Granite Publishes One Kick-Ass Sustainability Report
A titan in the infrastructure sector pledges to increase female representation throughout its entire organization from 12.5% in 2020 to 18% by 2025.
Who knew that a sustainability report could literally make your day?
Granted, it’s exciting when any company publicly etches their commitment to building infrastructure that works with the planet instead of against it, promoting connections and commerce for all communities for generations to come. But we at MOXY are especially jazzed about Granite Construction Inc.’s latest sustainability report — page 18, technically, and page 19 on your pdf app, to be exact.
Here, the publicly traded construction and materials giant outlines its socially responsible strategic focus areas. For Granite, inclusive diversity means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities where they work and fosters a culture where everyone feels fully engaged in an accepting environment. To achieve this, they have set the following targets:
Increase female representation throughout the entire organization from 12.5% in 2020 to 18% by 2025.
Increase women in leadership from 14% in 2020 to 20% by 2025.
Increase persons of color in leadership from 14.7% in 2020 to 20% by 2025.
Increase Great Places to Work Inclusion Index from 71% in 2020 to 80% by 2025.
Some will say this is aggressive, others may deem it not aggressive enough. But understand that the entire infrastructure sector has been and continues to be overwhelmingly male and that we — together as a society — have failed to show young girls all of their career options.
Our presentation to them has been clear. Cosmetology or a master’s in indigenous dance theory? Sexy. Construction? Not so sexy. Science? Meh.
We’re saying these goals are very promising and positive. Intention is positive. And, with an actionable, tangible plan of how to achieve these targets, Granite is more than well-intended.
“Granite has a long history of socially responsible operations, but we have taken things to the next level in the past few years—conducting our first materiality assessment, re-defining what sustainability means to our business to adapt to evolving stakeholder expectations, developing a new sustainability strategic plan, and aligning to standard reporting frameworks for the first time with this latest report,” said Raven Adams, JD, Sustainability Lead at Granite.
Raven was hired three years ago and tasked with reinvigorating and revamping the sustainability program and how it integrated with the company’s overall business strategy. “Leadership has elevated sustainability to be a Granite core value, and further emphasized its importance as a foundational concept for our business strategy by releasing new company-wide targets—including for increasing diverse representation in our workforce,” Raven explained.
Not long after Raven onboarded, Granite brought on a vice president of inclusive diversity in 2019 to develop a strategy for improving their culture of inclusion. And now here they are, unveiling a kick-ass sustainability report that is about so much more than going or being green. The report unveils realistic steps to achieving the bombshell bullets listed above: 1) develop leaders as role models, mentors and sponsors; 2) engage new talent pools to attract and retain the best diverse talent; and 3) educate all employees on inclusive diversity.
“We have developed a strategy for inclusive diversity at Granite and taken foundational steps to engage our teams with a communications portfolio designed to enhance inclusion in our company culture,” explained Granite Vice President of Inclusive Diversity Jorge Quezada. “Our integrated inclusive diversity engagement portfolio aims to ultimately strengthen Granite’s ability to be the company of choice, the employer of choice, and the investment of choice.”
Granite is one of the largest diversified construction and construction materials companies in the United States (US) as well as a full-suite provider in the transportation, water infrastructure, and mineral exploration markets.