IRC Risk and Safety LLC
As a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services, ERM has sustainability at the heart of both our services and how we operate our business. We employ over 4,000 people with 140 offices in 40 countries worldwide.For over 40 years we have been working with clients around the world and in diverse industry sectors to help them to understand and manage their environmental, health, safety, risk and social impacts. The key sectors we serve include Oil & Gas, Mining, Power, and Manufacturing, Chemical and Pharmaceutical. All face critical sustainability challenges and our clients in these and many other areas rely on our ability to assist them operate more sustainably which has a positive impact on our planet.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Consulting firm
- Industry Type:
- Environmental Management
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
About Us
- ERM’s DDD team wins Environmental and Recycling Award, 2012
- ERM wins two awards at BBRIA - The UK’s CSM team recognised for its in-situ treatment work and ERM Partner Phil Crowcroft is recognised for his contribution to the Brownfield Sector, 2012
- The Sacramento office self-nominated for a sustainability award with the Sacramento Area Sustainable Businesses, 2012
- ERM was recognised for its commitment to building a sustainable business in China after being named as a finalist in the Best in British Business 2012 Awards – Sustainability Award Category
- ERM wins prestigious UK award as global consultant of the year by New Civil Engineer, 2012
- No 3 all-environmental firm in the Top 20 All-Environmental Firms table (2012) - Engineering News Record (ENR)
- ERM wins Best Consultancy Corporate Sustainability from EDIE.net, 2011
- EDIE.net names ERM Best Consultancy for Due Diligence, 2010
- Named Environmental Due Diligence Team of the Year at the European Private Equity Awards (2009)
- The Sunday Times Top Track 250 2009: ERM ranked 30th (up 27 places since 2008 and 38 places since 2007)
- ERM voted No1 Global Environmental Agency by New Civil Engineer Magazine (UK) (2009)
- ERM named as having one of the Top 10 best-designed intranet sites - Neilsen Norman Group, 2009
- Intranet Innovation Award - ERM's Minerva receives commended award, 2009
- ERM.com wins Standard of Excellence Award: Professional Services Category - Web Marketing Association, 2009
- 2008 Saltire Award for Civil Engineering
- Hong Kong Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award, 2008
- Award for Design in Landscape Architecture, 2008 - Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture
- Environmental Due Diligence Team of the Year Award, 2007,2008 & 2009 - Private Equity News
- ERM won five awards as Best Consultancy for Environmental Due Diligence; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environmental Impact Assessments & Strategic Environmental Assessments; Contaminated Land; and Climate Change & Renewables, 2008 - EDIE.net
- ERM won Bronze Award for Business Achievement: Consulting & Engineering Large Firms (>$100million) - 2008 EBJ Business Achievement Awards
- No 1 all-environmental firm in the Top 20 All-Environmental Firms table (2004-2007) - Engineering News Record (ENR)
- No 2 all-environmental firm in the Top 20 All-Environmental Firms table (2008 - 2009) - Engineering News Record (ENR)
Financial Overview
The financial year ended 31 March 2013 was a highly successful year for ERM both in terms of strong financial performance and on-going investment in the sustainable, future growth of the business. Our business continues to thrive. This is partly due to our diverse spread of operations across geographies, sectors and services. In addition, the issues of regulation, reputation and risk, as well as long-term resource needs, continue to drive spending in our market. We have started financial year 2014 strongly and we are excited about our prospects.
Growth of the businessFinancial year 2013 was another successful year for ERM. At constant exchange rates, we increased our net consulting revenue by 14% and our trading profit by 16% excluding the impact of acquisitions made during the financial year. Including the impact of acquisitions (from the date of acquisition), we increased our net consulting revenue by 18% and our trading profit by 22%.
Net revenue grew in each region including growth of 11% in EMEA, 14% in Asia Pacific and 16% in North America (excluding the impact of acquisition).
Financial year 2013 was the third year of our “One Planet. One Company. ERM.” strategy. As part of this strategy, we have continued to undertake a large number of actions to invest in the current and sustainable future growth of the business.
Actions during the year included:
- Acquiring Rescan Environmental Services Limited (“Rescan”)
Rescan is based in Vancouver, Canada. It has approximately 170 employees and is a leading sustainability consultancy specialising in the mining industry. The company provides Impact Assessment Planning and other environmental services such as Water Management, Air Quality Management and Social Consulting. It operates around the world, particularly in Canada and Latin America. This acquisition consolidates our position in the sustainability market, particularly in respect of the resources sector. - Significant on-going activity in our key client programme, in particular in our three initial focus sectors: Oil & Gas, Mining and Power
Combined sales in these three sectors have grown strongly at over 18% (excluding the impact of Rescan) compared to the previous financial year, representing the combination of our focus and the underlying markets. The nature and range of the services we offer in these sectors has continued to expand to deal with established and emerging issues in these industries. Examples of our expanded range of services include our work on corporate sustainability strategy and transformation, working with clients on sustainable operational excellence, providing major capital project support and supporting significant developments in the area of unconventional resources. - Expanding our partner and staff base
In financial year 2013, we hired 59 new partners into ERM and added 15 partners via acquisitions. The external recruitment of experienced professionals into our business will further develop our service offerings and deliver the best outcomes for our clients. In addition, we promote ERM staff annually into the partnership after their participation in and graduation from our industry-leading partner-in-training programme. During the year 28 staff were promoted into the Partnership.
The number of full-time employees in the group increased from 4,190 at the start of the financial year to 4,700 at 31 March 2013 (including some 180 employees joining via acquisitions), an increase of 12%. ERM continues to deliver a great working environment with strong career development opportunities for staff.
A key element of all aspects of our strategy is Sustainability. Sustainability at ERM is a commitment to support socio-economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As a business, we aim to create long-term shareholder value by balancing the necessary financial performance of the company with the impact on and the contributions we make to the environment and society. We believe that these can and should be mutually beneficial and our aim is to ensure that this is the case at ERM.
During financial year 2013 the Sustainability Advisory Committee continued to provide recommendations to senior management regarding sustainability issues. Its main aim is to advise on matters such as sustainability objectives, KPIs and targets, and governance and to implement actions within these areas.
In March 2013, ERM completed its third consecutive year as the Sustainability Partner for CERAWeek. CERAWeek is the world’s leading annual energy conference, bringing together industry leaders, senior officials and leading experts. Our unique association with CERAWeek raises the profile and positions ERM among senior energy industry thought-leaders. Keryn James, our Asia Pacific CEO, was a main speaker in a session on ‘The Community Impact on Unconventionals’, highlighting our expertise in Impact Assessment, particularly on large capital projects. In addition, Mark Sobol, our Global Head of Sustainable Operational Excellence, co-facilitated a select audience workshop on Operational Excellence, demonstrating our strategic offering in this area. In addition, Shawn Doherty, our Global Commercial Director, gave a video interview on our wider capital project support and Jeremy Soboil, our Commercial Director for Africa, was part of a session discussing the challenges of the energy market in Africa.
In February 2013, during the 2013 Mining INDABA Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, our leading mining sector practitioners hosted an event where we explored some of the pressing business issues in water management. INDABA is one of the world’s largest gatherings of mining’s most influential stakeholders and decision-makers with an interest in African mining. The session we held explored the challenges that increasingly come with water, which is a material business sustainability risk to many companies.
Health and Safety is one of ERM’s core values and is also a core part of our broader business sustainability. During the financial year, we continued to develop our global Health and Safety procedures and approaches.
Read more about ERM's sustainability efforts
Corporate GovernanceThe over-arching governance framework of the group has remained similar to last year, with a group Board who meet approximately every other month. We also have group Audit & Risk and Remuneration sub-committees.
On a day-to-day basis we continue to be managed by the Executive Committee, which is supported by the Senior Leadership Team and a larger group of senior partners. These groups consist of the senior executives who lead geographic, practice and sector divisions of our operations, business development, people development and other support functions. The Executive Committee generally meets monthly and the Senior Leadership Team generally meets two to three times a year. We often hold these meetings by video conference to reduce our carbon footprint and our travel time and costs. We also meet physically on occasion in differing locations around the world, which enables us to meet clients and our staff and to share knowledge across a variety of markets.
We recognise the trust that our clients place in us in working on many of their most challenging projects daily all around the world and are committed to the highest ethical behaviour and personal integrity in all our transactions. We continue to develop our risk management procedures and we take every reasonable measure to ensure that all of our staff adheres to ERM’s global values and our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.
Our History
The company was founded in the UK in 1971 trading as ERL and in the US in 1977 as ERM. By 1987 ERL had operations in the UK, Hong Kong, Italy and Bahrain and gross revenues of US$5million. ERL merged with ERM in 1987. ERM’s 500 strong staff operated from 25 locations across the US with gross revenues of US$50million.
In 1994 the company acquired Mitchell McCotter expanding operations in to Australia. Two years later Panazardi in Puerto Rico joined the ERM family followed by the US based Dell Engineering consultancy in 1999. By 2000 ERM had also acquired Dynamo in Sweden and IRMS, a transport risk practice in UK and Hong Kong. For FY00 the company recorded gross revenues of US$279.8million.
Management buyout
Major changes occurred in 2001 when venture capitalists 3i supported the management buyout of ERM’s retiring partners. This saw the company develop from a number of individual partnerships to a more conventional group structure with a single global board and management team. Following the management buyout ERM acquired Ecobe in South Africa and the US environmental management information systems consultancy Enverdant to create ERM’s Information Solutions practice. We also opened our first office in Canada with quick expansion the following year which witnessed second offices opening both here and in South Africa.
New Partners
At the end of 2005 Bridgepoint Capital replaced the 3i Group as ERM’s equity backer allowing ERM to continue as an independent professional partnership. In the same year we opened offices in Russia and the United Arab Emirates and in 2006 opened a new office in New Zealand. In 2008, we extended our operations with a new office in Panama, and continued to increase our staff numbers globally.
To continue to provide this leading-edge advice, make a real difference for our clients, and attract and retain the people who make the delivery of this advice possible, we reviewed and updated our strategy. Our new strategy is simple and has one clear goal: to be recognized by our clients and employees as the pre-eminent global sustainability consulting firm. We launched the new strategy in 2010 under the banner: One Planet. One Company. ERM. The title acknowledges both the need for society to manage the earth and its resources in a sustainable way and the importance of the consistently high-quality advice and global support that ERM provides to its clients.
Recent Acquisitions
- In 2010 we acquired the Houston based risk consultancy, IRC which brought leading edge process safety and quantitative risk assessment capabilities. They have successfully integrated into ERM and are now working effectively with the rest of our global risk team to deliver outstanding projects and outcomes to our oil and gas, mining, power and major industrial clients worldwide.
- In October 2011 we acquired OASIS Environmental, Inc. an environmental services company headquartered in Alaska, USA, with around 100 employees. This acquisition further strengthens ERM’s leading position in the resources sector and in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
- In September 2012 we acquired Rescan, a privately, Canadian-owned, environmental consulting firm offering a wide range of services to the resource development industry. This acquisition consolidates ERM’s leading position in the sustainability market, particularly in respect of the resources sector.
- In December 2012 ERM acquired the sustainability and health, safety and environmental assets of Zer01 Pty Ltd (Zer01), a private Australia-based information solutions consulting firm. The acquisition enhances ERM’s Sustainability Information Solutions practice in Australia and adds to the firm’s global knowledge base and experience in this area.
A new chapter for ERM
In July 2011 ERM completed a refinancing, which saw Charterhouse Capital Partners replace Bridgepoint Capital as our private equity partner. Charterhouse has acquired a stake in the region of 55 per cent with the remaining 45 per cent owned by some 490 Partners working for ERM around the world.
Vision and Values
Our Vision:
- To be the environmental consultancy of choice, worldwide
- To be the company for which every environmental professional wants to work, and
- To be the best: most innovative, most exciting, with the best technical and financial performance.
Our Values:
- Client focus: we value entrepreneurial, innovative and client-orientated behavior
- Accountability: we are each personally accountable and jointly responsible for the success of ERM and for the delivery of quality work to our clients
- Transparency: we expect the highest level of ethical behavior and personal integrity in all our transactions in accordance with our ERM Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
- Empowerment: we will help all our people to realize their potential
- Collaboration: we are one organization globally: we believe in the principles of partnership, respect for each and every individual and mutual support across the world.
Our Principles:
Our business is underpinned by a number of principles concerning our environment, our business and our people. We are committed to:
- providing our clients with technical excellence and innovative solutions to help them respond to the challenges of sustainable development;
- conducting our business with integrity, applying ethical principles to our relationships with clients, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders;
- respecting the customs and laws of the many countries where we work and have offices;
- ensuring the health, safety, personal security and well-being of our people;
- placing a high value on our people as individuals, ensuring the right to freedom from discrimination and harassment at work; and
- encouraging our people to contribute to their local communities and to the world community.
What we do
Our core services are designed to meet the broad range of our clients’ changing needs. The strong communities surrounding these practices ensures consultants can transcend geographical boundaries, develop innovative solutions in addressing our clients’ challenges and work more closely with their sector-focused colleagues across the globe.
At ERM as well as offering specific services to address a particular client’s issue, we are conscious of the need to look at and address the wider strategic ambitions in an organisation. Our team of strategy consultants act as trusted advisors to senior leaders in a number of the world’s leading companies to find solutions to their sustainable performance, operational and cultural challenges.
Learn more about our service offerings
Industries we serveAround the world, ERM delivers sustainable solutions for hundreds of leading undustrial and non-industrial clients by helping them to improve their business, organizational and environmental performance. We do this by understanding business needs and the industry in which they work.
Learn more about the industries we serve
Case StudiesBy helping our clients achieve better outcomes, we not only contribute to the sustainability of their businesses but also address broader global challenges, such as access to natural resources and energy, biodiversity and protecting local communities.