The second in a series of acquisitions by ERM aimed at building the world’s leading sustainability advisory services
ERM (Environmental Resources Management) — a global
provider of environmental, health, safety, risk and social consulting services —
announced this week it has completed the acquisition of SustainAbility
Ltd (SA) — a leading think tank and advisory
firm that inspires business to lead the way to a sustainable economy, with
offices in London (UK), New York and the San Francisco Bay Area (USA).
Founded in 1987, SustainAbility, a certified B Corporation, has helped define
and evolve the sustainable development agenda and the role of business within
it. Throughout its history, it has worked with business and stakeholders to
enable a more just and sustainable economy. It offers consulting services to
help clients make better decisions through integrating sustainability into their
business, and by creating innovative solutions. SA’s Think Tank is an
independent, agenda-shaping research and advocacy capability that enables
companies to transform how they think and do business, by identifying critical
trends, providing actionable insights and building new ideas and strategies.
Like ERM, SA works with some of the world’s leading organizations, such as
Brown-Forman, Interface, Nestlé, Nike, Novartis, RBS and
Shell.
ERM — which combines deep technical expertise with a solid understanding of the
commercial imperatives of business and the societal demands impacting the
world’s leading organizations — is building the world’s leading capability in
sustainability advisory services; SustainAbility is the second in a series of
acquisitions to bolster its presence in this market. As the market shifts focus
from establishing why sustainability is important to developing a comprehensive
understanding of how to ‘operationalize’ sustainability, ERM says SA’s insights
and future-focused thinking, coupled with ERM’s global implementation capability
and access to 5,000+ subject matter experts, will provide a leading service to
clients and global organizations.
“The acquisition of SustainAbility Ltd further strengthens ERM’s standing in
sustainability advisory services, in the UK and the US,” explains Keryn
James, Chief Executive of ERM Group. “Its reputation and capability build our
existing thought leadership approach, and we will look to leverage the two
firms’ strong alignment around clients, sectors and services to enhance our
approach to the market. The excellent alignment of both businesses will create a
unique capability and service offering which can materially add value to our
clients’ business.”
Rob Cameron, SustainAbility Ltd Chief Executive, and Executive Director
Mark Lee both expressed excitement for the opportunities to extend the
firm’s growth and thought leadership with the backing of ERM.
In an email announcing the acquisition, Cameron and Lee said, “ERM’s tagline,
‘The business of sustainability,’ reflects its ambition to be the leader in
sustainability consulting and chimes well with SustainAbility’s mission to
‘inspire and enable business to lead the way to a sustainable economy.’ For this
reason and more, we see huge potential in combining SustainAbility’s thought
leadership with ERM's deep technical knowledge and greater geographical reach.
We hope this will be a catalyst in terms of our impact on the sustainable
development agenda, especially at this moment when realizing faster progress and
attaining greater scale is so critical.”
Published Jan 11, 2019 3am EST / 12am PST / 8am GMT / 9am CET