ENR Ranking: WSP Reaches New Heights as One of the World’s Largest Environmental Consultancies

Strong performance driven by organic growth and key acquisitions

NEW YORK CITY— WSP, a leading engineering and professional services consultancy, has been ranked one of the world’s largest and fastest growing consultancies in the Engineering News-Record (ENR) 2020 Top 200 Environmental Firms list, released this week.

Building on 10 years of consistent growth, the global engineering firm now has the sixth largest environmental consulting business in the world, up from 16th place in 2019 and 38th in 2018.

ENR’s annual table is one of the most important benchmarks for the consultancy sector, based on global revenue during the previous calendar year. WSP’s strong performance reflects progress towards its ambition to be the premier global environmental consultancy, outlined in the firm’s 2019-2021 global strategic plan.

The Montreal-based firm now employs 7,000 environmental consultants worldwide, within the global total of 50,000. In 2019, its revenues from environmental services were $1.34 billion, an increase of 14 percent on 2018.

WSP’s improved 2020 ranking is based mainly on strong 2019 organic growth (eight percent), with the full benefits of key acquisitions still to be felt.

“To build a leading environment practice in the U.S. and globally, we’ve taken a balanced approach to organic and acquisitive growth, maintained our deep commitment to the client-consultant partnership, and sought every opportunity to enable our staff to excel,” said Steven Paquette, president of WSP’s water and environment business in the U.S. “Our success this year — despite innumerable challenges presented by COVID-19 — has largely been propelled by our dedicated team, which has worked tirelessly to keep our clients’ programs moving forward.”

WSP entered ENR’s top 10 for Consulting/Studies in fourth place, off the back of high-profile projects including Hudson River remediation in the U.S., HS2 high speed rail in the UK and Transmountain Pipeline in Canada. The firm’s focus on growing both global footprint and service coverage is also reflected in other new rankings, including fourth for Air Quality/Clean Energy, 13th for Hazardous Waste and 18th for Wastewater.

Acquisitions made in late 2019 — Elton Consulting (Australia), Orbicon (Denmark) and Lievense (Netherlands) — made some revenue contributions in the fourth quarter of 2019. But the real benefits of those, along with the key 2019 U.S. acquisitions of LT Environmental (LTE) and Ecology & Environment (E&E), will be delivered in FY2020.

As well as an increased footprint, the LTE and E&E acquisitions also brought new client relationships; market-leading positions and experts in marine environmental, renewable energies, offshore wind, ecological restoration, watershed management and climate change adaptation planning; and major contracts in the federal, oil and gas, and real estate sectors.

“Based on what we’ve already been able to achieve together, I am very excited at the potential in front of us once we fully integrate E&E and LTE staff over the coming months,” Paquette said. “The scope of expertise and experience we are bringing together is astounding and will allow us to present our clients with a complete consultancy to address their greatest challenges.”

About WSP USA

WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of WSP, one of the world’s leading engineering and professional services firms. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment markets. With more than 9,500 employees in 150 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper. wsp.com