It is nice to get the opportunity to tell the story.This presents a real challenge given the limited number of pages but I do hope that I have done it justice. In particular, I want to be faithful to the very special qualities of Temple, the fun we have had along the way and perhaps most importantly the significant contribution we have made to a myriad of projects of which I am personally very proud. Over the years, we have forged many close and long lasting friendships with clients, partners and others in the industry which has made the journey all the more enjoyable.Above all, I do hope you find it interesting and inspiring. In the mid 1990’s those requiring environmental and planning services had to choose between the convenience of a multi-disciplinary and large consultants and the quality and economy provided by individual experts. Most of the latter had left the larger consultancies to provide a better, more flexible and responsive service to clients. Clients however found these arrangements difficult both in terms of procurement given onerous requirements and invariably it led to greater effort managing and coordinating the inputs from a myriad of consultants which could prove time consuming and problematic. The aim with Temple was to be different and the idea was simple i.e. to create a one stop shop of the best in class and provide a single point of contact.This was done by creating an umbrella organisation for these trusted consultants, which became the “Associate Network” and this allied with our strong project management credentials, built largely on the back of major projects was persuasive with Clients at the time and unique. Mark Southwood Founder and CEO The simplicity and attractiveness of this model in terms of meeting the lean and agile mantra seems as relevant today as it did 20 years ago.Although unique in 1997 this “Associate” approach is far more prevalent today. The environmental market has grown significantly over this period from circa £700m to £1.7bn.And correspondingly it has become more fragmented and competitive with only 8 companies with an annual turnover > £10m compared with circa 40 today and now there are more than 250 companies > 0.5m/yr compared with 130 in 1997. We now have something of a hybrid model at Temple which emerged in year 3 (1999). Our Associate network, of which we’re enormously proud and protective (“part of the family”), now stands at 150 and we currently employ 70 circa staff (and more than 170 since our inception). An introduction