Civic Engineers

Since the inception of our practice, we have pursued an industry-leading sustainable design agenda, prioritised nature-based solutions and made well-informed decisions, guided by our vision and values. This initially evolved into our ‘Climate Charter’.

Over time, and in recognition of the challenges we face as a society, we realised our responsibility and the impact we have on our environment and people’s lives is more profound, interconnected and far-reaching. This inspired us to evolve our guiding principles into ‘Our Conscience’.

‘Our Conscience’ is a framework to enable us to make the right decisions, take action and help achieve our vision. It governs everything we do as a responsible business, from both an internal and external perspective.

It is our response to the ESG agenda. It is a ‘living’ framework, designed to reflect the people we are, how we behave, feel, collaborate and act. Our ‘Planet’ stands for ‘E’; ‘People’ for ‘S’, and ‘Purpose’ for ‘G’.

Climate sensitivity and its protection have been a founding feature of our practice, and we are industry leaders in the global effort to tackle the climate crisis.

We are committed to exploring, not exploiting; building, not destroying; re-using, listening and learning as we act urgently to tackle the climate emergency. Our response continues to evolve and grow.

We were one of the first to join the ‘Engineers Declare’ initiative, a national petition declaring a climate and biodiversity emergency and committing to positive action to address it.

Net Zero Carbon innovation is at the heart of our designs and operations. We are passionate about advocating change and transforming the built environment through our designs and advice, and are committed to achieving the UN’s Race to Zero target of ‘Net Zero’ by 2050. Find out how we are doing this as a business in our Operational Carbon Management Plan.

We champion sustainable and low carbon design, active travel and nature-based solutions. This includes prioritising the re-use and re-purposing of materials, buildings and infrastructure wherever possible, and the sharing of knowledge and carbon data with our clients, collaborators and peers across the communities that we work.

Enabling people to lead happier and healthier lives is one of our founding principles. We continue to actively promote equality, inclusion and fairness in everything we do.

We’re committed to attracting diverse talent and establishing an inclusive and supportive culture that celebrates the importance of individuality, and recognises that emotional intelligence has as much importance as technical excellence in our approach to engineering.

People-first design is a cornerstone of our business. Throughout our work we listen and learn from clients, collaborators and communities, and commit to projects that help our communities to thrive.

We recognise the significant role we have to play in creating thriving communities and a better future. Good and ethical governance is at the heart of our practice.

We pursue transparent, resilient, and ethical decision-making and actions, ensuring our operations, policies, projects and supply network are fair, inclusive and planet positive. We make design choices on our projects, and actively collaborate with ethical partners and organisations to bring about positive change.