Environmental | Northrop

It’s our responsibility

Our people help design and shape the future of the places we live and work in. That brings big responsibilities — to balance economic realities, climate impact, and human well-being with practical, effective solutions.
To stay accountable, we assess the impact of our work — both as a business and on our projects — through the lens of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance).

Environmental

Making a real impact on the land where we live and work.
Social

Building a company culture where our people can bring their best selves to work.
Governance

Good governance is the foundation of our business.

Making a real impact on the land where we live and work.

Social
Governance

We believe better outcomes for people and planet go hand in hand. Our engineers are focused on reducing the impact of the projects we help deliver, while our sustainability team supports clients on their broader ESG journeys.

It’s going to take real collaboration to shift the construction industry’s emissions. We welcome governance that helps us work together towards net zero. We’ve committed to measuring embodied carbon on all our projects, and we’re investing in better tools to make this easier, working alongside our industry partners.

Our journey so far

We signed the Australian Engineers Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency pledge in 2019. We recognise that climate action is a long-term journey, which is important to us and our clients. We are in a critical decade and there is a lot of work to be done.

Northrop worked with Climate Active to offset the company carbon emissions in 2021, 2022 and 2023. After measuring all aspects of Northrop’s day-to-day operations under the Climate Active framework, we’re now confident we can continue identifying trends and areas to reduce our impact. Measuring per capita emissions is helping us focus effort where reduction can be fast tracked.

What’s next?

Right now, we are measuring the embodied carbon in our designs for our clients. We value partners who are committed to understanding the impact of their own projects. Together we can collaborate and take action, mitigating climate risks for precincts, buildings and infrastructure.

We’re also designing and modelling for additional climate change weather events, including storms, flooding, drought, fire and extreme heat.

At Northrop, we’re lucky to have an industry-leading sustainability team in house who help all of our engineering disciplines measure and improve our impact on the environment.

Engineers are uniquely placed to drive sustainable outcomes for the places we design. Our designs impact the energy footprint, embodied carbon, potential ecological habitat loss and water demand. We’re focused on reducing our impact through our project work and our operations, so we are part of the solution.
Mark Sturgess
Managing Partner