Global infrastructure leader Black & Veatch has unveiled its 2024 corporate sustainability report, showcasing the employee-owned company’s significant advancements in key sustainability milestones and commitments. The report emphasizes the company's efforts to guide clients toward lower carbon and water footprints while enhancing resilience.

Viewing sustainability as a vital business imperative rather than a mere corporate responsibility, Black & Veatch outlines its initiatives across three interconnected areas: corporate initiatives, client engagements, and community involvement.

This comprehensive and transparent report, the fourth of its kind, details the company’s achievements and challenges, including efforts to reach a 40% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 20% decrease in overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scopes 1, 2, and 3, including business travel) from a 2019 baseline through absolute reductions, renewable energy utilization, and renewable energy certificates (RECs).

In recognition of the need for ambitious yet achievable actions, Black & Veatch has expanded its net-zero emissions goals, committing to achieve net-zero GHG emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. To support these objectives, the company has bolstered its sustainability capabilities by investing in new tools, data, and processes for tracking progress and informed decision-making.

Additionally, Deepa Poduval, an established expert in sustainability, has been appointed as the global sustainability leader and a member of the leadership team, reinforcing the company’s commitment to integrating sustainability into its operations and decision-making processes.

“As the world’s challenges become increasingly complex, we must think bigger and be bolder. Push ourselves. Place big bets,” said Mario Azar, Chairman and CEO of Black & Veatch. “With that in mind, we’ve significantly restructured our operating model to be more client-centric and more responsive to the future needs of the energy transition, including decarbonization, resilience, and sustainability of critical infrastructure.”

“We track and report the progress of our sustainability strategies to ensure transparency, drive accountability, foster trust among stakeholders, and upgrade our business decision-making,” added Poduval, Senior Vice President and Global Sustainability Leader for Black & Veatch. “Building out our talented team of professionals, innovating with a disruptive portfolio of engineering and construction solutions, and maintaining the capacity to operate resiliently for decades to come is how we will realize our vision to be the leader in sustainable infrastructure – an outlook detailed further in this report.”

Other notable highlights from the report include:

• Achievement of the interim sustainability targets set for 2023, established in 2020, with a 43% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 31% decrease in overall GHG emissions.
• Key factors contributing to these reductions included a 40% drop in air travel emissions from 2019 to 2023 and a 70% reduction in market-based emissions from electricity usage through optimized real estate, renewable power purchases, and renewable energy certificates.
• IgniteX, Black & Veatch’s award-winning accelerator recognized by a Department of Energy EPIC prize, supported a cohort of seven startups focused on areas like AI technology, carbon capture, and sustainable nutrition to scale innovative solutions for critical human infrastructure.
• The company continued its commitment to civic engagement and philanthropic efforts, prioritizing communities, STEM initiatives, and sustainability, particularly for underserved and historically marginalized populations. Charitable contributions included $1.5 million in matching gifts in 2023 and over $29 million total giving to the United Way through the Black & Veatch Foundation, alongside more than $5 million in support for Children’s Mercy Kansas City.