Corporate Citizenship (CC), a consultancy that specialises in sustainability reporting and strategy, has been acquired by global environmental engineering and consulting firm SLR.
The deal sees SLR, a United Kingdom-headquartered firm that operates in the energy, construction, mining, energy, and finance sectors, take ownership of CC from advertising firm Chime Communications for an undisclosed sum.
Esther Toth, CC’s global managing director, said that the deal would enable the firm to grow faster and add technical expertise and an implementation element to its offering. CC’s services currently include reporting and assurance, sustainability strategy, and managing environmental risk and impacts.
SLR told Eco-Business that the firm was working on a “careful integration plan” that would not affect CC’s management team, and would be looking at where next to expand the company’s footprint. SLR’s Asia Pacific headquarters are in Australia. CC’s Asia base is in Singapore.
SLR’s revenues hit US$200 million in 2019, bolstered by acquisitions in Canada and Australia. Last year was tougher, with chief executive Neil Penhall revealing in an interview that Asia Pacific had been the least impacted region commercially by the Covid-19 pandemic.
CC was formed in 2007 by Chime Communications, which merged its corporate responsibility consultancy The Smart Company, founded in 2000 by Amanda Jordan, with The Corporate Citizenship Company, which was founded in 1997 by Mike Tuffrey and David Logan.
CC is headquarted in London, and has offices in Singapore, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco, and Santiago. The firm opened in Singapore in 2013, and has worked with clients including FairPrice Group, Golden Agri-Resources, OCBC Bank, Sembcorp Industries, and StarHub.
Corporate Citizenship’s Asia Pacific team
CC’s Southeast Asia director Thomas Milburn noted that the merger came at a time of growing interest in how environmental, social and governance factors can drive growth in Asia, as increasing government regulation and pressure from investors push sustainability further up the corporate agenda.
Chime’s divestment comes at a time when many advertising groups are launching sustainability offerings to cash in on growing demand for sustainability communications and services.
