Blog
Fostering talent for the energy transition
As a member of the United Nations Global Compact, Wood is connected to the global conversation on sustainable development and committed to helping deliver a sustainable future for generations to come.
From our shared ambition towards creating a better tomorrow, Wood’s approach across the pillars of People, Planet and Profit is supported by solid foundations and goals that challenge our business to unlocking solutions to the world’s most critical challenges.
Aligned to the 2030 agenda, Wood’s sustainability goals seek to deliver value to our stakeholders whilst delivering our contribution towards global sustainable development. Across a decade of change, our goals respond to an evolving ESG landscape and the topics material to our business and long-term sustainability.
Recognising the opportunity sustainability presents, the goals we set are milestones on our journey to a better tomorrow. Set across our people, planet and profit framework, our goals will evolve and bolden as we increase our ambition and commitment.
Our progress
As a part of our communities, we have a responsibility as Wood to support and empower the people and places we impact.
Why is it important?
Giving back, through our energy, expertise and funding, creates possibilities that enable the growth and sustainability of the communities we live and work in. We seek to be a trusted community partner, working together to create positive impact and improve lives.
How will we attain it?
Every day across our global business, our people are showing commitment and courage to care for the communities we live and work in. Establishing a goal on our global causes will help focus our collective efforts to deliver a measurable impact. Based not just on charitable giving, our goal will deliver greater transparency on Wood’s true impact by including the monetary equivalent of our time and resource contributions, on both a voluntary and contractual basis.
We commit to:
Our progress
Our people are our unique fingerprint. Recognising the rich diversity of experience, expertise, backgrounds and beliefs we bring together globally, differentiates our business, powers our progress and enables our success
Why is it important?
The business case for inclusion is well proven, moreover it is simply the right thing to do in delivering a fair transition to a more sustainable future. Helping to better reflect the societies in which we live and work, it is important we leave nobody behind on our journey to a better tomorrow. We want to educate and inspire all of team Wood to be inclusive every day. This involves being comfortable in sharing different perspectives, seeking to understand others and learning from one another. This is key to unlocking our full potential and achieving our goals.
How will we attain it?
By focusing on accountability, responsibility and ownership as both individuals and a collective organization, we will drive our inclusion goals through evolving our employee networks and efforts to raise awareness on conscious inclusion, and the impact of non-inclusion in the workplace.
We commit to:
Our progress
Greater balance across our leadership enables better diversity in our decision making, creating a fairer, more sustainable workforce that delivers our best solutions.
Why is it important
We are building a global Wood community with more balance since inclusive leadership leads to greater engagement, higher retention of people, more innovation and better financial results. Ultimately, diverse teams are simply smarter.
How will we attain it?
We commit to:
Our progress
Wood is a founding member of the business-led Building Responsibly initiative. Seeking to become the leading voice on worker welfare issues in the engineering and construction industry, the work of this initiative is committed to promoting the rights and welfare of workers through open discussion and partnership.
Why is it important?
Our people power our achievements. As we continue to deliver responsibly and successfully on projects across the globe, we commit to caring for our people by championing and protecting their welfare. Extending the principles of Building Responsibly to our supply chain partners, will ensure we create ethical partnerships that help reduce our exposure to potential human rights violations.
How will we attain it?
Building Responsibly principles describe the commitments we make and actions we take to look after the human rights of our global Wood community. They set out a common standard to guard against human trafficking and to enact human rights related conventions, declarations and internationally accepted laws.
We commit to:
Our progress
Reaching our absolute carbon reduction goal, in the short term we are focused on behavioural change across Wood that will support our pledge to ‘net-zero’. The science-based goal focuses on an absolute reduction in our scope 1 (direct fuels consumption) and scope 2 (indirect purchased electricity and steam) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with a well-below 2-degree climate scenario and the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Why is it important?
A brighter tomorrow will be a reality for future generations witha lower carbon pledge –we believe we have an important role to play in making this possible. Wood's approach is aligned to recognised global standards on emissions reduction and seeks to deliver short-term, absolute reductions in our carbon emissions that will help the world meet a 2050 net-zero future.
How will we attain it?
Widescale emissions reduction requires behavioural change aligned to global priorities set out in the Paris Agreement.
We commit to:
Our progress
As there is no set definition for the term single use plastic (SUP), a definition of what this means to Wood and the boundaries around this has been established. This boundary is in line with the European Union Directive 2019/904 for the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. The SUPs which are included in our goal is estimated to represent around 86% of the SUPs found on our beaches.
View our SUP Boundary.
Why is it important?
The world has woken up to the impact of single use plastic on the environment and the role we all play in reducing waste and making more responsible choices. Now concerted action is being taken to reverse that trend and we want to play our part.
How will we attain it?
Behavioural change aligned to global priorities set out in the Paris Agreement.
We commit to:
Our purpose at Wood is unlocking solutions to the world’s most critical challenges. We believe our client partnerships have the power to build a better tomorrow by achieving the successful transition of energy and helping to create a more resilient, sustainable, liveable world.
Why is it important?
We are focused on delivering sustainable services from planning and design to the re-purposing of assets and projects. Our work to increase the pace of energy transition through wind, solar, hydrogen and Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) capability, as well as sustainable infrastructure and decarbonisation will help deliver the solutions needed for a sustainable future.
How will we attain it?
Widescale emissions reduction requires behavioural change aligned to global priorities set out in the Paris Agreement.
We commit to:
Our progress
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating indexes rank our business on how we identify, manage and improve our non-financial ESG risks which act on our business.
Why is it important?
Top quartile ESG rating will increase confidence in Wood’s investor proposition, supporting our growth now and in the future.
It is a measure of a company’s profile related to factors such as climate change, human rights and corruption and strongly influences stakeholders such as investors.
How will we attain it?
Widescale emissions reduction requires behavioural change aligned to global priorities set out in the Paris Agreement.
We commit to: