In my role as Global Director of WSP Digital I frequently look at the competitive landscape that we play in to see what’s going on, who’s acquired who and ultimately try and come to some conclusions about where we should be positioned.

This is not as easy at it sounds in the complex and embryonic landscape that is the intersecting point of software and sustainability. For starters we can, and do, apply a broad interpretation to the word and practice of ‘sustainability”. Your frame of reference will determine how you choose to interpret ‘sustainability’.

You know it’s a hot space when traditional software vendors with no history, or no, or only recently acquired, subject matter expertise are chasing customers. SAP, Microsoft, Oracle are all in the race.

Add in to this the management consultants, who are also newcomers to the space, such as Deloittes, Accenture and Ernst & Young, and you just know there is money to be made. Trouble is, no one seems to be sure exactly where all this manna from heaven will fall or when.

I haven’t even mentioned the plethora of venture capital and private equity backed specialist software providers such as Hara and Carbon 360, or the more established compliance vendors that are also eyeing off this space.

So, where does this leave WSP Environment & Energy? We are sustainability and environmental experts with software expertise that kind of puts us in the opposite position of most others. Many of our software experts have also worked in various areas of sustainability research and development so we reckon we bring something different to the table - and the landscape.