What sets WSP in Canada apart from its competitors in terms of its approach to the environment and ESG?

The main difference between us and our competitors is our scale—4000 people spend their days working in a sector dedicated to the Environment in Canada. No other organization is as large and as strong as we are.  

About twelve years ago, we decided to make the environment a key sector at WSP. At that time, the prevailing context prompted us to consider repositioning the company, taking a forward-looking stance. As an organization, when we stop to consider things, we think about the future, and when we think about the future, the environment soon becomes an essential element, both for engineering and consulting services, in order to address the major challenges that affect our clients. The scale and importance we’ve given to the environment group is really what sets us apart. 

Why was it important for WSP to identify the environment as a priority even before it came a larger issue in the industry?

Clearly, with the Future Ready program comes a way of thinking, of tackling problems, that ensures that when we support our clients with their projects, we always put forward long-term solutions. Four thousand WSP employees dedicated to the environment is obviously not just a fad! Our employees have strong convictions, they want to make a difference. We didn’t develop our Environment sector because of where the market was leading or a trend, we truly wanted to attract the best talent in Canada to make sure we could provide our clients with assistance based on their most critical environmental challenges and to make it a core, strategic sector – because we believed in the importance of the sector. 

How do ESG values fit into WSP’s strategy? 

That’s easy, from A to Z! We made ESG a cornerstone. It’s a building block of everything we do. And since it’s fundamental to everything we do, every business decision is made through this lens. For the “E” component, it’s simple, we are the leaders in environmental consulting services in Canada. Our Future Ready approach really creates a unique way of thinking in the industry. As for the “S” part, all you have to do is look at everything we’ve developed in terms of health and safety and diversity and inclusion. These are core values that guide our development. Lastly, with “G”, we’d never skimp on the ethical side of things in anything we do. We take pride in making sure that everything we do from an ethical standpoint is beyond reproach. Our employees know about compliance, ethics, what needs to be in place to work in a public environment like we do. ESG values are clearly ingrained in us and are woven into all our decisions. 

Today, many companies will ask themselves how to tackle the ESG side. The reason that, up to now, WSP has been a company that dictates, that paves the way for others, is in large part our employees. They are always inspiring us in this respect - in a way, we’re guided from the bottom up. Young employees who join the company tell us that it’s essential we think about the environment, about sustainable development for example, and that we incorporate it into every decision we make. The “S” aspect, with our resource groups for our employees—we have, for example, groups for women of WSP, Black professionals, LGTBQ2+ and Indigenous communities—this has enabled us to develop great awareness of inclusion and diversity. We’re also fortunate enough to have Marie-Claude Dumas as President and CEO, who is the global sponsor of inclusion and diversity and a major contributor to making the “S” side of things a part of how we work and think in Canada.  

Being a company with an international reach—you’re our ESG sponsor in Canada, you have colleagues throughout the world—would you say that one of WSP’s strengths is being able to inspire better practices around the world? 

A global ESG committee was created almost two years ago, and I sit on it with Ruchika Ballah, Inclusion, Diversity and Engagement Leader, and Geneviève Beaudoin Leboeuf, Head of Environmental and Social Governance. There are three of us in Canada who sit on this global committee where we discuss best practices or learn about regions that are ahead of us in terms of “E,” “S” or “G.” To be honest, two years ago we weren’t where we are today in Canada. We had the desire but there was still room for improvement in some places. We were very inspired by the best practices of our international colleagues, such as in the UK, where our colleagues had remarkable practices on managing and accessing the environmental aspect of ESG. We learned from the various regions, we took the best parts, and after implementing the global ESG committee, we created our own ESG committee in Canada where we discuss certain issues, how to make progress on certain causes, how to improve. We also make it a point to share our best practices because sure, it’s important to learn and improve, but so is sharing what we do well here. 

You’ve worked at WSP in Canada since 2005, always in the environmental field. What has changed the most in this field since you started? 

I’d say client perspectives have changed a great deal. I’ve been working at WSP for 17 years. When I started in 2005, the environment was kind of a necessary evil. Government bodies gradually begun establishing protocols that have, over time, become increasingly restrictive. This caused our team and the way we do things to evolve, because suddenly, some facets of our projects had to be looked at from a broader perspective, in a different way. The example of biodiversity comes to mind. Twenty years ago, no one was talking about it really. But now, it’s an integral part of every self-respecting environmental assessment. We now calculate the economic impacts of projects in relation to biodiversity, and we take our analyses extremely far! We straight out assign a dollar amount to what’s lost in biodiversity in a given project. 17 years ago, that simply wasn’t a thing.  

Technologies have also changed so much that we can now get live data to assess the exact impacts of a project on its environment. For example, in our offices in Sherbrooke, we’re now able to track salmon in a river in Québec’s far north throughout their journey. These are impacts that weren’t calculated years back, but today we can really analyze all the impacts a project will have so we’re in a much better position to prevent, mitigate and limit the impacts of major projects on the environment.  

Are you or your team currently working on any projects you’re particularly proud of?  

All the projects related to biodiversity are meaningful to me. Behind it is a particular attention to a more global environment. I’m very proud of our experts who are working on very specific issues. I think it’s impressive to see the ever-growing specialization of our teams. It’s important that we do this because it allows us to stay at the forefront in a field where technical expertise changes at breakneck speed.  

Do you have anything else you would like to add about our commitment to environment and ESG, or your time spent at WSP? 

When I joined the company 17 years ago, few people would have thought we’d have expertise of this magnitude today. We have a world-class environmental centre of excellence, we operate across Canada, we support both private and public sector clients and, most importantly, we have a direct impact on the future, and that truly makes me proud.