Edie consultancy survey 2009/10 – results published

Edie's annual survey looking at the reputation of major players in the world of environmental consultancy has shown some interesting jossling at the front of the pack, with some firms seeing a dip on last year's results while others cement their credentials as the industry's thought leaders.


The survey looks at a range of areas, gauging opinion from within the sector but also that of the potential clients who rely on its services.

It asks who’s seen as the best in show across a variety of sectors, from climate change advice to contaminated land remediation, from water and wastewater to waste & recycling.

It also offers insight into future expectations, with customers outlining where they expect to engage consultants over the coming year and consultants sharing their own views as to where the work will be coming from.

We’ve had a major revamp this year in an effort to improve accuracy and integrity yet further and make it even more relevant to our users, providing a more robust set of results which we hope will prove even more valuable to our readers.

The survey still seeks to gather intelligence from within the consultancies themselves and gauge opinion in the marketplace, assessing who the clients think the strong players are and where they are likely to need the services of consultants in the future.

But for the first time this year, we commissioned an independent market research company to quiz over 400 consultants’ clients about their needs, views, loyalties, preferences and, crucially, who they considered thought leaders and who was ahead of the curve.

It is the findings of these phone interviews that provide the data for the What the customers said sections of the survey results.

As well as providing more in depth, clear information, this process does away with nagging doubts about the reliability of figures based on a purely online survey that was open to anyone with an authentic-looking email address.

It also prevents consultants directly canvassing votes from their clients.

We hope you find the new, authoritative survey both helpful and informative.

Edie+ subscribers can view the full results here.

Sam Bond

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