Engineering Inc - January/February 2018 - 45

health clinics. "The visit was enough for me to really want to commit even more time," she says. "It's become a really big part of who
I am."
Paulson's not alone in her commitment.
Bhargavi Golluru, an engineer at Brown and Caldwell, volunteered with Water For People before joining the firm, and the company recently paid for her to travel from her office in New Jersey to
a training workshop at the nonprofit's headquarters in Denver. "It's
something I am very passionate about," she says. "One of the biggest reasons I picked Brown and Caldwell is because I knew they
were a big Water For People supporter."
PUSHING FOR THE PLANET

Brown and Caldwell Charlotte employees,
George Anipsitakis (left) and Jordan
Chandler (right), joined TreesCharlotte to
help maintain and expand the natural tree
canopy in Charlotte, North Carolina.

part because of its "Everyone Forever" model, which emphasizes
strong communities, businesses and governments to help ensure
the sustained impact of water and sanitation projects.
Brown and Caldwell provides employees the option to donate
to both Water For People and Engineers Without Borders through
payroll deductions, and one in three employees have opted in. In
the 2017 fiscal year, employees gave an average of $100 per person
to the two organizations, after factoring in the corporate match.
Over time, the firm and its employees have contributed more than
$900,000 to Water For People.
"Brown and Caldwell is a great partner of ours," says Julie Kauffman, business development manager for Water For People. "They
really support and understand our mission of 'Everyone Forever.'"
In addition to the fundraising, Kauffman notes, Brown and
Caldwell sponsors events for the nonprofit, with a number of company managers and employees serving on the group's leadership
council and volunteer committees.
"They personally believe in the mission," Kauffman says.
"It's not just a check box for them. They support us and
are always looking for ways to make the partnership
better, to help us with our mission. It's not just, 'We're
going to give money and walk away.' It's, 'How do we
help?' That's a really great thing to have."
Before she was a member of the Water For People
board, Paulson visited Rwanda-at the invitation
of a government official she met in California-to see the group's work firsthand. "It
was just amazing to me," Paulson says.
"The thing that was most striking was
the level of pride in their infrastructure.
These were the most beautiful pieces
of infrastructure I've ever seen."
Prior to Water For People's
work in the area, Paulson says,
people had to spend hours each
day traversing hilly terrain to
bring water to homes, schools and

Individual Brown and Caldwell offices try to minimize their
environmental footprint using such efforts as eliminating bottled
water, reducing printing and eating from reusable plates. Several
years ago, Kelly Rogers, the firm's mid-Atlantic area marketing
manager, was brainstorming ways to make operations even more
sustainable. She came up with the idea for something called the
Earth Day Challenge. Rogers describes it as a "throw down" challenge with the company's other offices to see who could come up
with the best sustainability-focused programming.
"We had already accomplished a lot in our office, and we were
looking for ways to do more," Rogers recalls. "We issued contest
guidelines companywide. We said we wanted to promote environmental education, as well as more sustainable practices in each
office and at home."
The Earth Day Challenge started in 2015, with Rogers' Charlotte, North Carolina, office taking the lead. Employees visited
a local elementary school to give presentations about clean water
and engineering, planted a tree in a local park and developed sustainable gardens at their homes using compost and rain barrels.
"We felt if we were putting the challenge out there, we needed to
participate and really lead the pack," Rogers says.
Other offices propagated milkweed plants to support monarch
butterfly migration, adopted street planters, performed rehabilitation work on streams and wetlands and organized recycling
drives for old electronic devices. Although the initiative is
centered on Earth Day, Rogers notes the impact of many of
these programs extends
throughout the year.
"One of the
At first, Rogers wasn't
biggest reasons sure whether the challenge would catch on,
I picked Brown
but it's become one of the
and Caldwell is
company's core programs
because I knew with more than half of
offices participating. "I
they were
was really surprised," she
a big Water
says. "I thought it might
dissolve after the first year.
For People
But a month or two before
supporter."
Earth Day the next year,
people were asking me,
BHARGAVI GOLLURU
BROWN AND CALDWELL 'When's the Earth Day
UPPER SADDLE RIVER Challenge?' Now people
NEW JERSEY look forward to it."
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2018

ENGINEERING INC.

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