Global EHS Leaders Survey 017: EHS Consulting Brands N O V E M B E R 0 1 7 W W W. V E R D A N T I X. C O M
Global EHS Leaders Survey 017: EHS Consulting Brands This report helps strategy leaders, chief marketing officers and business development directors at EHS consulting firms to understand the strength of their brand awareness and brand preference in the eyes of 38 customers in 31 countries. The brand assessment study was conducted between June and September 017 via telephone interviews with senior EHS decision-makers with direct responsibilities for corporate-wide EHS management strategies and initiatives. Compared to the 016 survey, the 017 version has grown by. Of the 38 respondents, all belong to firms with revenues of at least $0 million, covering industries. We also focused on industries with high to very high EHS risk profiles: chemicals, mining and metals, and oil and gas accounting for 30% of respondents. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Global EHS Leaders Survey 017: EHS Consulting Brands... 3 Global Multi-Industry Survey With EHS Decision-Makers Delivers Granular Insight Commitment To EHS Service Lines Is The Primary Determinant Of Brand Strength Dupont Sustainable Solutions Is The Only Standout Consultant For Brand Preference Majority Of Respondents Have Low Awareness For EHS Consulting Brands T A B L E O F F I G U R E S Figure 1. EHS Consulting: Brand Preference Ranking... 6 Figure. EHS Consulting: Brand Awareness Ranking... 8 O R G A N I Z A T I O N S M E N T I O N E D AECOM, American Airlines, ARCADIS, Behavioral Science Technology, Borealis, Cardno, CHM, Clean Harbors, DEKRA, Deloitte, DuPont, DuPont Sustainable Solutions, ENVIRON, ERM, EY, Georgia Pacific, Golder Associates, Jacobs, KPMG, Mitsubishi Motors, Parsons Brinckerhoff, PwC, Ramboll, Ramboll Environ, SGS, Suez Environnement, Tata Consultancy Services, Tetra Tech, The Dow Chemical Company, Trinity Consultants, UL, UL EHS Sustainability, WSP, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D
Global EHS Leaders Survey 017: EHS Consulting Brands This report helps strategy leaders, chief marketing officers and business development directors at EHS consulting providers to understand the strength of their brand awareness and brand preferences in the eyes of 38 customers in 31 countries. The brand assessment study was conducted between June and September 017 via telephone interviews with senior EHS decision-makers with direct responsibilities for corporate-wide EHS management strategies and initiatives. Global Multi-Industry Survey With EHS Decision-Makers Delivers Granular Insight Data on brand awareness and brand preference in different industries and geographies provide essential insight to help executives shape marketing strategies and improve their pursuit of new business. For the 017 version of the Verdantix annual telephone survey of EHS leaders we expanded the survey to cover: 38 firms with revenues of at least $0 million. Of the 38 EHS decision-makers interviewed, 7 belonged to firms with revenues greater than $1 billion. The survey covers firms in the mid-market with revenues from $0 million to $1 billion, the core enterprise segment with revenues from $1 billion to $10 billion, and the large enterprise segment with revenues above $10 billion. Among the roles of the 38 respondents, 1 were in SVP, VP or head of roles, % were in senior director or director roles, and the remaining were in senior manager roles. From a numerical perspective the sample size grew by compared to the 301 interviews conducted in 016. industries weighted to sectors with higher EHS risks. In the 017 survey, we broadened our industry coverage and applied a more detailed segmentation resulting in an expansion from 17 to industries. We strengthened our focus on the industries with high to very high EHS risk profiles, totalling % of the EHS decision-makers interviewed. The biggest focus is placed on industries with the highest EHS risk profile, with chemicals, mining and metals, and oil and gas accounting for 30% of respondents. 31 countries with a focus on regions with higher levels of EHS spend. We increased the geographic scope of respondents to cover 31 countries, almost 0% more than in 016. With North America as the region with the highest spend on EHS technologies globally, US and Canadian respondents account for the largest representation (31%) in the 017 global survey (Verdantix EH&S Software: Global Market Size And Forecast 016-00). Europe, as the region with the second highest spend on EHS technologies, aggregately accounts for, distributed across Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Commitment To EHS Service Lines Is The Primary Determinant Of Brand Strength In 017, Verdantix expanded the annual survey to 38 firms across industries and 31 countries. The largest portion of respondents (%) belongs to industries with very high and high EHS risks. The brand awareness statistics are shaped by consultants : Depth of commitment to delivering services for EHS decision-makers. Given that the 38 individuals Verdantix spoke to are senior EHS professionals, it comes as no surprise G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D 3
that respondents show more awareness of vendors offering EHS-focused services. DuPont Sustainable Solutions (DSS) a DuPont business unit focuses on helping customers improve worker and process safety with their operational risk management services offering. In the case of ENVIRON (now owned by Ramboll) and ERM these suppliers focus on offering environmental services. In particular, ERM and ENVIRON s brand awareness statistics prove the positive effect of having services that strongly align with EHS. Organizational scale and geographic presence. Both large organizational scale and broad geographic coverage are catalysts for high brand awareness among EHS consulting providers. DSS is allied with the famous DuPont brand that, as a whole, employs 46,000 people and operates in 90 countries worldwide. The fact that DSS is significantly more aligned with safety management than environmental management has not dented its leading worldwide brand awareness. SGS is a multinational firm headquartered in Switzerland with,000 offices and 90,000 employees. CHM is a global engineering firm, now owned by Jacobs, with $ billion in revenue, selling projects across 0 countries. EY, with $31 billion in revenue, is known as one of the Big Four auditing firms, alongside Deloitte, KPMG and PwC. Investment in marketing their capabilities in multiple geographies. In September 014, WSP acquired Parsons Brinckerhoff for $1 billion and with this, expanded their geographic footprint to the US. Since the acquisition of ENVIRON by the Denmark-headquartered firm Ramboll in December 014, the firm has marketed their brand as Ramboll ENVIRON in order to establish brand awareness in North America ENVIRON s regional focus as well as inform users of their broader environmental capabilities as a result of the acquisition. In December 01, DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company entered a merger agreement, which was only recently completed in September 017 in a $130 billion deal. During the 1 month transition period DuPont has progressively introduced the new brand DowDuPont on their website. In August 017 CHM entered an agreement with Jacobs under which they will be acquired in a deal valued at approximately $3 billion. As of yet, both vendors have retained their original branding. Since 016 UL has been marketing UL EHS Sustainability as a subbrand to strengthen their alignment with EHS and sustainability advisory expertise, including safety training and worker health. Dupont Sustainable Solutions Is The Only Standout Consultant For Brand Preference Shifts in the EHS consulting brand landscape have been shaped by an increase in scale of vendors offering longstanding EHS services, as well as the extent of investment injected into brand marketing after rebrands, mergers and acquisitions. Brand preference is represented by those respondents who perceived an EHS consulting firm as having market-leading or strong capabilities (see Figure 1). The survey data shows that: DuPont Sustainable Solutions brand preference at 3% is far ahead. DSS is the protagonist of the brand preference statistics: of respondents consider DSS to have market-leading capabilities, and % consider the firm a provider of strong capabilities of EHS consulting. DSS as its own business unit has been offering operational risk and safety management services for the past 30 years. Not only has DSS leveraged the global footprint of the well-known DuPont brand, but also adopted DuPont s knowledge and experience gained from dealing with safety in the agriculture and nutrition, advanced materials, and bio-based industrials sectors, such as the handling of extreme chemical hazards. This experience has boosted their expertise when working with customers such as American Airlines, Borealis, Georgia Pacific and Mitsubishi Motors (see Verdantix DSS Brings An Integrated And Behaviour-Focused Approach To ORM). G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D 4
ERM and SGS make it into the top three for brand preference. After DSS, the two services providers ranking highest in brand preference are ERM (%) and SGS (0%). Both these suppliers are very different in their service offerings as well as their organizational scale and geographic presence. Whilst ERM is smaller in size than SGS, employing 4,00 people across 160 offices, the firm s long-standing EHS offering and willingness to deliver work in every corner of the world has boosted their higher brand preference ranking. ERM offers services that are well aligned with the needs of the 38 EHS decision-makers we spoke to; not only through their environmental focus, but also through ERM s EHS Information Solutions business unit, dedicated to supporting the implementation of EHS software (see Verdantix Smart Innovators: Safety Consulting). In the case of SGS, the firm with 90,000 employees offers EHS alongside a portfolio of services delivered to multiple industries, including industrial manufacturing, mining and oil and gas services. ENVIRON, CHM, EY, AECOM, DEKRA, Jacobs and Golder Associates exceed the average score of 11%. ENVIRON, CHM, EY, AECOM, DEKRA, Jacobs and Golder Associates all score higher than the average in brand preference (11%). Apart from being recognised for their environmental services, ENVIRON s strong presence in North America evidenced by the fact this region accounted for 70% of the firm s revenue prior to their acquisition by Ramboll aligns well with the fact that 31% of the respondents are North America-based. EY and AECOM are world-recognised, multi-disciplinary consultancies. Since the acquisition in April 01 of Behavioral Science Technology, a technical services provider with more than 30,000 employees, DEKRA has extended their offering to provide data-driven technical services for safety management, such as reducing injury rate. Jacobs and Golder Associates are multidisciplinary, global engineering firms. ARCADIS, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, Ramboll, Clean Harbors and Tata Consultancy Services score below the average. The five adjacent vendors located below the 11% average are: ARCADIS, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, Ramboll, Clean Harbors and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Both ARCADIS with 7,000 employees located in 30 offices and WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff with 36,000 employees operating in 00 offices offer multiple services out of which EHS is not the focus. Reflecting its regional presence and core capabilities in engineering, Ramboll scored in global brand preference. Clean Harbors is a large consulting provider with 1,900 employees that focuses on providing waste management services. Whilst TCS has strong brand preference with IT professionals in all large economies, their EHS group is a relatively new initiative. The TCS plant and process safety team has worked closely with the CTO and digital enterprise unit to examine the potential of beacons, sensors and wearables to generate leading indicators for safety incident prediction and developing corrective and preventative actions (CAPAs) based on near-miss and unsafe acts data (see Verdantix TCS Improves Plant And Process Safety With A New Digital Paradigm). Majority Of Respondents Have Low Awareness For EHS Consulting Brands Looking at the analysis from a brand preference view, DuPont is far ahead at 3%, ERM and SGS follow behind, and ENVIRON, CHM, EY, AECOM, DEKRA, Jacobs and Golder Associates exceed the average score of 11%. To provide an insight into brand awareness as opposed to brand preference we aggregated all responses that indicated awareness of consulting brands to provide a binary awareness/lack of awareness assessment (Figure ). We found: G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D
F I G U R E 1 EHS Consulting: Brand Preference Ranking What is your perspective on the following suppliers in terms of their capabilities to provide your firm with EHS consulting services? DuPont Sustainable Solutions % 11% 34% 3% ERM 1 1% 6% 40% SGS 4 16% 14% 6% 40% ENVIRON 1% 16% 4% CHM 4 10% 10% 4 EY 3 11% 11% 6% 49% AECOM 3 10% 6% 4% DEKRA 9% 16% 1% 1% Jacobs 9% 10% 6% % Golder Associates 9% 13% 1% 4% ARCADIS % 6% WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff 1 % 6% Ramboll 1% 6% Clean Harbors 1 6% Tata Consultancy Services 4 3% 64% TetraTech 1 4 3% 6% Suez Environnement 6% 64% Cardno 6% 0% 69% UL EHS Sustainability 1 3 61% Trinity Consultants % 6 Market leading capabilities Strong capabilities Average capabilities Recognise the name, but not aware of their capabilities Unaware of the firm Note: Data labels are rounded to zero decimal places, percentages less than or equal to % have been written as numbers. Responses are ranked by the first two response options Source: Verdantix n = 38 G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D 6
DuPont Sustainable Solutions is the stand-out brand in the EHS consulting market. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents stated they are aware of DSS as an EHS consultant. DSS focuses on helping clients improve safety and operational performance, serving industries with very high EHS risk profile: chemicals, mining, and oil and gas. As part of their operational risk management (ORM) offering, DSS provides advisory services on allocation of resources when mitigating hazards and reducing severity or probability of unplanned events via risk matrices. Also, DSS has developed its capability engine, a comprehensive training program to provide knowledge on EHS in terms of ORM, particularly how ORM can be intertwined with workers existing duties. DSS beats the awareness ranking through delivering long-standing EHS services, establishing a strong geographic presence and large organizational scale, and also proving investment in marketing their capabilities through their website. Only six vendors have at least 0% brand awareness. Less than half of the EHS consulting firms listed have at least 0% in global brand awareness. The six vendors with at least 0% in brand awareness among the 38 decision-makers are: DSS, SGS, ERM, ENVIRON, CHM and EY. ERM and ENVIRON are high in the statistics for their strong environmental services. SGS, CHM and EY are large multidisciplinary firms which have succeeded in establishing their brand in the world of EHS professionals. The gap with DuPont Sustainable Solutions is due to either a lack of presence in some regions such as Russia, Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia or else the core business of the consulting provider being something other than EHS services. Despite their huge scale, engineering services firms lack awareness with more than 0% of EHS buyers. Jacobs, Golder Associates, AECOM, ARCADIS, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff and Tetra Tech are all large global engineering services firms, yet they score below 0% in brand awareness. See the case of AECOM and Jacobs, for example, both US-based firms with 87,000 and 70,000 employees respectively, yet less than 0% of respondents are aware of their brand. Just 3% of respondents stated they are aware of Tetra Tech, a US-based engineering and technical services firm with 400 offices worldwide. Fourteen vendors have brand awareness below 0% of global respondents. More than half of the 38 EHS decision-makers aren t aware of 14 out of the 0 EHS consulting firms listed in the brand awareness question. It comes as no surprise that Trinity Consultants and Cardno are part of these fourteen vendors; they are smaller firms ranging from 00 to 6,000. In the case of Suez Environnement, 36% of respondents stated they are aware of the brand. With 90,000 employees globally, Suez Environnement s low brand awareness can t be explained through their organizational scale or global presence, but their expertise is very specific to water treatment and waste management services. G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D 7
F I G U R E EHS Consulting: Brand Awareness Ranking What is your perspective on the following suppliers in terms of their capabilities to provide your firm with EHS consulting services? DuPont Sustainable Solutions 77.%. SGS ERM ENVIRON CHM EY DEKRA Jacobs Golder Associates AECOM Clean Harbors UL EHS Sustainability ARCADIS WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff Tata Consultancy Services Suez Environnement TetraTech Ramboll Trinity Consultants Cardno 9.9% 9. 8.1% 1.6% 1.3% 49.0% 47.9% 4. 4.% 4.4% 38. 38.% 38.% 36.4% 36.4% 3.1% 34.6% 3.% 31.4% 40.1% 40.3% 41.9% 48.4% 48. 1.0%.1% 4.% 4.% 7.6% 61.3% 61.% 61.% 63.6% 63.6% 64.9% 6.4% 67. 68.6% Aware of the firm Unaware of the firm Note: Aware of the firm is the aggregate number based on the following four responses: Market leading capabilities ; Strong capabilities ; Average capabilities ; and Recognise the name, but not aware of their capabilities. Data labels are rounded to one decimal place, percentages less than or equal to % have been written as numbers. Source: Verdantix n = 38 G L O B A L E H S L E A D E R S S U R V E Y 0 17 : E H S C O N S U L T I N G B R A N D S C O P Y R I G H T V E R D A N T I X L T D 0 0 7-0 1 7. L I C E N S E D C O N T E N T, R E P R O D U C T I O N P R O H I B I T E D 8