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Growing environmental problems, coupled with changing trends in population and urbanisation, are increasing the pressure on the planet. This, in turn, is leading to increased demand for solutions to prevent irreversible environmental change.

The Challenge

• Urbanisation, by concentrating the number of people per area of land, increases pressure put on environmental resources and can exacerbate waste and pollution problems. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of its population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. By 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion.¹
• Municipal solid waste (MSW) is the most widespread waste stream and is produced by millions of people. The amount of MSW generated worldwide in 2006 was estimated at 2.02 billion tonnes, and is forecast to increase by 37.3% between 2007 and 2011.²
• Land degradation is on the rise, being driven mainly by poor land management. Some 1.5 billion people around the world depend directly on land that is being degraded.³
• The initial findings from a comprehensive economic analysis on biodiversity in May 2008 concluded mankind is causing £40 billion of damage to terrestrial ecosystems each year, and predicted that global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could decline by 7% by 2050 if no action is taken.⁴

Markets & Drivers

The increasing awareness of the impacts of environmental degradation, are generating strong financial pressures and incentives for businesses to innovate and provide solutions to these challenges.

• The world market for environmental goods and services was valued at US$ 548 billion in 2004, and is expected to grow a further 45% by 2015 - suggesting a market of US$ 800 billion by 2015.⁵
• According to the Waste Business Journal, the value of the current MSW market in the USA is US$ 52.1 billion, up from US$ 46.5 billion two years ago. Historically it grew at 3-4% per year, however, over the past two years, the figure has been nearly 6%.⁶
• The contaminated land market in the UK was estimated at £1.1 billion in 2007, an increase of 7% from the previous year. Overall the value of the market has increased by 31% between 2003-2007.⁷

Investment Opportunities

The Environmental Services theme focuses on companies whose goods and services facilitate sustainable management of environmental resources and reduced pollution and waste.  This includes companies in the following sub-themes:

Examples of companies within the Environmental Services theme are...

• RPS [UK], an environmental consultancy company
• Sims Group [Australia] is a leading metals recycler
• Stericycle [USA], a medical waste service company that provides collection, treatment and disposal services