HONOREE SIZE AND INDUSTRY: Enterprise  – Architecture, Design, and Development

COMPANY OVERVIEW 

With over 500 employees in Texas, Stantec is an international professional services company in the design and consulting industry that is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. With 22,000 employees operating out of more than 410 locations in North America and across offices in 6 continents internationally, Stantec provides professional consulting services in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics for infrastructure and facilities projects. Stantec believes that communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. That’s why at Stantec, they always design with community in mind. Stantec cares about the communities they serve—because they are their communities too. This allows the company to assess what’s needed and connect their expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what’s never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so they can collaborate toward a shared success. Stantec is designers, engineers, scientists, and project managers, innovating together at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships. Balancing these priorities results in projects that advance the quality of life in communities across the globe. Stantec incorporates sustainability into their projects and designs to positively impact people, the bottom line, and natural resources. 

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS STRATEGY 

Sustainability at Stantec is built on the premise that positive economic results are possible when they effectively manage their environmental, social, and governance affairs. The company is committed to sustainability leadership in their operations and project work. In Stantec’s markets, for their clients, and throughout their company they advance initiatives that support a more sustainable world.

As an architectural, environmental, and engineering consultant, Stantec makes the greatest contribution to sustainability and conservation through the services they provide to their clients and communities. Stantec helps their clients address their challenges by identifying and capturing ways to make their projects more sustainable through architecture, engineering, planning, project management, and environmental services. The company works to balance environmental, social, cultural, and economic needs. They see the big picture in the context of a changing climate, shifting demographic trends, and evolving economic realities. Stantec anticipates and addresses the long-term impacts of their decisions.

Stantec is considered a leader in environmentally friendly designs and annually invests approximately $3 million to develop innovative technologies and approaches to encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

From Senior Geomorphologist, Stephanie Coffman’s perspective, “There is no Planet B. Our job is to leave things better than we found it. The work that I do is ecosystem restoration, which is one of the four main initiatives in Stantec’s 2020–2022 strategic plan. We’ve taken note that the UN has declared this decade as the decade of ecosystem restoration, and we’ve taken that to heart. We live and breathe making this place better – looking for more sustainable and resilient solutions to integrate nature and the human element.”

Stantec’s major initiatives for 2020–2022 are Coastal Resilience, Ecosystem Restoration, Smart Cities & Urban Places, and Energy Remix.

EMPLOYEE LEADERSHIP

Stephanie Coffman, Senior Geomorphologist, Environmental Services

More than being integral to Stantec’s conservation efforts herself, Stephanie truly believes that Stantec really does what is best, living out one of their core values, “We do what is right.”  

Stantec’s environmental team wants to make sure that there is clean air, water, and soil. It’s an integral piece for all mankind – Stantec wants to build on that land, and they want more sustainable resources for their infrastructure. They want to work with nature rather than against it. 

Shivani Langer, Principal Architect, Buildings 

Shivani serves as the Sustainability and Building Performance Group (S+BP) and Regional Sustainability Leader.

The S+BP group is an integral part of Stantec with Regional leaders serving all regions of the firm. This group has vast expertise in many sustainability rating systems, and their goal is to ensure resource conservation in every possible way in Buildings and Master Planning efforts. Each project is looked at during design through a lens of resource conservation to ensure it is sustainable through the lifetime of its operations.

In 2019, Stantec’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 2.21 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e) per employee. This is 4% lower than 2018 emissions (2.29 mtCO2e/employee) and 39% lower than the 2013 baseline (3.60 mtCO2e). Scope 3 emissions in 2019 were 1.34 mtCO2e/employee, down 4% from 2018 (1.40 mtCO).

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

Stantec has worked with many partners that are integral to their conservation and sustainability projects and initiatives, such as The Nature Conservancy, American Rivers, Envision, American Water Works Association, Texas Water, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Trade Fair, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, U.S. Green Building Council, Urban Land Institute, and many more.

Sustainable Architecture

Stantec Buildings is a signatory to the American Institute of Architects 2030 Commitment, and the Carbon Leadership Forum SE2050 Challenge. This means Stantec has committed to a net-zero operational carbon portfolio by 2030, and net-zero embodied carbon structural systems by 2050. The company has many net-zero, net-zero energy ready projects in their portfolio including many in Texas and the verified energy usage of many of their other projects has proven their designs to be leading them to the path of the 2030 commitment.  

Stantec’s Texas teams lead their Research and Benchmarking program that conducts Post Occupancy Evaluations on many of their projects to ensure they are using water and energy resources as they had predicted during design and learn from each project to inform future designs. Stantec Texas architecture offices primarily do education projects, and they take conservation beyond the designs of their buildings but also use conservation and sustainability features in the buildings to teach students and make them good stewards of the environment. 

Annually, in Texas Stantec opens 2 new high schools, 3 new middle schools, and 8 new elementary schools on average, in addition to 1 CTE (Career and Technical Education) facility, 1 outdoor learning, 1 stadium, 1 fine arts facility, 2 specialty projects (natatoriums, etc.), and 4 renovation/additions. Since 2018, Stantec’s national education team has provided architectural and engineering services for nearly 1,900 projects within the K12, higher education, and student housing space.

For example, Stantec has used rainwater collections systems to teach water conservation that helps them irrigate the plants that the students are themselves caring for, and the company uses digital dashboards that help students see real-time the energy usage of the building and encourage them to take conservation measures in their own classrooms and schools to use less energy.

In 2017, Stantec received international recognition for its design of Cele Middle School, an educational facility that represents a new beginning for Pflugerville Independent School District. The new middle school received the 2016 Livable Buildings Award from the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. Sustainable elements of the school include an outdoor roof lab, complete with planter beds, and a rainwater collection system—allow the building to be a teaching tool for the students and community. Additional features include solar orientation, an eco-pond, a geothermal HVAC system, natural daylight in every classroom, and a compact building footprint. Stantec’s project team designed the building to Energy Star standards and followed sustainability principles outlined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and Collaborative for High Performing Schools. As a result, Cele Middle School performs among the top 25% of similar facilities nationwide and has an energy use intensity (EUI) of 22.5 kBtu/SF/year, compared to 55 kBtu/SF/year at the average U.S. middle school. Learn more here.

Northwest Independent School District, in Northlake Texas offers another example from 2016. Due to the rising cost of outsourcing its outdoor education, the school decided to invest in rehabilitating an abandoned ranch to create a district-wide outdoor learning campus that can serve up to 650 students per day. Located right in the heart of the district, the 193-acre site comprises four distinct ecological zones, each one offering endless learning opportunities in a stimulating and motivating outdoor setting. Water harvesting, wind turbine, and solar array add sustainable value to the site and are teaching tools for the students.

In 2017, five Stantec schools in Texas received Stars of Distinction.

Lily Pad Network – Creating a Resilient Future

In 2019, Stantec hosted the Houston Resiliency Innovation Workshop, which brought together 50 local and national experts, stakeholders, and community leaders to discuss current issues in Houston, anticipate shocks and stresses of the future, and provide a platform for new thinking on creating a more resilient future. As a result of the conversations that took place at the workshop, Stantec developed the Lily Pad Network™ concept, which comprises a network of resilient neighborhood safe havens that float above the water, tethered to the community and to each other. They provide a framework to prepare, proactively mitigate, and take actions towards identifying and addressing community shocks and stresses. Leading up to and following a disaster, these Lily Pads transform to supporting the full disaster cycle of preparation, response, and recovery. On sunny days, they act as a hub for advancing community education, cohesion, and social equity. 

The Lily Pad Network was recently selected for inclusion in the Houston 2020 Visions exhibit and publication. A collaboration between AIA Houston and Houston City Council Member David. W. Robinson, FAIA, Houston 2020 Visions was a year-long, open call for ideas that can help Houston move forward as a resilient and sustainable city. The program challenged designers to think outside their professional silos to reimagine the environment at all scales and facets, thus creating a new vision for the future as a city.

The concept was selected from dozens of submissions. Furthermore, it was one of only three proposals elevated by the national jury as a “Vision,” due in part to its scalability and its broad range from emergency response to community growth and resilience.

Greenlight Fund

Stantec’s Greenlight fund, part of their Creativity & Innovation Program, supports their team member’s great ideas—like Melissa Curran’s. Melissa is working to restore and conserve North American orchid species through research and partnerships.

Print Management & Electronics Recycling

In 2019, Stantec completed rollout of a print management program to US operations, which encourages reduced paper use (35% to 45% reductions on average), mandates centralized paper purchases (of post-consumer recycled paper), and outsources print device management (minimizing the number of print devices needed and ensuring proper e-disposal). From this they save about $2 million a year.

For computers purchased in North America, Stantec uses Dell’s Global Asset Resale and Recycling Services to securely recycle our computer e-waste. In 2019, Stantec recycled 5,007 computers and 2,557 cellphones in Canada and the United States, equaling 83,262 pounds of equipment.

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 

From Stantec’s perspective progress will happen whether they are part of it or not – so they constantly look at how their company can work smarter and be part of that progress.  

From Senior Geomorphologist, Stephanie Coffman’s perspective, “we have learned a lot around the world from the COVID-19 pandemic – the good, the bad, and the ugly. One major positive is that in living through something like this where the whole world shuts down, we’ve seen that humans have an impact on the planet. We see that water does clear up, air does get better—and we can’t unsee it. Mother Nature said, “I’ve had enough,” and it was eye opening. It gives us a better understanding of what we can do to balance human stress on the environment, and we design smarter with that knowledge. Ecosystem practitioners will definitely take forward the lessons learned, and if anybody’s going to do it, Stantec is going to do it. On a basin scale, from headwaters to oceans, our ecosystem restoration team of over 350 professionals covers the full spectrum – and for each one of us, it’s not just our job: it’s our passion.” 

Learn more about how Stantec is confronting the global issues of climate change, biodiversity, and population.

TEXAN-LED CONSERVATION

Texas is a growing area and provides Stantec with the opportunity to do things right. Their company can learn from their counterparts on the east and west coasts that urbanized more rapidly than Texas and incorporate those lessons learned into their solutions. 

Stantec takes a broad approach, most often operating at the basin scale/watershed scale. The company sees that conserving and preserving natural landscapes is necessary for Texas’ culture and future. Texans take pride in their state and want to preserve a piece of what makes it unique. From Stantec’s perspective, by nature, Texans want to do what’s right, set a positive stage, and show people that you can have conservation and still grow/increase the population.

Learn more about Stantec’s commitment to sustainability. 

Definitions: 

– A carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2 equivalent, abbreviated as CO2-eq is a metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP).

– Energy Use Intensity (EUI) can be defined as the measurement of a building’s annual energy consumption relative to its gross square-footage.