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.

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.