We celebrated a banner year in 2022 and I am thrilled to share the considerable progress we have made in the first year of our strategic cycle. 

As we worked to achieve our purpose of future-proofing our cities and environment, we completed several strategic acquisitions and delivered on our financial targets, including record organic growth in our net revenues.

Our 2022 achievements also included reinforcing our ESG and sustainability commitments, onboarding an impressive number of professionals, and elevating our people and client experience. 

 

Boosting our competitive advantage 

With a long-term vision to become the undisputed leader in our industry, and to double in size, we continued to deliver on our disciplined acquisition strategy to expand into new markets, gain competitive advantage and acquire new skillsets. 

With Wood’s Environment & Infrastructure business, our largest acquisition in 2022, we added 6,000 professionals, mainly in the US, Canada, and the UK. By joining forces, we increased our capabilities and scale in our Earth and Environment sector, while boosting our expertise in the fast-growing ESG services and water sectors. 

The acquisition of the Capita REI and GL Hearn businesses added 1,000 UK-based employees to our workforce and expanded our strategic advisory services. Other acquisitions included CFA, a climate and finance consultancy in the US; Madrid based BOD, an architecture and engineering firm; Greencap, an environmental firm in Australia; and Odeh Engineers, a structural engineering firm in the US. In addition to deepening our local presence, these transactions widened our client base and increased our market share.  

The integration processes are well-underway, and we are already seeing many wins and seizing numerous opportunities from these recent acquisitions. 

Early in 2023, we completed two additional acquisitions announced in late 2022: BG Consulting Engineers, one of Switzerland’s leading engineering consulting firms, which added 700 experts in Switzerland and France; and Australia-based enstruct, a structural engineering firm. 

 

Strengthening our ESG commitments

Through our acquisitions, we continued to significantly grow our Earth & Environment sector. With 23,000 experts in this field, we are now positioned as the world’s leading environmental and sustainability consulting firm. 

As we make the biggest sustainability impact via our clients' work, it is important for us to lead by example, which means making ambitious commitments and setting out a clear path to achieve them.  

To reach our net zero targets, we launched our Climate Transition Plan (pdf), which sets out ways to decarbonize our activities. We are also proud to be among the leading companies to have our net zero target approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

Contributing to the global conversation on climate action, WSP’s experts joined world leaders and industry professionals at COP27 and COP15.  

We also formalized our commitment to protecting biodiversity through our inaugural Biodiversity Statement (pdf). Drawing on this new set of guiding principles, we aim to engage with clients to protect, restore and enhance our ecosystems.  

 

As we worked to achieve our purpose of future-proofing our cities and environment, we completed several strategic acquisitions and delivered on our financial targets. 

In 2022, our efforts to accelerate the green transition gained industry recognition, through numerous rankings and ratings, including for our leadership role in sustainability, resilience, and climate change transparency. A detailed update of our environmental, social and governance performance will be included in our 2022 Global ESG Report, expected to be released in May 2023. 

 

Fostering employee engagement

Our people drive everything we do, and we are committed to making extraordinary efforts to provide our workforce with a best-in-class, inclusive work environment to deliver on their full potential. To keep our commitments to our clients, we also recognize that talent recruitment and retention are essential to our success.  

Our workforce has grown at an impressive rate—we began 2022 with 55,300 people and by the end of the year, we had 66,200 professionals working under the WSP banner. In the last few years, we have been working towards building a sense of belonging while championing our culture and guiding principles.  

Knowing how our people feel is important to us, so we were pleased with the participation and quality of feedback we received in our 2022 global surveys, indicating that employee engagement is trending positively. Based on this feedback, we aim to continuously improve our employees’ journey and create an optimal workplace teeming with the power of possibility.  

To build an even stronger workforce, and create an optimal employee experience, we will continue to emphasize professional development, internal promotions, and succession planning to ensure leadership continuity and a strong legacy.  

Our people drive everything we do, and we are committed to making extraordinary efforts to provide our workforce with a best-in-class, inclusive work environment to deliver on their full potential. 

As part of our 2022-2024 Global Strategic Action Plan, we aim to reach a 5% increase in the number of promotions per year, as well as a 5% year-over-year increase in the representation of women and underrepresented groups1. In 2022, we exceeded our annual promotion target and are on track in terms of increasing the representation of women and underrepresented groups in our workforce. 

As we continue to build on WSP’s strong foundations, we will focus on integrating, developing, and caring for our people; leveraging our collective expertise; optimizing our ways of working; and enhancing our working environment. In so doing, we will preserve the entrepreneurial spirit that has always underpinned our culture, growth, and success. Meanwhile, our “non-negotiables”—health & safety, inclusion & diversity, and ethics & compliance—will remain top priorities.

 

Enhancing our client experience

It is rewarding for our people to work with like-minded public and private clients who share our goal of moving towards an inclusive, equitable and net zero world. For that reason, we strive to collaborate on projects that reflect our core beliefs and principles.  

Since we aim to become the undisputed leader in our industry, we are committed to elevating our client partnership to a new level by fully embracing our role as a trusted partner.  

To ensure we are our clients' number one choice, we continue to focus and make headway on our Global Client Program and Client Feedback initiatives. In 2022, we grew our key accounts and boosted client satisfaction. As part of our 2022-2024 Global Strategic Action Plan, we aim for a 5% increase in our client satisfaction rating each year.  

Through our Future Ready® innovation program, we are leading a mindset shift towards developing client solutions while focusing on long-term resilience and adaptability. With about 150,000 active projects in a variety of sectors, we view each one as an opportunity to contribute to a low-carbon world and to speed the green transition. 

 

Delivering on our financial ambitions

Thanks to our collective efforts in 2022, we delivered strong results that exceeded our expectations, including our highest organic growth in net revenues in the last decade, and a strong backlog level with substantial order intake. 

Revenues and net revenues2 reached $11.93 billion and $8.96 billion respectively, up 16% and 14% compared to 2021. At $1.53 billion, our adjusted EBITDA3 surpassed expectations for the year, and we recorded a 30 bps increase in our adjusted EBITDA margin3.

Based on 2022 financial metrics, we are well on track to reach our 2024 financial ambitions. I am also pleased to report that we have exceeded our SDG-Linked Revenues4 targets, with an estimated 59% of our revenues earned from services that contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

During the year, we successfully gained access to capital through equity markets to support our growth strategy and continued to diversify our shareholder base. 

We are grateful for the support of our strong institutional investors who believe in our long-term strategic vision and are equally passionate about driving the green transition, setting us up on the right path for success.  

 

Pursuing purpose-driven growth

Looking back on 2022, I take pride in our collective achievements, as we reinforced the solid foundation of our diversified and resilient platform.  

Despite the challenging macroeconomic context, we are well positioned to meet the challenges we will face in 2023. We are strengthened by a healthy backlog reflecting the high demand for our services, and a dedicated workforce to deliver on our client projects around the globe. While we remain disciplined, we can be optimistic about our future as we focus on profitable and sustainable growth. 

Upon this second year of our strategic cycle, we will continue our journey, by forging ahead with an aligned strategy to optimize our business and leverage our scale and scope. 

I would like to thank everyone who supported us throughout this eventful year. I am grateful to our clients for entrusting us with their business, to our Board for providing invaluable guidance and to our shareholders for subscribing to our vision. I also wish to express my appreciation to our talent, who delivered successful outcomes across the globe. 

I look forward to the year ahead and am excited about what we can achieve together.

Alexandre L’Heureux
Global President and Chief Executive Officer

 

Purposeful Growth

In the first year of our 2022-2024 strategic cycle, we continued to grow with purpose, delivered a strong performance, and made significant progress toward our ambitions.

Discover our 2022 highlightsDownload our 2022 Annual Report

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1) This includes business leaders and middle management

2) Refer to section 8.1, “Net revenues” of WSP’s Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2022 (“MD&A”) for a reconciliation of net revenues to revenues.

3) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure and adjusted EBITDA margin is a non-IFRS ratio, both without standardized definitions under IFRS, which may not be comparable to similar measures or ratios used by other issuers. Refer to section 22, “Glossary of segment reporting, non-IFRS and other financial measures”, of WSP’s MD&A for explanations of the composition and usefulness of this non-IFRS financial measure and non-IFRS ratio. In 2022, earnings before net financing expense and income taxes was $749.1 million. Quantitative reconciliations of the non-IFRS financial measure to the most directly comparable IFRS measure are incorporated by reference to sections 8.3, “Adjusted EBITDA” of WSP’s MD&A. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as adjusted EBITDA expressed as a percentage of net revenues.

4) We previously reported “Clean Revenues”, which were defined as revenues earned from services that had an environmental benefit and contributed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In line with industry practice, we have broadened our definition and enhanced our methodology to include revenues earned from services that contribute to any of the SDGs, and as a result, have renamed this metric “SDG-Linked Revenues.