Integrated risk management company, Sphera has entered into an agreement to acquire Stuttgart, Germany-based thinkstep in a deal that could see the creation of an “all-encompassing sustainability, health, safety, risk and product stewardship platform”.

In recent years, thinkstep, a software consulting services company specialising in corporate sustainability and product stewardship, successfully transformed its business model into a Software-as-a-Service-based solution. “Combined with thinkstep’s exceptional client base, this transition allowed it to take a major step forward in the company´s development,” Sphera said.

Sphera says 60 of the top 100 global metals and mining companies use its solutions for continuous improvement of core work processes, with today’s sector-wide operating principal of sustainable development making its offering even more important. One of its customers is Vale, which used Sphera’s environmental health and safety (EH&S) framework to integrate and prioritise risks from across its global operaitons.

Terms of the deal, which is pending customary German regulatory approvals for mergers and acquisitions, were not disclosed.

Sphera said: “thinkstep’s corporate sustainability software, implementation and consulting services simplify enterprise-wide sustainability reporting, risk management, audits, strategy and resource optimisation. The company’s product stewardship software and consulting services assist in designing more sustainable products and in managing product compliance across the lifecycle.”

Paul Marushka, Sphera’s President and CEO (pictured), said thinkstep’s cloud-based and on-premise software, data and expertise in the corporate sustainability and product stewardship markets advance the company’s mission of “creating a safer, more sustainable and productive world”, adding that thinkstep’s presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific, extended Sphera’s geographic footprint further.

Jan Poulsen, thinkstep CEO, said: “thinkstep offers our customers more than 30 years of experience in the field of sustainability. Adding our advanced software solutions, extensive LCA and eco-profile databases, and sustainability expertise to Sphera’s EH&S solutions is a very attractive business combination that will allow us to serve our extensive customer base more broadly going forward.”