Saatchi & Saatchi snaps up green consultancy

Corporate Communications giant Publicis Groupe bolstered its presence in the green marketing space yesterday with the acquisition of US-based sustainability consultancy Act Now.

Publicis, which owns advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, said the company would be rebranded as Saatchi & Saatchi S and integrated into the branding and advertising specialist's global operations.

The new division will be headed by Act Now founder Adam Werbach, who also serves as a member of the International Board of Greenpeace. The company provides consultancy services designed to help firms adopt sustainable best practices across their operational, HR and marketing activities, and counts Wal-Mart Cisco and the WWF amongst its client base.

Saatchi & Saatchi also outlined significant expansion plans for the new division, announcing that it is to open new offices in New York, Chicago, Arkansas, London and Beijing in the near future to add to existing offices in San Francisco and Colorado.

Andy Murray, global CEO of the company's Saatchi & Saatchi X division said that the new operation would focus on helping firms exploit the commercial opportunities associated with sustainable business practices and products. " [Thus far] the economic impact on sustainability has been in the backend products supply process, such as savings in transportation costs and packaging, " he said "But we've really never translated that economic value to consumer-forward. Saatchi & Saatchi S is going to lead and reinvent this."