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For the first time, Black & Veatch will have an executive focused solely on sustainability efforts throughout the Overland Park company. It promoted an executive with 19 years of experience.
Black & Veatch selected longtime employee Deepa Poduval to be the firm’s first global sustainability leader.
Poduval takes on the new role after 19 years with the Overland Park-based company, where she most recently led the global strategic advisory practice as a senior vice president. This is the first time the employee-owned firm has created a leadership role focused solely on sustainability.
“Our goal is to really scale up sustainability and transition it from being a corporate function to really being something that is owned and activated across the entire organization,” Poduval said.
Growing up in India, Poduval said that being surrounded by a culture that naturally embraces ways to reuse and repurpose materials first sparked her interest in sustainability.
“We would always repair and reuse appliances. I would get clothes that were passed down from my sister. We would pass down clothes to our cousins,” she said. “It felt like you always squeezed the most out of all the resources you had, especially because you saw yourself contrasted with others that didn’t have as many resources, who couldn’t take access to running water or 24-hour electricity for granted.”
Poduval will be responsible for building up sustainability strategy for corporate, community and client-facing initiatives.
Corporate sustainability priorities will target the environmental effect of the firm’s operations, with a special focus on evaluating water use and carbon emission reduction. As Black & Veatch homes in on its sustainability practices, it also will focus on ways to build up its workforce, Poduval said.
“We want to be the place that professionals that are passionate about making a difference in the world, that want to be at the forefront of innovative solutions, as they relate to sustainability, choose to come to and build and grow their careers,” Poduval said.
In May, Black & Veatch unveiled five new enterprises focused on supporting clients’ growing demand for sustainable infrastructure.
Poduval will work directly with leaders from each new sector to hit sustainability goals while supporting clients in various markets, including advanced manufacturing and energy production.
“Really, we are crisscrossing the entire organization with this focus on sustainability and the actions we can take both internally as well as to support our clients,” she said. “Really approaching it from a structured and goals-driven approach.”
Beyond its work portfolio, the firm also will emphasize community sustainability through its IgniteX accelerator program.
“Community sustainability is a recognition that we can’t do it alone and we want to engage with the broader ecosystem,” Poduval said.
In the fifth year of its accelerator program, Black & Veatch will work with six startups with a focus on decarbonization efforts.
Black & Veatch ranks No. 2 on the Kansas City Business Journal‘s Engineering Firms List. As of February, the company reported 2,202 local employees and more than 12,000 nationwide.
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