive of diverse stakeholder perspectives.

At WSP USA, we draw on the skills and experience of our team to collaborate with clients in developing a systematic approach to identify and implement viable solutions. The result is ongoing cost savings, product and service innovations, enhanced recruiting and retention, and improved relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Our technical knowledge, engineering heritage and multidisciplinary experience position us to partner with clients, from strategy through to solutions design and implementation. We serve as trusted advisors to unite our client’s internal efforts and business strategies and align it with sustainability goals and priorities.

Our services include:

• Strategy, materiality and program design: developing strategies and programs that determine objectives, organize effort and create action plans to promote efficiency, encourage innovation and measure progress aligned with internal and external stakeholder expectations
• Goal and target setting: establishing ambitious goals and targets through quantitative analysis, and landscape assessment and stakeholder engagement including carbon neutrality, net zero, 100% renewable energy, water replenishment and science-based targets (SBT)
• Inventory management: measuring energy, greenhouse gas (GHG), water and waste performance over time, and identifying, evaluating and implementing opportunities to mitigate identified impacts
• Inventory verification: providing reasonable and limited assurance and verification of energy, GHG, water and waste inventories, aligned with the ISO 14064 and AA1000 standards
• Reporting and disclosure: supporting reporting to investor- and customer-led programs and regulatory mandates, including CDP, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), EcoVadis, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and GRESB, among others
• Energy strategy: translating sustainability and financial targets into effective reduction strategies at both the building and organizational level through opportunity identification, actionable roadmaps and implementation support to realize success
• Renewable energy sourcing: developing renewable energy strategies, managing renewable energy programs, evaluating on- and off-site renewable energy projects and market-based products (energy attribute certificates, utility green tariffs and carbon offsets and removals) and facilitating renewable energy procurement to support organizational goals and optimize impact
• Water stewardship: improving water management within operations and the supply chain, through strategy, goal setting, risk assessment and collective action
• Water optimization: evaluating organizational waste footprints, leading waste audits, developing waste minimization strategies, developing materials management strategies, and supporting zero-waste program implementation and certification
• Product sustainability and life cycle assessment (LCA): delivering insights into environmental impacts of products and services and guiding product design through LCAs and circular economy principles, and providing transparency through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and third-party substantiation of marketing claims with ISO-conformant reports
• Sustainable supply chain: assessing, managing and reducing environmental impact throughout the supply chain via program design and governance, strategic planning, goal and target setting, supplier engagement, risk and resilience assessment and performance measurement
• Climate resilience and adaption planning: developing adaptation and resilience plans by assessing risks and vulnerabilities, measuring readiness and adaptive capacity, and quantifying potential impacts
• Sustainable energy system evaluation and planning: assessing sustainable energy supply systems using a life cycle approach to identify district energy and microgrid options for achieving client goals
• Sustainable real estate: identifying and implementing sustainability initiatives in the built environment to differentiate assets, mitigate physical and reputation risks and improve the financial performance of real estate portfolios
• Sustainable Cities: offering integrated and innovative solutions to urban challenges through high performance buildings, low-carbon mobility, renewable energy and climate resilience