What is WSP’s role in addressing the biodiversity crisis?
Reversing biodiversity loss and restoring the earth’s ecosystems are inherently linked to carbon reduction goals and are critically important. Quite simply, without strong, resilient and protected natural capital, we cannot be economically viable. Society at large is now starting to understand that our economies depend on healthy and properly functioning natural systems for their stability. WSP is passionate about these issues, which were referred to repeatedly when we spoke to ESG stakeholders in 2023, including our investors, clients and employees.
WSP boasts a wealth of expertise in this area, thanks to its thousands of specialists worldwide, including biologists, ecologists, marine/aquatic specialists and biodiversity experts. We are proud to be driving the agenda in this field. As an early supporter of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), we are now beginning to evaluate our nature-based risks and opportunities, as described in the 2023 Global ESG Report under "Biodiversity & Natural Capital".
We are uniquely positioned to drive nature-positive outcomes in our client work, whether undertaking the closure of a coal-fired power plant, rehabilitating a mine site, constructing a data centre or carrying out an urban regeneration project. We aim to deploy nature-based solutions everywhere we can. To help our clients and the business community understand what’s at stake and why nature is so critical to business continuity, we issued a guidebook in 2023 entitled Bridging Business and Nature. What motivates us is the knowledge that nature is strong and, given the chance, landscapes can regenerate themselves within a generation. WSP can help accelerate these processes.
We seize every opportunity to deploy new technologies to support those outcomes. WSP’s teams across the world are developing bespoke and innovative solutions to facilitate informed decision-making. We have an entire team of researchers and scientists at our Innovation Lab in Sherbrooke, Canada, tasked with developing tools and solutions that are bringing fresh insights to our clients’ projects while helping our practitioners to work more safely and efficiently. Examples include an AI-driven fish counter; a 3D radar to detect birds and bats remotely; and a mobile unit to treat water and soil. Another example is our work for the Canadian Space Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Transport Canada to develop a detection and predictive modelling technology to help minimize the risk of collision between shipping and endangered North Atlantic right whales in Canadian waters.
How is WSP measuring its own contributions to creating a more sustainable future? Why is this so important?
Since 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have provided a framework with which businesses can align themselves and their activities to help create a more sustainable and prosperous future. At WSP, we are contributing to the SDGs through our designs and advice—from designing net zero buildings and improving urban mobility to restoring biodiversity and a myriad of other services. Measuring the direct impacts of our work is challenging, and we discuss this journey in our recent white paper.
That process has been vital to demonstrating impacts on sustainable development across our global project portfolio, not just for our clients and investors and other external stakeholders, but most importantly for our own employees. More than ever, people are looking for purpose-driven work. Since WSP’s positive impacts have been demonstrated, our people know they are truly making a difference. We are also using this metric to steer our choices around projects, clients and M&A targets, as we look to grow our SDG-linked revenues at a faster pace than the base business.
Why are inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) so important in the context of WSP’s client work?
In all organizations, the capacity for innovation is linked to their members’ diversity of thought. Our teams comprise a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and skills; our people feel empowered to question and experiment. That’s how we create the space for innovation. And that’s why everything we do to promote ID&E is so critical.
Not only are those efforts personally and professionally liberating for our people, but they also benefit our clients because we approach their projects from the widest possible perspective. For example, last year we issued a white paper focused on designing neuro-inclusive environments.
The current global context is prompting the emergence of new ESG regulations and standards. How is WSP preparing for them?
WSP is taking a proactive stance and is preparing for future reporting in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), as well as other emerging disclosure frameworks and regulations. In 2023, we completed a double materiality assessment, i.e. evaluating ESG topics in terms of potential material financial effects on WSP, as well as potential material impacts on people and the environment. In this context, we were able to identify and prioritize the most relevant topics and associated impacts, risks and opportunities for our business. In the coming years, we will continue to work towards alignment with new regulatory requirements. Beyond compliance, we will be leveraging our materiality assessment to enhance our ESG program with a view to informing our next triennial Global Strategic Action Plan.
