• Global leader details efforts to lower emissions and promote social, governance and environmental priorities; propelling the engineering and construction industry forward

Recognizing the positive impact companies can make on social and climate matters, Black & Veatch released its Sustainability Report. The annual report provides a reflection on the global engineering, procurement, construction and consulting leader’s progress toward its 2020-2023 sustainability strategy, as well as a look ahead as sustainability measurement and goal setting evolves globally.

While outlining Black & Veatch’s sustainability commitments, the new report — available here — highlights the company’s alignment to the Ten Principles of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, the CEO Water Mandate and its Caring for Climate pledge. Steps toward accomplishing each commitment are detailed across 2021, a year defined by reentry into workplaces and public spaces as the COVID-19 pandemic waned, evolving definitions of sustainability and its related benchmarks, and growing urgency to decarbonize our planet’s economies.

Black & Veatch’s 2020-2023 Sustainability Strategy – built upon the concept of “Accelerate Zero,” – guides the company’s work and evaluation of progress toward the sweeping environmental, social and governance responsibilities championed by the company’s employee-owners, involving such issues as carbon emissions, water use, diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-corruption, forced labor, human trafficking and safety. A key tenet of the strategy is the company’s pledge to operate at net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

“Megatrends such as climate change, decarbonization and electrification – along with a focus on the principles embodied in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals – are reshaping how we engage and co-exist with our clients and communities,” said Mario Azar, incoming chairman and CEO of Black & Veatch. “We appreciate that clients, community partners and other stakeholders not only share in our progress but work with us to identify new opportunities to help change the world through sustainable infrastructure.”

With sustainability embedded into the company’s mission statement, 2023 strategy and client solutions, Black & Veatch’s Accelerate Zero program continued to advance, with 2021 highlights including:

• Revising the Black & Veatch corporate sustainability policy, which previously focused largely on environmental stewardship, to reflect the company’s heightened commitments to social progress, economic prosperity and good governance.
• Continuing its year-over-year carbon footprint reduction and completing carbon footprint analysis for projects designed and built from 2018 to 2020
• Conducting its first operational water use assessment for Black & Veatch operations, as well as its first water use analysis for projects designed and built by Black & Veatch from 2018 to 2020
• Improving safety by achieving project/office-based Voluntary Protection Program status in December 2021 and the lowest recordable incident rate, days away restricted or transferred (DART) rate and lost time rate in company history
• Scoring a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, earning “Best Place to Work for the LGBTQ Equality” for the third consecutive year
• Supporting 33 new charitable organizations in 2021, and providing 82 grants to engineering chapters for minority students at colleges and universities

For more information about Black & Veatch’s Corporate Sustainability Program, click here.

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2021 exceeded US$3.3 billion.