Jacobs has Joined the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) as Corporate Partner

Jacobs is the latest organization to join the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), in a bid to positively change attitudes to sustainability as a progressive force for good.

IEMA is one of the world’s most recognized international professional institutes representing environmental and sustainability professionals. It supports people working in environment and sustainability roles as they develop and demonstrate their professional competence through training, professional qualifications, networking and more.

IEMA is committed to addressing the climate and environmental emergency, having set a Science Based Target for 2030 to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting global average temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius as set out in the Paris Agreement. IEMA, like Jacobs, has also achieved carbon neutrality.

With sustainability at the heart of Jacobs’ operations globally, a strategic initiative between IEMA and Jacobs is well aligned with our mutual goals, objectives and international standing.

How will the relationship work?

While Jacobs has had a longstanding relationship with IEMA, we are partnering together to focus on providing a professional development path for Jacobs’ environmental and sustainability staff. With Jacobs’ staff working across corporate sustainability, climate change resilience, environmental planning, permitting and compliance, it will help our people, while contributing to sustainability outcomes for our partners — including suppliers, clients and stakeholders.

A steering group between IEMA and Jacobs will be set up to guide a long-term mutually productive relationship. This will focus on elements like helping develop Jacobs’ staff professional accreditations.

It will also cover the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Quality Mark accreditation scheme, which allows organizations leading the co-ordination of statutory EIAs in the U.K. to make a commitment to excellence throughout these activities and have this commitment independently reviewed.

We will also work together to develop thought leadership in areas of interest. This will involve collaborating to deliver blog content, webinars, articles in TRANSFORM - IEMA’s magazine, joint white papers, technical working groups, panels and conferences internationally.

IEMA will support Jacobs’ in-house courses, covering topics such as natural capital, decarbonization, circular economy and disruptive technologies, tailored appropriately for our respective geographies.

The relationship will also build on the work we undertook with IEMA in 2020 to develop a new primer to outline how our industry can champion Digital Impact Assessments.

“IEMA is delighted to welcome Jacobs to our partnership program and look forward to strengthening and formalizing our relationship," said IEMA’s Corporate Partnership Manager, Alan Darby. “This strategic relationship showcases Jacobs’ commitment to embedding sustainability at the heart of the organization as we collectively work to make the organizational, systematic and societal changes needed to transform the world to sustainability.”

“Transformation of our world to sustainability is a core objective shared by both organizations," said Jacobs’ Global Technology Lead for Sustainability & Climate Action, Harry Sealy. “Advancing and implementing thought-leadership within our organization while working with our clients and wider partnership to build awareness on the need to accelerate the rate of transformation are associated shared objectives. We look forward to forging a long-lasting relationship with IEMA as together we continue to strive to transform the world to sustainability.”

Sustainability at Jacobs

From the way we operate our business, to the work we perform with clients and other organizations, we continue to look at ways we can make a positive environmental, societal and economic difference for businesses, governments and communities around the world.

Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, PlanBeyond™is our approach to sustainability — planning beyond today for a more sustainable future for everyone. In July 2021 we published our refreshed global sustainability strategy, PlanBeyond 2.0.

During Earth Day 2020 we launched our Climate Action Plan, which has set targets for business operations being powered 100% by renewable energy. Targets also include business operations and travel being carbon negative by 2030.