De5ign

brainstorming

What if we could provide solutions that improve the health and well-being of workers, increase the productivity of design teams and have a positive effect on the environment while adding value to our clients through reduced costs over the lifecycle of a project?

Health, safety and environmental (HSE) stewardship have always been central to our work. Our passion for safety and our courage to care for one another and our environment inspires mutual respect. We believe that when we apply the fundamental principles of BeyondZero® (i.e. our culture of caring) and PlanBeyond® (i.e. our global sustainable business strategy), to our design outputs, we can deliver solutions that benefit HSE, over the whole asset lifecycle of our projects.

de5ign (pronounced ‘five in design’) incorporates these principles into our design process, ensuring every project leaves a lasting, positive impact on both people and the environment. 

Five behaviors for sustainable design excellence

Introduction to de5ign

de5ign combines emerging best practice from global safety in design legislation and sustainable design practices with guidance from academic research, professional bodies, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, into a practical, behavioral based, design management process. It places particular emphasis on the responsibility of designers and the impact that their design decisions have on people and the environment over the whole lifecycle of the asset, considering the following:

  • Health in design

    The impact of design decisions on how it can positively (or negatively) affect the health of construction workers and end users:

    Occupational Disease: Reduce occupational diseases and cancers caused by the work environment or work-related activities. 

    Mental Health and Wellbeing: Considers design to benefit the mental health and wellbeing of all persons who will interact with the asset over its design life.

  • Safety in design

    The impact of how design decisions can positively (or negatively) impact the asset's whole life cycle on people considering:

    Selection of materials and equipment.

    Arrangements, methodologies and sequencing of construction.

  • Environment in design

    The impact of how the design and procurement of assets can positively (or negatively) affect the environment, climate change and sustainability:

    Environment: Reducing risk to people and the environment, leaving a lasting and positive legacy by (1) ensuring compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements as a minimum, (2) protecting and enhancing the local environment and (3) preventing pollution.

    Climate: Driving the rapid decarbonization of built environment assets and the supply chain, while also accelerating the essential shift to a zero-carbon economy, where every project is a climate response opportunity. 

    Sustainability: Ensuring long-term resilience while positively contributing toward the economy, society and the environment.

  • Sustainability in design

    de5ign enables positive ESG design practices to meet the requirements of our climate action plan and both our environmental management and sustainability commitment statements.

    Informed decision making: This approach drives an upward curve of positive designer behavior, for every project, to benefit people and the environment.

    Whole asset lifecycle: Early identification of whole lifecycle design hazards to positively impact cost, quality and program outcomes for our clients from construction through to operation, maintenance and final decommissioning/demolition of the asset.

  • Designing a safer, more sustainable future: Jacobs team wins prevention through design award for de5ign

    Jacobs has been named a 2024 NIOSH Prevention through Design (PtD) Award winner, recognizing how early design decisions can dramatically improve safety. On a complex life sciences facility, the team applied its de5ign program to reduce risks from working at height—one of construction’s leading causes of fatalities—cutting more than 700,000 hours of exposure and achieving zero injuries and zero falls. The result shows how embedding safety into design from the start can transform outcomes across a project’s entire lifecycle.

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