Communication on Progress

Participant
Published
  • 07-Apr-2013
Time period
  • January 2012  –  January 2013
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.

  • To our stakeholders:

    I am pleased to confirm that Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch (M+NLB) reaffirms its commitment of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption as articulated in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which we joined in 2011.

    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.

    Thus, on behalf of M+NLB employees, I reaffirm our commitment to compliance with the 10 Principles of the Global Compact. I hope you will find this Communication on Progress informative and I invite you to view Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch’s website www.mazzetti.com and our Annual Report 2012.

    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 economic success.

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

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch 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.

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

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is committed to providing a safe, professional workplace that is pleasant, helpful, 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 should a grievance be reported all incidents are investigated and appropriate action is taken to correct any violations.

    At Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch we have a zero tolerance policy for Human Rights. We continue 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 that 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 economic 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 should a grievance be reported 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 2012, 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.

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is committed to operate with the lowest possible impact on the environment. We are 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.

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

  • Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is continuing to implement various internal and external policies to promote sustainability both inside and outside of our organization.

    Internal Influence:

    We closely adhere to our corporate Sustainability Action Plan & Environmental Purchasing Plan in which we communicate to our employees the importance of adopting sound environment policies. These guidelines include criteria for both internal sustainability aspects such as purchasing consumables and equipment, operational improvement like energy efficiency, water reduction, increased use of paperless technology and virtual meetings, encouraging staff transportation alternatives, use of hybrid cars and waste minimization. We are also rolling out a comprehensive way to track employee transit travel by tying these emissions to reimbursable expenses to facilitate ease of tracking.
    We also encourage all of our employees in becoming a Leader in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) Accredited Engineer by subsidizing the cost of their LEED exam.

    External Influence:

    We work hard to help our clients improve their environmental performance. M+NLB is continuing to integrate energy modeling into our projects by calculating and tracking energy usage intensity for all new construction design. In addition across all of M+NLB’s design projects, we strive to use the latest water saving technologies and employ opportunities for water reuse within the building projects. At the moment we are developing a free water benchmarking tool that will be available to any hospital to benchmark water consumption. Our objective is to develop a body of information to drive water conservation effort on a national scale.

    Commitment to 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.

    M+NLB and Green Business Certification:

    Six of our ten offices have received their respective green certification honor/awards. As a policy we will investigate the feasibility of achieving LEED in new office spaces; our corporate office will be relocating this year and we have investigated/evaluated to achieve at least LEED Silver. Our corporate commitments to the AIA 2030 Challenge and UN CEO Water Mandate, and to completing an annual GHG inventory underscore the importance of sustainability

  • 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. In 2012 we have taken the first steps to becoming a B-Corporation, to aggregate human energies for the betterment of the human condition and finalizing our commitment and vision to making the world a better place.

    We have completed various pro bono domestic and international projects aimed at reducing helping society and the environment such as developing new models of energy benchmarking in conjunction with the Center for Health Design Built Environment Network and installing solar panels in Haiti. We will continuing to promote sustainable practices and are hoping to achieve even more in 2013.

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 should a grievance be reported 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 2012 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.