Engineers Declare

As the clock ticks down on our ability to address the climate emergency and ecological degradation taking place, urban development, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy production keeps going at an ever-increasing pace. Engineers Declare is a world-wide movement of engineering professionals united to publicly declare that there is urgent need for action to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies and commit to positive actions to design, manage, and construct sustainable projects in harmony with the environment. Upon learning of the movement’s existence, AES became one of the founding signatories in Canada.

AES, through signing on affirms our commitment to:

• Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action amongst our clients, collaborators and supply chains;

• Establish successes in line with climate mitigation and adaptive policies as a key measure of our industry’s success;

• Advocate for the rapid systemic changes required to address the climate and ecological health crises, as well as the policies, funding priorities and implementation frameworks that support them;

• Evaluate all new projects against the need to contribute positively to society and enhanced well-being, while simultaneously averting climate breakdown and encouraging our clients to adopt this approach;

• Design for holistic health, resilience and regeneration; respecting the rights and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples as outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

• Minimize embodied and operational carbon associated with designs by including life-cycle costing and whole-life carbon modelling, while supporting a rapid transition towards circular economies;

• Adopt more regenerative design principles in practice, with the aim of providing engineering designs that go beyond the standard of net zero carbon and enable society to make the necessary changes to support the goals of a net zero economy;

• Extend the sharing of knowledge and research to these ends on an open source basis.  

Building Community

We recognize that people who are involved in and feel part of a community report higher levels of happiness and strive to make our work environment feel like a community rather than simply a “workplace.” Our active social committee plans events to help bring staff members together to strengthen their social bonds. From a monthly social hour to seasonal gatherings, from virtual coffee breaks to pub trivia nights, or from photography contest to a Super Bowl party, all employees are welcome to join. By maintaining a welcoming work environment that fosters connections between our staff, AES hopes to create a positive work environment that gives our personnel a greater sense of being a valued part of a community and adding to their overall sense of wellbeing.