Social Infrastructure
Building a better world by connecting communities.
We deliver sustainable, equitable, people-centric solutions. Social Infrastructure increases economic opportunity, improves physical and mental health, and creates beautiful, authentic places for people to thrive.
Our purpose: delivering a better world, unites our organization and sits at the heart of everything we do. Sustainable Legacies, is our strategy for reaching bold environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives that make a positive impact on our company, our communities and our planet.
Social infrastructure, such as schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, healthcare facilities, centers for public safety and justice and sports venues underpin our communities. Importantly they can also help to address many of the global challenges that we're facing today as a society and unlock social value.
We act as trusted advisors, providing strategic consultancy across a range of services including master planning and urban design, architecture, sustainability and resilience, digital and technology solutions to deliver solutions for our clients and the communities we serve.
Supported by high quality building and public realm design, our teams focus on improving the experience of a city: considering public open spaces, water systems, environmental improvements, power distribution and transportation networks holistically to ensure equity, affordability and shared economic and social benefit.
Sustainability and resiliency underpin every action when we advise on, design and build these projects. This includes net zero carbon commitments, clean air and water. We’re also careful to consider the environmental and social impacts of initiatives and buildings from design to delivery and through to operations. This includes how we mitigate or minimize disruption and increase benefits, such as access to jobs that will support development in the surrounding communities. Our inclusive approach — partnering with those most closely impacted by our work from the start — is about creating a long-term ecosystem that can expand opportunity for all.
Cities
Given the challenges inherent in the density of cities and the opportunities for public and private funding, Social Infrastructure has the potential to drive transformational outcomes including increased economic competitiveness and equitable and inclusive job creation. A whole-systems approach is needed to prioritize projects, plan ahead, protect vulnerable community assets and provide sustainable growth. Our knowledge, skills and innovative methods, informed by our close relationships with community groups, nonprofits, academic institutions, and civic and private leaders, enable us to foster the cross-collaboration necessary for supporting connected communities.
As a global company with a deeply rooted presence in many of the world’s major urban centers, we routinely connect the best ideas and insights — blurring the boundaries of geography and profession — to build beautiful, authentic communities. This work embraces a diversity of established and emerging project types — from citywide master plans and climate change adaptation, to the integrated design of transportation systems, to the development of innovative urban resilience strategies and programs. We work with cities large and small, mature and emerging, directly for city governments or with those who have a critical stake in the future development of their city to imagine and implement the kind of urban environments and critical resilient infrastructure that provide opportunity for everyone.
Our Social Infrastructure work is currently focused on the following cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas:
Services
Working across the project lifecycle, we think and act globally to combine decades of industry knowledge with our industry leading ESG services and comprehensive digital offering. Our multi-disciplinary holistic approach allows us to measure and anticipate how siting, designing, or staffing our infrastructure projects differently can reduce costs and carbon emissions, while benefiting community access and equity. In addition to our services, we’ve developed digital products to help us reach and engage with more people during the project design and delivery process.
Our projects consider the community implications at the earliest stage of decision making to embed social value from the outset. We bring in local knowledge by engaging with the people and businesses in the communities where we’re working to ensure the infrastructure fits their needs and benefits those who will use it.
