OPERATIONS
Our People
Our people share a common passion for technical excellence and innovation, which is at the core of our culture. To maximize the power of this passion, Golder provides our people with a supportive work environment, where they have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, and where diversity and inclusion are valued, free from discrimination and harassment.
Golder is a place where collaboration and innovation are fostered, creating a unique culture where we build lifelong relationships that are strengthened with each passing day. We prioritize leading and engaging our people to help them make their best contribution. This is strengthened through global procedures, including our recently-launched High Performance and Contribution program.
DIVERSITY
Golder recognizes the significant value of employee diversity and an inclusive workplace. Golder has a diverse operational footprint with an established local presence in multiple geographies, addressing the needs of our clients through local expertise with global support.
With the introduction of a more structured Global HCM system, Golder is in a better position to harness in the area of diversity. Through 2018 Golder will consolidate this work to assess which issues are of particular relevance to our employees and achieve a measureable impact on our culture.
Golder will conduct a series of workshops as a pilot program starting in Q1 2018, and learnings from these sessions will be shared with the wider organization to support a global program for diversity and inclusion.
TRAINING
Ensuring that employees have sufficient skill, knowledge and experience to perform their role is a critical goal for Golder, and is driving the development and roll-out of a comprehensive training scheme.
At Golder, we capture three types of learning and development: experience, exposure and education. By going beyond structured, single event-based training, this approach has greater impact and enhanced retention of knowledge and skills, and brings a focus on outcomes and performance, enabling Golder to better invest in its people.
Our culture of learning and development begins immediately upon joining Golder. Onboarding is the mechanism through which employees are acclimated to the organization, or a new role, and includes the necessary training, skills and behaviors to initially perform their role. It is designed to support the employees to accelerate their engagement, promote their integration into the Golder culture and processes, and maximize their effectiveness and productivity.
HEALTH, SAFETY, SECURITY, & ENVIRONMENT
At Golder, the commitment to our people begins when we enter into an employment agreement and extends across their career journey.
Golder is creating a culture of interdependence, built on trust, teamwork and shared ownership of HSSE. We are encouraging mutual caring for the safety and wellbeing of others, organizational pride, and world-class safety performance. Golder maintains a progressive discipline program as a positive reinforcement of desired behaviors.
Golder is committed to effectively managing risk and continual improvement. We embed attention to health, safety, security and environment in all that we do. We identify and plan appropriate control strategies before we issue proposals, deliver services, and throughout each work day. We expect the same of our subcontractors and clients. In addition, through our “Work Safe, Home Safe” program, we encourage safe behavior during off-hours as well.
All employees have the right to refuse unsafe work and are empowered to take appropriate action to intervene where there are uncontrolled hazards that are likely to result in imminent harm to a person and/or to the environment.
R U Ok?
Golder employees across the globe come together and ask, R U Ok?
STRATEGIC IMPROVEMENTS
Golder identified HSSE-specific priorities within our 2020 Strategy that resulted in 2020 objectives and tactics for 2016 and 2017, including fatality prevention, visible felt leadership (VFL) and promotion of personal health and well being. Various components of our strategic improvements related to HSSE are as follows.
Learnings
The learnings database provides a platform and system for the reporting of hazardous conditions, near misses, incidents including workplace injuries and illnesses, as well as commendations for demonstrating….
Visible Felt Leadership
Golder has set out the objective that, by 2020, every Golder employee will demonstrate proactive visible felt leadership (VFL) in HSSE. In 2016, Golder defined VFL to be “observable behavior that….
New Best Practice Guidelines
In 2017, the review of the Golder Environmental Issues Register identified two high risk environmental issues….
OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
Across our operations, we are committed to the responsible use of energy and energy resources. We are also committed to the continual improvement of our facilities to optimize energy consumption. In each of our geographic regions, Golder tracks energy use in our workplaces and this is reported into our carbon data collection database.
Golder operations and work activities are dependent upon the use of energy and fuels for travel by air, rail, road and ship, and office, laboratory and warehouse utilities.
At the conclusion of 2016, Golder had 6,063 employees in 160 offices and laboratories in 39 countries. Our staff facilities occupied approximately 200,000 square meters around the world. Our 2016 electricity usage increased by 17% over the previous year, while our total energy usage, which includes natural gas, heat and steam, and electricity, remained the same. In 2016, our total energy usage intensity had a small reduction to 20.6 GJ/person; however, the occupied workspace intensity decreased by 8% to 0.62 GJ/m2
During 2016, we travelled approximately 92 million km to support and deliver services to our clients. This compares to 80 million km in 2015 and represents a 16% increase in total business travel (i.e., air, road and rail travel). Our business travel emissions intensity was approximately 1.6 tons CO2e km/person, with an overall business travel reduction of 15%.
Golder maintains a fleet of vehicles in order to facilitate business travel and to improve the safety, maintenance and environmental sustainability of vehicle travel. Carbon emissions associated with the fleet operations represented 4% of our total emissions.
While 28% of our 2016 emissions were associated with employee business travel in airplanes, vehicles, and trains, an additional 32% of emissions resulted from employee commuting. The estimated commuting emissions intensity was 1.9 tons CO2e/person.
Golder supports the more widespread application of practices for reducing carbon emissions such as the following:
- LEED offices (including water conservation, renewable energy, etc.)
- Office locations with reduced footprints (including swing spaces with available services, etc.)
- Travel alternatives
- Continued improvement in use of virtual meetings
- Work-from-home agreements
- Waste recycling
- Offset use
Golder is targeting a 15% reduction by 2020 over the 2015 base year based on per-person calculations. In 2017, Golder purchased 700 tons of carbon credits as an offset to the 2016 emissions of 35,117 tons. Emissions data for 2017 will be presented in the 2018 report.
In response to work started in 2015 on psychologically-healthy workplaces, the first Global RU OK? Day was held on September 8, 2016. Timed to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day, Golder offices around the globe paused to focus on health and wellbeing and extend caring to our colleagues by asking this simple question. On September 14, 2017, Golder employees around the globe came together again to ask “RU OK?” Employees are reminded and encouraged to check in with one another each day.
Bianca Vanzati from the Brisbane (Australia) office is the 2017 Care for our Future award winner recognizing the intentional investment she has made in mentoring, coaching and instruction in health, safety and security, on a day-to-day basis.
Yasin Akçay, from our Ankara office in Turkey is the 2017 winner in the Responsive Measures category recognizing exemplary actions taken in response to unforeseen events that endangered the health, safety and security of our people and others.
The winner in the Proactive Measure category was the Samarco Renova Project Team (Brazil), recognizing their work in identify and mitigate risk, resulting in preservation of the health, safety and security of our people and others.
This award recognized a comprehensive program of proactive measures by a project team. The Sydney Metro City and Southwest Geotechnical Investigation team delivered a large, technically complex investigation, with an extremely high public profile, including significant political and media attention, through exemplary planning and rigorous execution. A number of best practices for projects of this nature were implemented, including hazard identification workshops, sub-contractor on-boarding and Permit to Work processes. The result in this case was project delivery with zero injuries and a very satisfied client. Golder has since publicized these best practices and broadened their application throughout the company.
This award recognized exemplary actions taken in response to unforeseen events that endangered the health, safety and security of our staff and others. The specific circumstances around this award involved a medical emergency on site experienced by a subcontractor, leading to a loss of consciousness, falling from height and significant injuries. Golder’s field personnel responded immediately as a team. Their actions were recognized by the attending physician as limiting the health consequences for the injured worker, and by the subcontractor’s management who noted “the professional response by the Golder team was exactly what we would hope for from an associated party in such circumstances”. The subcontractor recognized this response by making a contribution to the Golder Trust for Orphans. The Golder team followed up both by checking on the status of the subcontractor employee, and by introducing new work practices, adopted by Golder and the subcontractor, to limit the consequences of any future emergency of this nature.
This award recognized an individual who demonstrated intentional investment in mentoring, coaching and instruction in health, safety and security, on a day-to-day basis, and was won by Heather Di Lauro from the Leeds, United Kingdom, office. Heather, a compelling role model for both junior and senior staff, demonstrated exemplary health and safety performance, and developed a group of staff who routinely implemented best practices in the area of health, safety, security and the environment.
This award recognized an outstanding contribution in the area of proactive measures to identify and mitigate risk, resulting in preservation of the health, safety and security of our people and others. The global emphasis placed on fatality prevention and six Fatal Risk Controls is a result of the passion and personal initiative of Andy Haynes. Andy’s effort powerfully illustrates the contribution a single individual can make, and because of his inspirational leadership we have adopted a simple yet powerful approach to address our highest consequence risks.
A Golder project team working on BHP Billiton’s Jansen project finished first in the Summer Safety Campaign conducted on site. Jansen is a $14B potash mining operation, located approximately two hours east of Saskatoon. Golder has been an active partner in this project since 2014 and has been providing quality assurance / quality control material testing and surveying services for the construction of the mining shafts (shaft sinking) as well as various above-ground construction projects.
The Client Choice awards are organized and governed by Beaton Research and Consulting, an independent benchmarking and customized research consulting group serving organizations that provide professional, financial and member services to clients worldwide. These awards are conducted in partnership with the Australian Financial Review.
Golder’s Canadian Legal Team was honored with the Risk Management, Small Department award in the 4th Annual Innovatio Awards. The team continued their internal “Making Legal Services Better” campaign with a focus on risk management as a key vehicle for the legal department to help improve Golder’s risk management.
Catharine Shaw, Mining Client Program Manager from the Toronto (Canada) Office, was the first-ever recipient of the Diversity and Inclusion Award, given by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).
Kevin Anderson (left) VP, Utah Mining Association and Kent Houghton (right), Director of the Office of Coal Mine Safety at the Utah Labor Commission present safety award to Golder’s Dave Fadling at a ceremony in Salt Lake City on April 12, 2017.
The Australian Geomechanics Society 2016 Don Douglas Youth Fellowship Award for the most outstanding Australian paper at the 11th Australia and New Zealand Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference was made to Nigel Ruxton, Design Group Leader in the Brisbane (Australia). Nigel’s paper, Geotechnical Challenges of Brownfield Sites for Use as Landfill, detailed the Queensland Waste Management Team’s work to develop a 3D model of underground mine workings and the detailed design for a challenging brownfield landfill in south-east Queensland.
Golder was recognized for engineering excellence at the 2017 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards, held in Ottawa, Canada. Golder received an Award of Excellence for the 
Significant material saving on fit for purpose design: Peter Thomson and Dennis Becker, Principals and Senior Geotechnical Engineers form the Calgary, (Canada) office, are the Victor Milligan Award Winners for 2017 for the work they have done on a fit-for purpose design of driven steel pipe piles for a large oil and gas processing facility in the Fort McMurray area. Their collaborative and innovative method presented in their paper resulted in savings of millions of dollars while maintaining the integrity and safety of structures on the large industrial project.
2016 Winner: Jason Cox
Golder Associates received a safety award from Teck as part of the team working in a geotechnical field campaign, including borehole drilling, test pit excavations and surface geophysics carried out on the Quebrada Blanca project (Northern Chile).
Each year our organisation advances in its goal to provide innovative sustainable solutions for our clients’ projects, while at the same time reducing carbon consumption and contributing to the preservation of natural capital. Before delving into our projects, let’s consider the current state of the planet.
Sustainability, has been core to Golder’s mission since the company was formed nearly 60 years ago, although we may not described it in this way. Before the term sustainability came into the modern lexicon, Golder was focused on the social, environmental and economic interdependencies to our business. For example, our ownership model was designed at the outset with a vision of inter-generational transfer, attending to the social and financial benefits of our people and their communities. In addition, some of our earliest technical work involved assisting clients seeking to provide renewable power or mitigate environmental impacts. That mission continues today.
For seven continuous years, a team from Brisbane, Australia has participated on a project to help re-establish and maintain ecologically-healthy catchments in the inner-western suburbs of Brisbane. It is an initiative of the Cubberla Witton Catchments Network, a volunteer organization formed in 2001, and is focused on creating environmental and community benefits in the catchment. Since that time, Golder has been working on this project to restore and maintain native plant species on riverbanks within the catchment.
Golder’s Maquette office in Michigan (US) sponsored the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics (FTC) Team of 6 – 8th grade students from the North Star Academy. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international youth organization to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. Known as the Robogators, the team had to complete a series of challenges using and programming their robot. The Robogators qualified at the FTC Qualifier competition in Petoskey, MI for the State competition in Battle Creek in December 2016. They were very successful and were honored at the FTC Qualifier competition with the 1st runner up for the Inspire Award. The Inspire Award is FIRST’s top award at every tournament. They also received the Connect Award and 1st runner up for the Think Award.
Over the past six years, the Golder London (Canada) office has worked with Community Living London (CLL) to sponsor needy families in their community. These families have at least one child in the home with an intellectual disability, and all of these families have required some help over the holiday period. CLL identifies families that need support and provide Golder with a story about each one, as well as a “wish list” for each person. Souper Thursday fundraising lunches were held during the year where Golder colleagues donate homemade soup and others pay to enjoy a “Souper Lunch”. Golder volunteers then use the funds to shop for and deliver goods to CLL just prior to the holiday break and CLL’s ‘Christmas Elves’ deliver gifts to families.
Golder’s Redmond (Washington) Office has been recognized for the fifth straight year as a Best Workplace for Waste Prevention and Recycling – reaching “Honor Roll” status. This King County initiative shines a light on businesses with “exceptional commitment to recycling and reducing the amount of waste their company sends to the landfill.” Harnessing their colleagues’ passion for taking care of the environment and their community, the Redmond Environmental and Sustainability Committee is the driving force behind the program of activities that has resulted in the ‘Honor Roll’ achievement. Activities include the King County Adopt-A-Road program and the “Office Trading Post,” which facilitates the reduction, reuse, and recycling of office supplies and equipment, instead of purchasing new items.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge in France in 1917 has become a defining moment in Canada’s history. Over four grueling days, Canadians from across the country fought side by side, as all four divisions of the Canadian Corps waged a bloody battle. The Canadians were victorious but with huge loss of life, and over 10,000 men killed or wounded. Thousands of those men killed in battle are still missing and for the families of those missing men, their stories remain unresolved. Volunteering their vacation time to work on the project, six Golder colleagues helped locate 44 of these missing men by leveraging expertise in geophysical, GIS, and archaeology and providing closure to the families of these men in time for observance of the one hundred year anniversary of the battle in 2016. 
In May 2016, a wildfire swept through the northern Alberta city of Fort McMurray, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings, and forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents, including Golder employees from our Fort McMurray office. In the wake of this disaster, Golder people stepped up – donating more than $40,000 CDN – including corporate matching funds, to the Red Cross.
The ‘Golder Boulders’ volleyball team participated in the 22nd Heatwave for SickKids Volleyball Tournament at Toronto’s Ashbridges Bay. This is the 7th year in a row for Golder Boulders and despite valiant efforts and having lots of fun, the team only had one win, but are winners for raising awareness and funds for SickKids Hospital.
Golder staff from the Tampa (Florida, US) office collected food and toys for Thanksgiving and Christmas for distribution through Metropolitan Ministries and the local crisis center. This collection program has been running for a number of years and is now a well-establish activity on the calendar of Golder’s Tampa office.
The Mt Laurel office in New Jersey (US) got into the back-to-school spirit by supporting Volunteers of America’s Operation Backpack. One of the most devastating consequences of homelessness is the impact it has on a child’s education. Operation Backpack is a program which aims to lessen the financial burden of families at-risk of homelessness or living in shelters by helping with school supplies.
Jeremy Yeglin, Senior Engineer from the Houston (US) office, volunteered his time for many weeks to help with the demolition of houses on the west side of Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey that devastated large parts of the US and Caribbean in 2017.
