AECOM, has announced the launch of Sustainable Legacies, its strategy for reaching ambitious environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives. This strategy integrates four key pillars that will embed sustainable development and resilience across the company’s work, improve social outcomes for communities, achieve net-zero carbon emissions and enhance governance.
“As leaders of our industry, we have a responsibility to embed ESG principles into everything we do and partner with our clients and communities to advise on their efforts to advance complex, multi-decade sustainability initiatives,” said Troy Rudd, AECOM’s chief executive officer. “With nearly 50,000 talented engineers, scientists, architects, consultants, program and construction managers, along with our Board of Directors and Executive Leadership Team, we are energized by the impact of our work and how we can contribute positively to society and the planet. We believe infrastructure creates opportunities for everyone, and directly integrating ESG principles with our technical excellence and capabilities puts us in the best position to deliver sustainable legacies for a better world.”
“Our clients have new, evolving priorities focused on sustainability and delivering social impact through their projects and services, and AECOM stands out as the company that can best advise and execute for them,” said Lara Poloni, AECOM’s president. “By developing our strategy with a focus on advancing our ESG objectives and supported by the strength of our technical excellence, global collaboration and local engagement, we will continue to drive innovation in our industry while leaving long-lasting impacts on the communities we serve and the planet as a whole.”
Key Pillars of AECOM’s Sustainable Legacies Strategy
- Achieve net-zero carbon emissions: While developing and implementing best practices and achievable goals for its clients, AECOM has furthered its own carbon emissions goals by ensuring that the company will be operationally net-zero by the end of 2021. It has also committed to reach science-based net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 through the following actions:
- Setting new 1.5°C-aligned emissions reduction targets.
- Decarbonizing fleet vehicles and switching to renewable energy tariffs.
- Partnering with its suppliers to decarbonize and including carbon considerations into its procurement processes.
- Implementing a 50% reduction in business travel.
- Creating projects centered around using nature-based solutions to offset residual carbon.
- Embed sustainable development and resilience across our work: AECOM has introduced ScopeX™, a first-of-its-kind initiative to reduce carbon through design that considers embodied and operational carbon across the entire project life cycle. The company will further incorporate ESG action plans on all major projects to reduce carbon impact by at least 50 percent. It will also embed net-zero, resilience and social value targets into its client account management program.
- Improve social outcomes: AECOM believes equity, diversity and inclusion enable better outcomes for clients, a deeper understanding of community challenges and more innovative solutions that propel the industry forward. As part of this pledge, AECOM has set an industry-leading, near-term target of women comprising at least 20% of senior leadership roles and at least 35% of the overall workforce. Its efforts extend to include developing project teams that reflect the clients and communities it serves and partnering with small and medium enterprises to generate social value through positive community investments. Additionally, the company is focused on delivering inclusive, accessible projects that proactively improve social value outcomes for individuals, communities and society.
- Enhance governance: To better assess ESG risk factors in potential projects, AECOM is developing and deploying an enterprise framework supported by leadership accountability and advocacy through the audit of specific ESG targets and metrics on an annual basis. In addition to regular reporting to the Board of Directors on ESG matters, as part of the recently expanded charter of the Board’s Safety, Risk and Sustainability committee that includes direct oversight of ESG activities, the company will track and report on its ESG performance targets externally in line with leading industry benchmarks.
Reflecting AECOM’s commitment to advancing its ESG initiatives, in the fiscal second quarter the company executed an amendment to its existing senior secured credit facilities that includes incentives linked to achieving certain sustainability, and diversity and inclusion goals.
For more information on how AECOM is delivering Sustainable Legacies, please visit www.aecom.com/sustainable-legacies.
