Corporate Sustainability
Our Sustainability Commitment, We’re in This Together
At HDR, the promise of doing things right to make great things possible is at the heart of our sustainability commitment. We have dedicated ourselves to transparency in our goals, practices, and policies surrounding sustainability, carbon reduction, employee diversity, inclusion and equity, health and safety, and how we engage in the communities where we live and work. As a 100% employee-owned company, our daily interactions reinforce these efforts in more than 200 offices worldwide.
Our work in sustainability took several leaps forward with the addition of a full-time corporate sustainability director, employee advisory committee, and an enhanced ESG report that focuses on HDR’s impact on the economy, environment and people throughout the world.
— Eric Keen, Chairman & CEO
Making an Impact
Our sustainability program continues pushing boundaries by reducing our impacts, acting as change agents and providing value to our clients through sustainable solutions.
With every action, we ask the same question: what’s our impact on the world?
From designing a road that improves mobility to a hospital that heals, we take to heart our role in making the world a better, smarter, safer place. We think globally and act locally to improve the places where we live and work.
It begins by working together, with our clients and communities, ending each time with collaborations that add meaning and value. We know every small action yields great results. We take responsibility through:
Community Involvement & Support
Both as individuals and as a company, we take pride in supporting efforts to better our communities — not just financially, but also with our time. Whether it’s providing basic needs, beautifying a public place or leading enriching activities, we are passionate about being engaged.
Many of our team members also volunteer with aid organisations such as Bridges to Prosperity and Engineers without Borders, giving their time and sharing their professional talents to provide communities around the world access to healthcare, clean water and modern energy grids. And through Design 4 Others, more than 200 of our employees have provided architecture, engineering and planning services to communities in need. Recent projects have included a new school in Kenya to expand capacity and increase the number of students who have access to education and a new outpatient clinic in rural Malawi that provides community-based care to more than 20,000 residents.
Health & Safety
We want our employees to bring their best self to work, which is why we work hard to make wellness a significant part of our culture. Our full-time wellness manager, along with over 130 volunteer employee wellness coordinators dedicate their time to promoting healthy lifestyles through multidimensional wellness initiatives. From health education, to tobacco cessation programs and financial wellness, the goal is to improve the quality of life for our employees and their families.
And while we want our employees to come to work happy and healthy, we also strive to make sure they go home safely — every day. We foster a culture of safe behaviour to ensure a safe work environment both in the office and on our project sites. Careful planning, comprehensive training, continual observation and feedback, root cause analyses and consistent management support are the cornerstones of our philosophy that “good enough” is never good enough when it comes to safety.
Sustainable Business Practices
We are committed to reducing our environmental impact through the use of sustainable business practices. We continually examine our day-to-day activities to determine where we can make business improvements that deliver long-term sustainable value. We set measurable goals and assess the results to see how we should move forward.
One target we have set is to reduce GHG emission levels 20% by 2020 from our 2011 baseline, adjusted for growth. Our emissions reductions from 2011-2018 were more than 10%. We are working to achieve this reduction through targeted operational initiatives, as well as educational and awareness. Some recently implemented strategies include:
- Issuing a company-wide Waste Prevention and Recycling Standard, to reduce the amount and type of waste that goes into landfills.
- Completing a materiality assessment and using it to inform our 2020 Sustainability + Corporate Responsibility Report.
- Continuing to work with meeting venues to introduce composting, promote reuse and enhance recycling efforts.
- Working with our Real Estate Department to ensure office fit-outs and renovations identify energy efficiency opportunities and implement the best solutions.
View some of our other success in this Sustainable Business Practices infographic.
