10. Engagement & Governance
Our passion and commitment to act on climate change comes from our leadership and our 55,000+ employees, many of whom are already experiencing the impacts of the climate emergency. The commitments and actions in this Climate Action Plan are made under the direction of Jacobs Chair and CEO, Steve Demetriou, who has made this a priority goal, with executive compensation tied to meeting this goal.
In 2021, Jacobs formed an ESG & Risk Committee to further increase Board of Directors’ oversight of ESG issues and reporting, and enterprise risk management. The PlanBeyond Executive Steering Committee has oversight responsibilities of PlanBeyond, including this Climate Action Plan. The Office of Global Climate Response and ESG has responsibility for implementing this plan. Additionally, Jacobs has an ESG Reporting Committee comprising functional leads that are stakeholders in our carbon reporting and ESG disclosures. Regular updates and progress updates are reported to the Board by Jacobs’ Chair and CEO.
“We will continue to ensure our own operations and value chain rapidly decarbonize, as we focus on accelerating the necessary shift to a zero-carbon economy through the work we do every day around the world.”
Steve Demetriou Chair & CEO
Employee Education and Engagement
At Jacobs, every employee takes responsibility for climate action in their jobs, regardless of their role. Since launching PlanBeyond 2.0, we’ve focused on driving sustainability deeper into our culture, in the same manner that health and safety is ingrained in our individual actions and operations today.
In the year leading up to COP26, our employees were encouraged and incentivized to take part in the Climate Countdown Challenge through our employee engagement and education platform, Collectively℠. Over twelve months, one-thousand employees completed more than 13,000 positive actions to reduce their carbon footprint, saving the equivalent of 320,000kg CO2.
We also launched the Climate Solutions Accelerator course to our global workforce, supporting the company’s learning culture for future green skills in climate response. A collaboration between the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling and Institute of Directors Scotland, the course provides a quick, simple and rounded introduction to the fundamentals of climate change. Jacobs’ business units are now required to report user completion rates on a quarterly basis. From Spring 2022, we will be rolling out this training to both clients and our supply chain, as we engage and train our partners in climate response.
As a purpose-led company, we know we have a pivotal role to play in addressing the climate emergency. We consider this not only good business but our duty to channel our technology-enabled expertise and capabilities toward benefiting people and the planet. The legacy we want to create for future generations is one of betterment and Jacobs is uniquely positioned to make every project we deliver a climate response opportunity.
Climate Response in Employee Benefits
In the U.K., we offer a government-backed Electric Vehicle (EV) car scheme, which enables our employees to purchase an EV in a tax efficient way, making it more financially accessible to our people. Additionally, we now offer our U.K. and Ireland-based employees a Climate-Focused Pension Fund option which results in less than half the carbon emissions per dollar invested than other pension fund options.
Climate Action Plan | Version 2.0 | April 2022
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