Denver, Colorado

CH2M Hill


This morning I drove out of Denver with the Rock Mountains in the distance, to hunt down Patty Keck at CH2M Hill in a business estate about 30min away.I was mildly affected by the altitude as the 'mile high' status of this city takes a while for the lungs to adjust! With 23,000 employees (mainly engineers) across 220 offices in many countries, CH2M Hill faces many cultural challenges similar to that of WorleyParsons, and has been very successful in branding itself as a leader in Sustainability, bother internally as a role of corporate citizenship, and externally as a business consulting service. It also have a strong position in disaster relief.

Who I met: Patty Keck, Director, Community Investment

website: www.ch2m.com/ <http://www.ch2m.com/>

About CH2M Hill: Motivated to achieve the "triple bottom line" benefits of environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic progress, CH2M HILL's professionals apply sustainability principles to practically every design, construction, and operations challenge our clients face.

CH2M HILL possesses both the culture and the talent to deliver lasting results for complex, multi-disciplinary, long-term projects. We promote the technical interaction required to create robust, system-based, and integrated sustainable solutions, producing tangible benefits for the environment, communities, and our clients' business success.

Key Messages:

Patty explained the selection process as what gets corporate support by CH2M Hill (i.e not funded out of location operating budgets). Last year 2 global themes/initiatives were selected 

1) Environmental Sustainability

2) Science & Technology Education

These are intended to be supported by all offices, and represent ~80% of funding, 20% to locally selected and implemented community initiatives.

There is a high level of staff voluntary involvement (unpaid) and the company is considering a paid structure for some Pro Bono type work.

Other points made:

- The annual Sustainability report ties together many pieces of work being managed by selected managers who sit within a range of business units (distributed model). There is no central Governance committee or equivalent.

- Awards like Catalyst (women's / diversity) are applied for. Top 100 most Ethical companies

- Partners with Engineers Without Borders ~100 participants pa.

- Participates in World Economic Forum "Disaster Resource Network" (Gary Craft) setting up structure and resources in a co-ordinated manner

- CEO attends CECP forums

- Challenges around volunteerism, becomes low priority when busy or harder economic climate.
- Transparency around link between core business and community work is sincere and open

 Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USA

Dubbed the “Blueprint Brigade,” by Time Magazine, EWB-USA grew from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 today.  EWB-USA has over 350 projects in over 45 developing countries around the world including water, renewable energy, sanitation and more.  These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs.

Who I Met: Art Ens. Business Development & Strategy

Art's role is to provide overall strategic leadership and management for implementation of EWB-USA's fundraising efforts. Our goal is to create numerous, efficient, and compelling opportunities for donors to support EWB-USA and to make the experience of giving satisfying and rewarding. Responsibilities include annual giving, major gifts, foundation giving, planned giving, and all fundraising support functions.
EWB-USA helps create a more stable and prosperous world by addressing people's basic human needs by providing necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation and education.

EWB-USA’s strength comes from its over 250 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on 180 campuses in the United States.