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I interview two of my CSR mentors. Elisa Speranza chaired the CH2M Foundation board, and Ellen Sandberg was executive director. We spoke about how CH2M rebooted its foundation and invested in sustainable development around the world. 

CH2M was an engineering firm founded in 1946. By 2016 it had become a $6 billion global project management powerhouse, with 20,000 employees and thriving, award-winning sustainability and corporate citizenship programs, including a charitable foundation. The company was acquired by Jacobs in 2017. 

Elisa Speranza was a VP and chair of the CH2M Foundation board. She helped to relaunch the foundation in 2013 by hiring Ellen Sandberg; rebooting the board; redefining the mission; and identifying strategic giving pillars: STEM education, sustainable communities, and employee engagement.

In 2014, the foundation formalized relationships with 10 strategic partners to focus giving for greater impact, and also established a disaster matching gift program for employees.

During Ellen’s time as executive director, the foundation:

• Equipped teachers and students around the world
• Partnered with clients such as Dow and The Nature Conservancy in STEM education
• Focused on volunteerism, building seven footbridges with employee volunteers from around the world with Bridges to Prosperity
• Set a policy requiring donations to support STEM education or environmental stewardship to  align with clients’ goals 
• Broke records for its workplace giving program in support of Water For People

I had the fortune of working with both Ellen and Elisa as the marketing communications manager for CH2M’s sustainability and corporate citizenship programs, including the CH2M Foundation. 

As for Ellen, she describes her role as executive director of the CH2M Foundation as “definitely my most meaningful corporate social responsibility role to date.” 

Before Ellen was hired, CH2M HILL’s foundation was taking an old-fashioned approach, giving checks to universities where executives had gone to school and supporting the CEO's favorite causes in Denver. Listen to the podcast to learn how they overcame stumbling blocks and persuaded people that this was the right approach. 

To determine the strategic giving pillars for the foundation, they started with the company’s strategic plan and our company values and aligned corporate giving policies with those values.

CH2M tied its giving goals with its business priorities, so STEM education and sustainable community-building were critical areas of focus. The other emphasis was employee volunteerism, and the foundation provided plentiful opportunities for employees to volunteer their technical skills to build sustainable infrastructure. 

CH2M earned multiple accolades and awards for our commitment to sustainability and corporate citizenship, including the World Environment Center (WEC) Gold Medal Award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development and garnering the #22 spot on FORTUNE’s Top 50 Companies That Change the World. 

We wished we were all in one place, sharing a glass of wine. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane!