Communication on Progress

Participant
Published
  • 06-Jan-2012
Time period
  • January 2011  –  January 2012
Format
  • Stand alone document – Basic COP Template
Differentiation Level
  • This COP qualifies for the Global Compact Active level
Self-assessment
  • Includes a CEO statement of continued support for the UN Global Compact and its ten principles
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Human Rights
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Labour
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Environment
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Anti-Corruption
  • Includes a measurement of outcomes
 
  • Statement of continued support by the Chief Executive Officer
  • Statement of the company's chief executive (CEO or equivalent) expressing continued support for the Global Compact and renewing the company's ongoing commitment to the initiative and its principles.

  • January 2, 2012

    To our stakeholders:

    I am pleased to confirm that Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.
    In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

    Sincerely yours,

    Walter Vernon
    Chief Executive Officer

Human Rights
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of human rights for the company (i.e. human rights risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on Human Rights.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch’s commitment to protecting and respecting Human Rights is upheld by our support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as stated in our written company employment manual. Beyond our employees and our operations, our commitment to protecting human rights is also rooted in the expectations we have of our suppliers and clients. As part of our diversity efforts, we are committed to race, age, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, religious persuasion, marital status, political belief, disability, and gender inclusion specifically we believe that increasing opportunities for all promotes community stability and attributes to economical success.

    Mazzetti continues to make advancements in our commitments to uphold the United Global Compact human rights principles by striving to be one of the best companies to work for and continually educating our employees in the principles of diversity in the workforce and the protection of human rights within our sphere of influence.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement Human Rights policies, address Human Rights risks and respond to Human Rights violations.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is committed to providing a safe, professional workplace that is pleasant, healthful, comfortable, and free from intimidation, hostility, discrimination, or other offensive behavior that might negatively impact our employees. We have developed a grievance mechanism allowing employees to report any incidents that might harm the Human Rights of any employee and have taken many steps to insure that all incidents are investigated and appropriate action is taken to correct any violations.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch ia proud to announce that due to all our efforts we have not had a single reported incident or claim of Human Rights violations. We have doubled our efforts to maintain transparency in this organization and to maintain training and communication at all levels. We continue to monitor our progress by conducting anonymous employee satisfaction surveys on a yearly basis to make sure that no incidents go unreported.

Labour
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of labour rights for the company (i.e. labour rights-related risks and opportunities). Description of written policies, public commitments and company goals on labour rights.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is committed to upholding labor rights; including freedom of association and collective bargaining and the elimination of forced labor, child labor and employment discrimination. Our commitment is articulated in our company employee manual specifically we are advocates for diversity in the workforce and strive to provide a safe and professional working environment. Just as we hold our organization accountable to high standards of business conduct, we demand the same of our clients and suppliers. We align ourselves only with organizations who support the same core principles as we do.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions taken by the company to implement labour policies, address labour risks and respond to labour violations.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch complies with all local and national labor laws and promotes high labor standards within the organization by promoting equality and fair labor practices in the workforce. One of our commitments is by expanding the diversity in our workforce. As part of our diversity efforts, we are committed to race, age, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, religious persuasion, marital status, political belief, disability, and gender inclusion specifically we believe that increasing opportunities for all promotes community stability and attributes to economical success.

    As part of our employee orientation program we train our employees on topics such as avoiding workplace harassment and promoting equality within the organization. We have developed a grievance mechanism allowing employees to report any incidents that might violate fair labor practices and have taken many steps to insure that all incidents are investigated and appropriate action is taken to correct all violations.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • In 2011, Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch has pursued many efforts to diversify the workplace. For instance, we have committed to supporting and targeting various engineering programs that have a diverse student population. We also are continuing to support and provide scholarships to Cal Poly’s “Women Engineers in the Industry”. Even though California is one of the few states that mandates equality in relationship to the provision of benefits to domestic partnerships, Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch provides equal health benefits for domestic partnerships across all offices throughout the country. Our efforts to diversify the workforce have continued to gain recognition by many universities and colleges across the United States.
    We will continue to leverage our knowledge and resources to ensure our ongoing commitment to the labor standards principles.

Environment
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of environmental protection for the company (i.e. environmental risks and opportunities). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on environmental protection.

  • No answer provided.
  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, address environmental risks and respond to environmental incidents.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is changing the status quo of Corporate America’s ambivalence to environmental protection and leading the way to making an example of how to create, implement and deliver sustainable and environmentally sound practices both in-house and to the solutions we provide to our clients.

    I.Description of Policies

    A.Corporate Sustainability Action Plan & Environmental Purchasing Plan
    Communicating the importance of adopting sound environment policies to our employees is important to our company. That is why in the past year we have developed and implemented an environmental purchasing plan as well as an overarching corporate sustainability plan. This document is introduced to all new employees during their hiring process. This 16 page document highlights how environmental protection is at the core of our vision, values and mission. In this document, Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch communicates its commitment to environmental protection and sustainability by setting forth guidelines for employees to follow for internal sustainability within the office. These guidelines include criteria for both internal sustainability aspects such as purchasing consumables and equipment, operational improvement like energy efficiency, water reduction, encouraging staff transportation alternatives, use of hybrid cars and waste minimization. This document formalizes our commitment to the AIA 2030 Challenge. 80% of the business of our firm is in the design and construction of buildings, 90% of which are healthcare facilities. Employees are requires to make a pledge of support of our Sustainability Principles as part of this procedure.

    B. Encouragement of LEED Accrediation

    As a consulting and design firm which is focused on the engineered building systems, our employees have a first-hand impact in working to build more environmentally sound buildings. That is why we promote our staff in becoming a Leader in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) Accredited Engineer by subsidizing the cost of their LEED exam. LEED professionals (For more information on LEED Accreditation, please see: http://www.greenedu.com/).

    C. Written (External) Company Influence promoting environmental principles to our business partners and suppliers
    As a part of that, we regularly work with our clients to help them define and articulate their environmental goals, and then, achieve them. Over the past year, we have grown what we call our “emerging services”, all of which work to help healthcare organizations to improve their environmental performance. These services include building system commissioning and retro-commissioning, medical equipment planning (with an emphasis on end of life, energy consumption, and consumables for the various pieces), technology (including a nascent smart buildings service aimed specifically at improving overall performance and reducing consumption of non-renewables); and our environmental performance consulting service, which has been greatly strengthened through the addition of Sr. Environmental Performance Analyst, who now helps our clients with their procurement and waste disposal practices. In addition to these services, we have engaged in broader efforts that should help wide swathes of the healthcare sector to improve their environmental performance.

    II. Description of Public Commitments

    A. Commitment to World Health Organization (WHO) Health in the Green Economy Initiative
    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is currently working with the WHO in creating a publication helping healthcare industries around the world in finding ways to lower their climate change impact in ways that promote human health.

    C. Commitment to Healthcare Without Harm
    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is currently working with Healthcare Without Harm in creating a publication to help healthcare industries around the world to raise awareness and promote reduction of waste and consumption of resources.

    D. Commitment to Haiti
    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch has been a supporter to the redevelopment effort in Haiti. Together with the help of volunteers we have been able to make a significant contibution to the renovation of Hospital Sacre Coeur in Haiti.

    B. Architecture 2030 (AIA 2030 Challenge)

    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is committed to realizing energy, water, waste, and other resource reductions in the built environment. We have formalized this goal by both adopting the 2030 Challenge and signing on to the AIA 2030 Commitment. The AIA 2030 Commitment requires submission of design data on all projects. Combined, the Challenge and the Commitment demonstrate our pledge to work hard to accomplish the objectives of both programs.

    However, signing the 2030 Challenge and AIA 2030 Commitment is just a start. We believe strongly in emissions reduction and create tailored resource reduction plans for each client regardless of their starting point. We also take the 2030 Challenge beyond the individual building or specific project level.

    We also understand that great engineering and architectural design alone is not enough to achieve tangible savings. We constantly search for alternative funding mechanisms. In the case of Kaiser Permanente, our work has led to the third party financing and installation of 11 MW of solar photovoltaics and 4 MW of Bloom Energy fuel cells across Kaiser Permanente’s existing building stock.

    C. MNLB and Green Business Certification
    The ability to test, implement, and fine-tune internal processes is critical to our ability to walk the talk and engage in sustainable office practices. This includes completing an annual GHG inventory verified by The Climate Registry to understand the impact our business has on the environment. These Scope 1 and 2 emissions are annually offset through the purchase of carbon offsets. In addition, we have implemented transit incentives and subsidies which encourage more environmentally friendly transit options. Moreover, we track office purchases which allows us to measure reduction. Our work has been recognized through awards at the corporate level as well as the office level for Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Sacramento, Nashville, and Houston.

    D. Fiscal Contributor to Public Greenhealth Programs
    Fiscal contributor to Practice Greenhealth (PGH), Healthcare Without Harm (HCWH), and their programs. We also provide many in-kind services to these organizations to help them. In addition we have provided significant support to the Healthy Hospitals Initiative program (at no cost to PGH/HCWH/HHI, as well as heavily subsidized staff for the Chicago Energy Audits.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates environmental performance.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch creates a firm-wide culture of raising awareness of employees on environmental protection. Aside from the Sustainability Action Plan, we are the only engineering firm committed to supporting the AIA 2030 challenge.

    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch has a comprehensive plan that calls for buying products in accordance with Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP). This includes buying paper with recycled content and process chlorine-free. We set up our office printers for double-sided copying and printing and recycle paper that has been used on BOTH sides. Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch also donates all one-sided paper to local schools.

    Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch also aims to reduce the impacts of daily employee commuting through the following programs, including: (1) Allowing employees to purchase public transit passes pre-tax (2) Provide employees who bike to work with a subsidy for bicycle maintenance and gear (3) Providing employees with a monthly public transit subsidy to encourage the use of public transportation (4) Complete a yearly survey of employee transit activities and practices (5) Implementing a Carbon Footprint Tracker System measuring an employee’s carbon footprint yearly during air travel.

Anti-Corruption
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of anti-corruption for the company (i.e. anti-corruption risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on anti-corruption.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is a proud supporter of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Organization
    of Economic Cooperation and Development Convention on Combating Bribery of Public Officials in International Business Transactions, the UN Convention against Corruption, and similar laws in many countries that prohibit bribery and corruption. Our employee manual clearly communicates our commitment to abide all antibribery laws and anticorruption laws anywhere where the company does business.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement anti-corruption policies, address anti-corruption risks and respond to incidents.

  • We communicate our anticorruption commitment to our employees via company employee manual which is available on our corporate intranet. All of our engineers are governed by local laws to maintain continued education in Ethics and Compliance. We have developed a grievance mechanism allowing employees to report any suspected ethics violations including anti-compliance corruption incidents without retaliation. We have taken many steps to insure that all incidents are investigated and appropriate disciplinary action including termination of employment is taken to correct all violations.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates anti-corruption performance.

  • In 2011 Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is proud to announce that due to all our efforts we have not had a single reported ethics violation. We have taken many measures to maintain transparency in this organization and to enforce training and communication at all levels. We continue to monitor our progress by conducting anonymous surveys on a yearly basis to make sure that no incidents go unreported.