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WSP unveils its biodiversity statement and donates $700,000 to the Nature Conservancy of Canada

With its Biodiversity Statement, WSP has now a set of guiding principles aimed at enabling WSP to engage with our clients to protect, restore, and enhance ecosystems.

With this statement, WSP is committing to: 

  • Help our clients identify opportunities to reverse the degradation of ecosystems and enhance natural capital;
     
  • Embed and apply the mitigation hierarchy in the advice and designs we bring our clients, by using the following sequential method:
    • Avoid.  Avoid negative impacts on the natural world;
    • Minimize. Minimize any such impacts;
    • Restore. Restore damaged sites; 
    • Offset. As a last resort, if any residual impacts remain, we will help our clients offset them.
       
  • Uphold the precautionary principle in our client work, namely to safeguard biodiversity and use prudence whenever evidence is lacking; 
     
  • Assess the impacts we have – both positive and negative – on biodiversity and, once they are better understood, set targets to address them, take action, measure progress, and report on our initiatives using recognized guidance and frameworks such as those being developed by the Science-based Targets for Nature and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure.  
Read our Biodiversity Statement

Supporting Nature Conservancy of Canada

Protecting biodiversity is a natural extension of WSP’s commitment to mitigate climate change. To advance this goal, WSP has also announced a donation of $700,000 to Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), the country's premier organization in delivering tangible and permanent nature conservation.

WSP’s donation will fund three NCC conservation initiatives over the next three years. These initiatives aim to:  

  • Address landscape degradation through habitat restoration using web-based, analytical tools that use spatial data to assist in decision-making;
  • Support Indigenous-led conservation efforts, including Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and Indigenous-led land trusts;
  • Help Canada reach its conservation targets and support landscape conservation nationwide.  

 

The contribution to NCC demonstrates WSP’s approach to giving back to our communities through the development of a more sustainable and equitable world. It is also aligned with WSP’s business strategy and purpose: We exist to future-proof our cities and environments.

“As Montreal is about to host COP15, the largest biodiversity summit in a generation, we want to demonstrate our leadership role in driving change and creating meaningful impact by helping to safeguard the environment,” said Alexandre L’Heureux. 

“Change happens when we work together, across society, to achieve a nature-positive future. We applaud WSP for taking real action and investing in NCC’s work to accelerate the pace of conservation. Together we are helping nature to deliver the essential services that support life. That’s why conservation matters,” said Catherine Grenier, President and CEO of Nature Conservancy of Canada.  

About The Nature Conservancy of Canada  

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is the country's unifying force for nature. It seeks solutions to the twin crises of rapid biodiversity loss and climate change through large-scale, permanent land conservation. As a trusted partner, NCC works with people, communities, businesses, and government to protect and care for our most important natural areas. Since 1962, it has brought Canadians together to conserve and restore more than 15 million hectares. NCC is a registered charity. To learn more, visit natureconservancy.ca.  

 
 

About WSP  

As one of the world's leading professional services firms, WSP exists to future-proof our cities and our environment. It provides strategic advisory, engineering, and design services to clients in the transportation, infrastructure, environment, building, power, energy, water, mining, and resource sectors. Its 65,000 trusted professionals are united by the common purpose of creating positive, long-lasting impacts on the communities we serve through a culture of innovation, integrity, and inclusion. Sustainability and science permeate its work. WSP derived about half of its $10.3B (CAD) 2021 revenues from clean sources. Its shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: WSP). To find out more, please visit www.wsp.com.