Bechtel launches long-term sustainability targets

Reston, Va. — Bechtel announced a set of long-term targets to increase the company’s contributions to global sustainability.  The goals and targets are part of Bechtel’s ongoing and comprehensive strategy to further integrate sustainability within the company.

“How we plan and execute projects today has a profound impact on the future.  As an industry, we must continue to challenge ourselves to design, source materials, and build projects that are more resilient, safer, smarter, greener, and more cost-efficient for our customers and society,” said Tam Nguyen, Bechtel’s global head of sustainability. “These goals also make sense from a business point of view as sustainability measures can increase the financial bottom-line of a company.”

For example, Bechtel created a patent pending technology for gas-fired power plants that can reduce the power lost during carbon capture – the process of removing of carbon emissions – by almost 65 percent, while lowering capital costs by more than 30 percent.

Bechtel established four long-term sustainability goals where the company’s experience, technologies, and core competencies can make a substantial global impact: support global goals around energy, infrastructure, water, and worker welfare; drive sustainability in project development and delivery; strengthen the resilience of communities; and leverage supplier engagements to catalyse sustainable opportunities.

By 2030, Bechtel aims to:

• Contribute 100 ideas to help achieve the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals.
• Improve the resilience of 5 million people to natural hazards through our voluntary initiatives.
• Use sustainable alternatives to reduce our environmental footprint on 100 percent of our key projects and non-project facilities.
• Engage 100 percent of our key suppliers to promote sustainability in the delivery of materials and services, and prevent modern-day slavery, including within their own supply chains.

Bechtel has released three annual sustainability reports (https://www.bechtel.com/sustainability/sustainability-reports), which measure the company’s sustainability achievements and successes globally. The fourth report, to be released in June 2017, will start measuring the implementation progress of Bechtel’s 2030 goals and targets.