A View on the Future of Sustainability and Climate Response: A Q&A with Bruna Paranhos

It’s more apparent than ever the world around us is changing rapidly. From extreme weather events, natural resource depletion, and water scarcity – to global health crises, geopolitical conflict, technological disruption and rising cost of living, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the daily news feed.

All around us, individuals and organizations are grappling with a complex, interconnected web of challenges that transcend borders and touch every element of our lives. In the face of this, “business as usual” simply won’t do. 

Operating in over 40 countries and delivering projects to clients spanning a range of industries, Jacobs is well-positioned to create pivotal and lasting change in our world. With leaders like Bruna Paranhos, our cross-market global solutions director for sustainability and climate response, we’re creating positive impact through the solutions we provide our clients, as well as our operational decisions and activities.

We sat down with Bruna to discuss how she helps clients with climate-related challenges and why it’s critical to incorporate sustainability and resilience into projects. Sustainability takes innovative thinking, and it’s a mindset she hopes everyone will be thinking about. 

Tell us a bit about how Jacobs approaches sustainability in projects. 

So first, let's breakdown what sustainability, resilience and climate response mean in our industry. Sustainability, in its most general sense, is the idea of not causing harm to the environment or depleting natural resources. But it's much more than that. It's about how we look at the complexity of the world and how we interact with it, not only from an environmental perspective but also from a social and economic perspective as well. 

At Jacobs, we like to think of sustainability through an impact lens and a resilience lens. The impact lens asks the question: how are we impacting the world? The resilience lens asks: how is the world affecting us?

What if every engineer and designer thought about these elements? Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because we hold a responsibility to design the best quality project that we can. A project that is safe, on budget, and on time, and creates a positive impact on communities and the environment. A project that is resilient and adaptable. I think these are all values we can get behind. 

These are overarching themes and trends that we're seeing in the engineering and consulting space. More specifically, the impact and resilience lens can lead to questions such as: What kind of future hazards could impact the project site? Is the project site on a floodplain, coastal or riverine environment? What kinds of materials are you specifying in the project and how can we reduce embodied carbon? 

By using the core principles of sustainability and resilience, engineers and designers can create solutions that are environmentally responsible, economically viable and socially equitable.

What are the biggest challenges in sustainability and climate response? 

We face a complex challenge: how do we balance improving business as usual while maintaining operations and upgrading aging infrastructure, all while also dealing with limited funding and rising costs? It’s a lot. To address this, we need a creative, multidisciplinary approach. 

Our role, as consultants and engineers, is to not only design for the future, but to also support and develop pathways to get there. I’m proud to say that we are the program managers of the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Systems (ARCHES), which is set to receive $1.2 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). ARCHES is California’s public-private consortium to accelerate the development and deployment of clean hydrogen projects and infrastructure to support a zero-carbon economy. As part of our program management approach, we bring the necessary stakeholders together, including financial and operational, to move the needle toward more sustainable solutions. 

How do we help clients think differently to respond to future challenges? 

I think holistic and interdisciplinary understandings of climate – including risk, resilience, sustainability and decarbonization – are crucial to framing how we address future challenges. This starts by looking at a project’s lifecycle to determine what potential shocks and stressors could happen, and if they do, how can operations be brought back quickly and readily? Planning for resilience and sustainability is about operating as efficiently as possible, and that planning starts at the beginning of every project. We use climate risk assessments to help quantify and communicate the outcome, and the outcomes help our clients prioritize which actions are going to make the biggest impact to focus investment. 

The decisions made during the design process have a profound influence on the physical and social landscapes of our planet and its communities. Design choices influence environmental and social outcomes across the entire lifecycle of the project. Our designs consider infrastructure interactions with natural systems, resources and communities across extensive supply chains and geographies, throughout the construction, operation, and end of life phases. Sustainability and resilience are not just goals, but fundamental principles in our work. 

I’m  excited to continue working with teams, clients and partners on thinking differently about how we respond to current and future challenges. The future is bright!