compass resource management
Decision analysts and facilitators helping people navigate complex choices for a sustainable future.
Explore
Decision analysts and facilitators helping people navigate complex choices for a sustainable future.
ExploreIt's hard to box us in with regular job descriptions. In conventional terms, we're decision analysts and planners. But labels aside, we're really just an endlessly curious band of problem solvers.
We offer a full range of decision support services, creative problem-solving tools, and strategic analysis to help people and governments make informed and transparent choices for a sustainable future.
Our expertise spans environmental planning and policy, structured decision making, and risk analysis. We specialize in designing and facilitating processes that bring people together to work on messy problems — and getting results.
Clear objectives, creative alternatives, and targeted analysis. We facilitate frank, mind-changing conversations about tough trade-offs.
Trusted by government, industry, NGOs, communities, and Indigenous groups for neutral facilitation and principled analysis.
We blend analytical rigor and people-sense, integrating facts with values across dialogue and analysis — for two decades, across four continents.
We convene tables where every voice is heard and respected, with culturally sensitive design that elevates Indigenous knowledge and perspectives.
"People call us when the problem is messy, the stakes are high, and the path forward is unclear."
The art of helping people work together to co-explore technical and policy issues and options. We design processes that bring diverse groups together to navigate complexity and find common ground.
The understanding of what it takes to make responsible and transparent real-world choices about the stewardship of our environment and natural resources. We help organizations navigate regulatory frameworks and build lasting environmental policy.
The discipline of how to make good decisions that involve tough trade-offs, risks, and uncertainties. We bring clarity to complex choices through rigorous analytical frameworks that integrate science, values, and stakeholder perspectives.
Tools don't only help us work more efficiently — they create new ways to engage parties in meaningful dialogue that helps build understanding and find better solutions. We build and deploy web-based applications like Altaviz and Hydroviz.
We build web-based applications designed to help decision-makers navigate processes with the best tools available. Our platforms allow stakeholders to explore alternatives, visualize trade-offs, and build shared understanding — making complex decisions more transparent and participatory.
Multi-criteria decision visualization
Water management decision support
Our work spans multiple areas of practice — each project blends disciplines to match the complexity of the problem.
Continents
Years of Practice
Practice Areas
From whooping crane recovery to watershed management — decisions that matter.
Using structured decision making to guide recovery planning for one of North America's most endangered species, balancing habitat protection with stakeholder needs.
Collaborative watershed management with Saulteau First Nations, integrating traditional knowledge with scientific analysis for sustainable water stewardship.
Holistic watershed planning co-led by Cowichan Tribes and the Province of BC, including youth engagement with local schools and community-based monitoring.
Using SDM for landscape-scale scenario planning — navigating complex trade-offs in island adaptation strategies under climate change and sea level rise.
Applying decision support tools and structured decision making to international tiger conservation efforts across multiple countries and ecosystems.
Environmental assessment and stakeholder facilitation for major port infrastructure expansion, balancing economic development with ecological protection.
A team of research and consulting professionals dedicated to improving the quality of decisions and the decision-making capacity of citizens, organizations, and government.
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Compass Resource Management acknowledges the history of settler colonialism and its present-day consequences. We are committed to learning and contributing to the process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples across this land.
Much of our work occurs on the traditional and unceded territories of Indigenous nations. We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside Indigenous communities and are committed to meaningfully integrating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into our practice.
Deepening our understanding of Indigenous histories, rights, and ways of knowing.
Creating space for Indigenous voices and leadership in decision-making processes.
Using our platform to support truthful dialogue about history and its ongoing impacts.
Structured
Decision Making
A Practical Guide to
Environmental Management
Choices
A Practical Guide to Environmental Management Choices
By Robin Gregory, Lee Failing, Michael Harstone, Graham Long, Tim McDaniels, and Dan Ohlson. This book explores the creative and challenging process of making environmental management decisions — providing pragmatic methods for navigating complex, multi-dimensional choices marked by scientific uncertainty, diverse stakeholder perspectives, and difficult trade-offs.
"Well-written and comprehensive, this book is one I plan to recommend strongly to students and colleagues."
— Kenneth Reckhow
"A clear and concise approach to developing workable solutions to even the most challenging environmental problems."
— Blog Business World
Compass continues to lead watershed planning initiatives in British Columbia, working with First Nations communities and provincial agencies on integrated approaches.
Our team delivers structured decision making training to environmental managers and policy practitioners, building capacity for better decisions across organizations.
Compass principals continue to apply decision analysis to international conservation challenges, from tiger recovery in Asia to species at risk frameworks in North America.
Whether you're facing a complex decision, need facilitation for a multi-stakeholder process, or want to explore how structured decision making can help — we'd love to hear from you.
