Building a Sustainable Tomorrow at Fluor

At Fluor Corp., a Fortune 500 company that delivers engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and project management to clients around the world, sustainability is becoming increasingly important. The company views sustainability as meeting the needs of clients while conducting business in a socially, economically, ethically and environmentally responsible manner.

Fluor also recognizes some of the business benefits of sustainability. It can make a company stand out to clients who need help in meeting their own sustainability goals. Recognition as a leader in practicing sustainability can burnish the company's image in communities where it does business, positively impacting the company's brand and the reputation. Future employees often are attracted to companies that set high standards for sustainability. Most importantly, when sustainability is broadly practiced, it benefits people and the world — and companies that embrace sustainability can become role models for other corporations.

Nancy Kralik is a director of Fluor's corporate health, safety and environmental function and is the company's HSE global excellence leader. She also is a member of Fluor's Sustainability Committee, which evaluates opportunities for the company to continuously improve its sustainability performance. She shares her thoughts on sustainability in this one-on-one interview.

Q: Do you see sustainability as a social concept or a business concept or both?

Kralik: Sustainability is a social concept, a business concept and much more. Let me explain.

Sustainability is integrated into the way we do business. Our stakeholders expect us to operate in a sustainable way and there is a direct link between Fluor's sustainability and our clients achieving their own sustainability goals.

Socially, sustainability affects communities where we work and live and the impact we have on our neighbors. For example, there is an impact on society when Fluor employees mentor students, train workers in South Africa or put computers in secondary schools.

Environmentally, there are things we can do in our offices and at project sites that directly affect how we and our clients impact the environment. Things like efficient use of energy and considering the environmental footprint when we design and construct facilities for our clients.

Economically, we directly impact communities where we work and live when we employ people at Fluor, hire local labor and purchase supplies locally. All of these things help the local community by bolstering the economy. This is even more important today, given the overall state of the global economy.

Q: Is sustainability a competitive driver for Fluor?

Kralik: Absolutely. More and more, Fluor is asked about our sustainability programs in requests for proposals and prequalification requests. Clients and potential clients want to know how we would implement sustainability on their projects. EPC (engineering procurement and construction) companies that have the best sustainability performance can set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.

Q: How does Fluor gauge its sustainability performance?

Kralik: While there are only a few metrics that directly impact a company like Fluor since we own very few capital structures other than office buildings, we still employ the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) guidelines for our reporting purposes.

Also, we report our HSE statistics and compare our performance with other companies. Our statistics for lost time cases and recordable cases are among the best in the industry. These metrics demonstrate how much we value the safety of our employees, contractors, and subcontractors. They also underscore the success of the programs we have in place to ensure that employees return home safely every day and that we protect the environment.

In my opinion, a strong company will provide value to the communities where its employees live and work because it will continue to be a place of employment and stimulate the economy in places where we do business. A strong company also provides value to many other stakeholders.