The Strategy Department

Categories
Clean Energy

RNG, No Time to Waste Campaign

Case Study

RNG, No Time to Waste Campaign

Study Case

At a global consulting firm of 10,000+ employees, led the No Time to Waste campaign spotlighting renewable natural gas (RNG) as a ready solution for climate and community impact. Partnering with technical experts, the initiative translated complex engineering into accessible storytelling—showcasing how municipal RNG systems reduce emissions, displace fossil fuels, and enable circular economies. The campaign elevated visibility for environmental services, engaged stakeholders across sectors, and set a model for turning infrastructure into inspiration.

Categories
Natural Resources

Positioning for Growth: Building Visibility, Market Alignment, and Collaboration in the Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice

Case Study

Positioning for Growth: Building Visibility, Market Alignment, and Collaboration in the Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice

Background

With 10,000+ employees across infrastructure, energy, and environmental sectors, the firm had the scale and expertise to lead in complex natural resource and permitting projects. Yet within the Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice, critical barriers limited growth.

 

Despite playing a pivotal role in enabling sustainable development across mining, infrastructure, and environmental markets, the Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice struggled with visibility, alignment, and culture. Internally, many staff did not associate the practice with the broader service portfolio, making talent retention and proactive positioning difficult. Externally, the Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice represented only about 1% of the North American Environment market (~$9.5M FY23 baseline), well below its growth potential. At the same time, siloed and reactive ways of working limited collaboration, storytelling, and cross-market pull-through.

The Challenge

Three  barriers emerged as growth obstacles:

  • Low Internal Visibility. Limited awareness made it harder to position services proactively and retain talent.
  • Lack of dedicated leadership to drive strategy at the North America level stalled momentum and alignment.
  • Lopsided Market Position. Heavy reliance on contamination/assessment/remediation constrained diversification.
  • Siloed Culture. Teams often operated in isolation, limiting cross-pollination of expertise and shared ownership.

The practice needed a strategy to strengthen its internal brand, expand its market footprint, and build a collaborative culture that drives both pride and growth.

The Strategy: Multi-Dimensional Growth Roadmap

The approach focused on three dimensions:

  1. Strengthening Internal Brand Awareness & Talent Alignment. Launch forums, town halls, and storytelling roadmaps to build recognition and create clear talent pathways.
  2. Partnered with the Strategy Lead and North American leadership to clarify direction, assign ownership, and realign efforts around a cohesive regional strategy.
  3. Driving Accelerated Growth Through Market Alignment. Map priority markets, design a growth roadmap, and integrate digital/advisory offerings to diversify and scale to $170M (~25% of ENV) in five years.
  4. Building a Culture of Proactive Collaboration. Define “stop doing/start doing” behaviors, spotlight stories in action, and create a champion network to encourage shared ownership.

Actions for Growth

  • Initiated cross-regional town halls and stakeholder forums to align teams.
  • Identified Level 1–3 stakeholders and tailored communications with clear KPIs (Yammer, LinkedIn, town halls).
  • Designed the Accelerated Growth Practices roadmap, including Centers of Excellence and a regional playbook.
  • Connected with market and service line leads to replicate successful regional models in new geographies.
  • Established cross-functional meetings and a champion network, including Young Professionals, to build engagement.
  • Partnered with global teams to benchmark practices and import lessons learned.

Early Results & Traction

  • Stronger Internal Brand. The appointment of a dedicated program leader amplified visibility across service lines and regions, strengthening recognition and fueling talent engagement.
  • Market Alignment. Clearer value propositions and early traction replicating one region’s success in other US and Canadian regions.
  • Cultural Shift. Leaders and teams embracing storytelling and shared ownership, with a growing “FOMO” effect that drives engagement.

Key Takeaway

The Natural Resources Assessment & Permitting Practice strategy is positioning the practice for scale by combining internal visibility, market growth, and cultural transformation—turning silos into synergy and laying the foundation for a $170M growth in business within five years.

Categories
Environmental Services and Sustainability Consulting

Making Strategy Real: Activating Growth Through Client Prioritization and Collaboration

Case Study

Making Strategy Real: Activating Growth Through Client Prioritization and Collaboration

Background

With 10,000+ employees across infrastructure, energy, and environmental sectors, the firm set a bold ambition: to be recognized as the premier environment and sustainability consultancy at the intersection of digital, developed, and natural worlds.

But strategy on paper isn’t enough. To achieve the vision, the North American Environment Market needed to move from intent to activation through embedding client prioritization, breaking down silos, and equipping teams with practical tools that connect day-to-day actions to long-term growth.

The Challenge

Despite strong technical expertise, three obstacles stood in the way of turning vision into reality:

  • Client-Centric Mindset: Shifting from “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) to “What’s in it for my client?” (WIIFMC); a pervasive challenge in aligning teams around strategic delivery.
  • Unfocused Priorities. Strategic themes (e.g., Decarbonization, Emerging Contaminants) risked losing impact without clear client alignment.
  • Scattered Pursuits. Teams often chased “one-off” opportunities, diluting efforts and stretching resources thin.
  • Siloed Knowledge. Best practices lived in pockets, making it hard to scale successes across markets and regions.

The goal: Transform the Core by embedding new mindsets, improving pursuit discipline, and creating space for innovation.

The Strategy: Embedding Client Prioritization & Knowledge Sharing

The activation model focused on three pillars:

  • Client Prioritization (CP). Concentrate on the 20% of clients generating 80%+ of revenue, aligning top talent and resources to deepen long-term relationships and reduce distractions.
  • Knowledge Hub (KH). Establish a one-stop platform for service line strategies, pursuit tools, winning work resources, client experience practices, and case studies ensuring easy, repeatable access to what works.
  • Strategy Horizons. A phased roadmap that begins with FY24 focus on Nexus Solutions and intentional partnerships (Water, Transportation, Property & Buildings, Advisory, Digital), then scales innovation and integration through FY25–27 to lead in Future Communities, Energy, and Water.

Actions for Growth

  • Rolled out the Knowledge Hub as a central repository for plans, templates, and case studies.
  • Trained service line leaders on embedding Client Prioritization into decision-making and delivery.
  • Launched storytelling campaigns to highlight pursuit wins and demonstrate visible proof of impact.
  • Built cross-sector collaboration with Digital, Advisory, and other practices to embed integrated solutions.
  • Promoted and exemplified a mindset shift from “What’s in it for me?” to “What’s in it for the team AND my client?” to build collective accountability.

Early Results & Traction

  • Stronger Pursuit Discipline. Service line leads reported reduced noise and more focus on high-value clients.
  • Improved Win Rates. Key pursuits gained traction as teams aligned earlier and used shared tools.
  • Greater Knowledge Sharing. More leaders used the Knowledge Hub to align teams and replicate best practices.
  • Cultural Shift. Teams reported greater clarity on how daily choices contribute to the firm’s broader vision.

Key Takeaway

The Environment Market translated strategy into daily practice—proving that activation is about consistent micro-steps, not just bold statements. By embedding client prioritization and creating practical tools, the North American team built confidence, discipline, and momentum toward long-term growth.

Categories
Environmental Services and Sustainability Consulting

EHS&S Business Transformation — Workshop Design & Delivery

Case Study

EHS&S Business Transformation — Workshop Design & Delivery

Background

A leading environmental, health, and safety (EHS) team sought to elevate its impact and strengthen its role across regions. While the group had deep technical expertise and a solid base of established clients, the leadership team recognized untapped opportunities: stronger collaboration, clearer differentiation in the marketplace, and deeper integration of digital services.

The EHS team already delivered high-value permitting, auditing, and compliance services, but growth was constrained by siloed operations, inconsistent structures, and a lack of intermediate-level talent to carry the business forward.

The Challenge

The challenge was not capability, rather it was coordination. With multiple service lines and regions working independently, the team needed to unify its approach, align priorities, and identify clear pathways to expansion.

Key barriers included:

  • Fragmented collaboration. Expertise was spread across regions, but opportunities for cross-staffing and project sharing were limited.
  • Lack of differentiation. Despite strong technical depth, the market viewed services as similar to competitors, making it harder to stand out.
  • Organizational gaps. A shortage of mid-level staff limited scalability and stretched senior leaders thin.

The goal: unlock regional collaboration, sharpen competitive positioning, and build a pipeline of opportunities that leverages the team’s specialized strengths.

The Strategy: Workshop Model for Alignment & Growth

To catalyze progress, we partnered with the national EHS team to design and facilitate a workshop that brought together leaders across regions. The session focused on diagnosing current challenges, surfacing untapped opportunities, and co-creating a roadmap for growth.

The strategy centered on three pillars:

  • Cross-Regional Collaboration. Create stronger national ties by sharing staff and project opportunities, encouraging regional collaboration across mining, transportation, waste, water, and economic development teams.
  • Competitive Differentiation. Define unique selling propositions that highlight permitting expertise, specialized Air and Noise teams, and the ability to deliver integrated services.
  • Talent Development. Address the gap in intermediate-level employees by prioritizing recruitment, mentoring, and leadership pathways.

Actions for Growth

The workshop surfaced actionable priorities, including creating a national growth strategy which focused on:

  • Mapping cross-regional collaboration opportunities and creating a shared pipeline view.
  • Identifying near-term growth markets (e.g., oil & gas, mining) and opportunities to expand air compliance and auditing services with existing clients.
  • Establishing a plan to strengthen digital services within EHS.
  • Clarifying organizational structure and leadership accountabilities.
  • Building a development framework for intermediate-level staff.

Early Results & Traction

  • Clearer growth focus. Leaders aligned priority markets and differentiated value propositions.
  • Collaboration momentum. Teams began connecting more regularly, actively sharing staff and project opportunities across regions.
  • Talent strategy. A plan was established to strengthen the mid-level talent pipeline.
  • Market readiness. The EHS team is positioned to expand into new sectors while deepening services with existing clients.

Key Takeaway

The EHS workshop created alignment, clarity, and momentum—helping a strong technical team turn fragmented strengths into a coordinated growth strategy.

Categories
Technology & Consulting

Making Digital Real: Embedding Innovation Through the Digital Accelerator Program

Case Study

Making Digital Real: Embedding Innovation

Through the Digital Accelerator Program

Background

A global multidisciplinary consulting firm with 10,000+ employees across infrastructure, environmental, and energy sectors faced a pressing challenge: while digital capabilities (analytics, automation, advanced tools) existed, they were under-leveraged and inconsistently applied.

The North American Environment business operated in silos. Staff often lacked awareness of what tools were available, how to access them, or how to introduce them to clients. Meanwhile, clients demanded smarter, faster, and more cost-effective solutions. Employees themselves were asking: “What does digital mean for me and my projects? How do I position this with clients?”

The gap was clear: digital was a strategic differentiator, but without education, ownership and cultural integration, its potential remained untapped.

The Challenge

Despite technical excellence, three core barriers limited impact:

  • Low Awareness. Teams didn’t always know what solutions existed or how they could be applied.
  • Integration Gaps. Digital wasn’t consistently embedded in proposals or delivery.
  • Cultural Inertia. A “status quo” mindset left opportunities for efficiency, differentiation, and margin growth unrealized.

The business needed a structured, scalable way to embed digital in daily work and client conversations.

The Strategy: The Digital Accelerator Program

To address these barriers, the firm launched the Digital Accelerator (DA) Program — a network of embedded champions who serve as translators, integrators, and influencers.

DAs bridge the gap between technical teams and digital capabilities, making innovation tangible.

Key elements of the program:

  • Defined DA Roles. Provide hands-on guidance for integrating digital into proposals, delivery, and client discussions.
  • Visibility Tools. Microsoft avatars and a central hub on intranet make DAs easy to find.
  • Awareness Campaigns. FAQs, success stories, and “Art of the Possible” examples showcase real impacts.
  • Community of Advocates. Champions and early adopters build momentum and a culture of curiosity.
  • Measurement & Tracking. Monitor adoption, proposal integration, and client outcomes to ensure ROI.

Actions for Growth

The DA Program rolled out through a series of deliberate actions:

  • Pilots with Key Clients. Launched DA support in various service lines in the Americas.
  • Central Knowledge Hub. Built an intranet site with templates, FAQs, bots, and success stories.
  • Storytelling. Shared real-world wins, such as automating data collection to cut manual effort in half.
  • Training & Coaching. Embedded DAs in proposal and delivery teams to position digital with clients.
  • Routine Cadence. Established regular DA calls and built a growing advocate network.

Early Results & Traction

  • Greater Awareness. Teams gained visibility into digital solutions and how to properly integrate them into business as usual.
  • Client Differentiation. Smarter, faster delivery strengthened market positioning.
  • Margin Gains. Delivery efficiencies converted into measurable profit.
  • Talent Engagement. Staff saw opportunities to improve skills and deliver higher-value work.

Key Takeaway

Digital Accelerators turned innovation into daily practice—embedding smarter, faster solutions across teams and client delivery.