The impacts of climate change are no longer a distant prospect - we are experiencing them now across the globe. There is global consensus regarding the need to accelerate our decarbonization efforts urgently to limit future impacts, but taking the first step on any journey, especially one that will last decades, can seem daunting. Fundamentally, if an activity can be calculated in monetary terms, it must also be calculated in climate terms. This means having a “climate budget” alongside the financial budget.

The first hurdle is to establish the baseline of carbon emissions; this will form the foundation for a solid strategy and a road map that can be integrated across an organization. A marginal abatement curve exercise (i.e. looking at costs or savings from emissions reduction activities) can help identify easy wins which are cost neutral or require small investments. This will also guide clients to thinking about how they can simultaneously interweave decarbonization outcomes into future, bigger investments.

As we start these journeys, a level of pragmatism is required. There is much that can be done with a good degree of certainty now; however, looking ahead to the next five or ten years and beyond, there are uncertainties. On this journey, it will be necessary to stop regularly, take stock of progress, and ask ourselves if everything is still the same as it was twelve months earlier – and accompanying our clients every step of the way in this process is vital.

Finally, decarbonization requires significant collaboration. It’s crucial that clients think about the levers they hold with their staff and wider stakeholders, and what influence they can exert more broadly, for example through their supply chains. Everyone has to be accountable for that climate budget; it is no longer the responsibility of one or two people.

WSP has been unequivocal in its ambition to lead the green transition through the provision of sector-leading advisory services. That ambition has been realized through a strategy of carefully constructing a global body of experts with a wealth of expertise and experience that is unrivalled in our industry. We have gathered the right people with the right expertise and the credibility to tackle any project.

With approximately 67,300 employees in 50 countries across our global business, ensuring that we share experiences across the entire business is the reason Operational Excellence has been made a core strand of our current global strategic action plan. Creating networks of experts through the Practice Area Networks has been critical to this, together with knowledge-sharing programs such as the Global Technical Excellence Conference (GTEC), the Snack and Learn webinars and the Net Zero Changemakers initiative. It ensures that our decarbonization experts are connected, collaborating and sharing best practices, not just amongst themselves but also amongst the countless other disciplines within WSP, to achieve the best outcomes for our clients.

By way of example, net zero teams in the Nordics have made great strides in digitally embedding greenhouse gas emissions into modelling practices. The experience they have gained is being shared with colleagues around the world so that the best digital tools are deployed onto projects globally.

Given our leading position as a global environmental consulting firm, WSP must lead by example and apply a similar level of ambition to its own organization as it does for its clients. We have committed to achieving net zero across our value chain by 2040, for which the key strategies and actions have been detailed in WSP’s Climate Transition Plan. Furthermore, while each of WSP’s regional operations is steered by the global strategy, our organizational structure allows them the flexibility to leverage the momentum within their own geographies, and to define and advance their own strategic goals. For example, WSP in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Australia have all committed to halving the carbon footprint in their designs and advice by 2030¹. Harnessing the prevailing sentiment in those countries, it shows a level of accountability to our clients, while also acting as an inspiration for other regional operations.