Sinclair Knight Merz Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Paul Dougas announced the company’s commitment to a 30% reduction per capita in carbon emissions over the next three years.
The announcement was made at the firm’s Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur. SKM claims that this target is significantly over and above the commitments made by many other private, public or governmental organisations of note.
Sustainability is a key driver for the people and clients of the firm. It’s 2007 Corporate Report theme of “Sustainable Solutions” points to its heightened focus on this matter.
“30% in three years is a stretch target and we will review our data and targets annually,” said Mr Dougas. “Having spent significant effort measuring our current impacts and recording these in our 2007 Corporate Report, we have now set our reduction goal as part of a comprehensive greenhouse gas abatement program.
“Reductions are our primary objective. We will only look at carbon offsets and ultimate neutrality when we know we have gone as far as we can in cutting our actual emissions.
“There are significant improvement opportunities with regard to our buildings, business travel, IT and video conferencing infrastructure. Realising these opportunities will require a combination of capital and operational expenditure, and voluntary behaviour change,” he said.
Mr Dougas added: “We are entering an era of exciting opportunity and heightened responsibility, where our business purpose is coming into clear focus. Collectively we are more aware of the social, environmental and economic outcomes of the projects we work on, the services we deliver and our own business performance. We all have a role to play here.
“The work of engineers and scientists has always been creative and inspirational. Right now many of our people are working with clients on issues associated with climate change and social and environmental sustainability. Our people really want to make a difference, and they have the will and skills to do that.”