HDR

Our Story

We believe that the way we work can add meaning and value to the world. That ideas inspire positive change. That colouring outside the lines can illuminate fresh perspectives. And that small details yield important realisations. Above all, we believe that collaboration is the best way forward.

We specialise in engineering, architecture, environmental and construction services. While we are most well-known for adding beauty and structure to communities through high-performance buildings and smart infrastructure, we provide much more than that. We create an unshakable foundation for progress because our multidisciplinary teams also include scientists, economists, builders, analysts and artists.

Our employees, working in more than 200 locations around the world, push open the doors to what's possible each and every day.

We celebrate these numbers:

• 10,000+ Employees Worldwide
• 200+ Offices Around the Globe
• 13 Countries Where We Operate
• 14 Markets We Serve
• 104 Years of Pushing Boundaries

History

A lot can change in more than 100 years. Technologies improve, communities evolve, people come and go. But to withstand a century of disruptions, you must be built on a solid foundation. At HDR, that foundation has always been our communities.

When H.H. Henningson founded the Henningson Engineering Company in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1917, his focus wasn’t on mega projects or global expansion. It was on helping rural Midwest towns adapt to a changing world. He brought power to the plains and water treatment systems where it was needed most.

In his 35-year career, Henningson took pride in attending more than 4,000 city council meetings spanning Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado. He would drive all night to those meetings, so the public could see the man who truly cared about their community. And he won their trust — and work — because of it.

It was Henningson’s work ethic and commitment to the community that fuelled the company’s growth. It did so organically at first. The Rural Electrification Act of the 1930s opened new opportunities, and it brought with it a young engineer named Willard Richardson, who would later become the “R” in HDR.

In 1940, Chuck Durham, the “D”, joined the firm. Over the next decade, Henningson Engineering would reach new heights, outgrowing its office space three times between 1937 and 1953. It was around then that the firm became Henningson, Durham and Richardson, Inc. — and later HDR — with Durham serving as president and Richardson as secretary-treasurer.

With Durham at the helm, innovation followed. Some of the firm’s engineers were former military pilots, and Durham saw an advantage. The company took to the air, using its own fleet of aeroplanes to serve clients in other regions. We quickly built a reputation as a leading municipal engineering firm and began to expand geographically, opening our first branch office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1957.

In 1960, we won our first international job — a $50 million dam and irrigation project in the Guadarranque and Palmones River Valleys in southern Spain — and by the early 1980s, we were operating in 21 U.S. offices with 1,100 employees. In 1996, we instituted a broad-based employee-ownership model which has supercharged our growth over the last 20 years.

Today, we’re nearly 10,000 employees strong with more than 200 offices around the globe. And while this means we can bring an impressive breadth and depth of services to our clients, it’s our commitment to the place we call home that makes us special. Our employees strive to make a difference every day, both in their day jobs and as community volunteers.

While we can’t say what our future holds, we do know this: we’ll be right there with our clients, collaborating and creating in the only way we know how — together.

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity

What We Believe

HDR is our company. Together, we build on each other’s life experiences and perspectives to make great things possible every day. This shapes our collaborative culture, encourages organisational trust and connects us closer to the clients and communities we serve.

Our Commitment

As employee owners, we all have a role in creating an inclusive environment where each of us is welcomed, valued, respected and empowered to bring our authentic selves to work every day.

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Council

Our global Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Council includes employees from all business areas and global regions to help provide input and guidance to our inclusion, diversity and equity strategies.

Corporate Responsibility

We’re all in this together.

With every project, we ask the same question: what’s our impact on the world?

From designing a road that improves mobility to a hospital that heals, we take to heart our role in making the world a better, smarter, safer place. We think globally and act locally to improve the places where we live and work.

It begins by working together, with our clients and communities, ending each time with collaborations that add meaning and value. We know every small action yields great results.

We take responsibility through:

• Community Involvement and Support
  Both as individuals and as a company, we take pride in supporting efforts to better our communities — not just financially, but also with our time. Whether it’s providing basic needs, beautifying a public place or leading enriching activities, we are passionate about being engaged. Many of our team members also volunteer with aid organisations such as Bridges to Prosperity and Engineers without Borders, giving their time and sharing their professional talents to provide communities around the world access to healthcare, clean water and modern energy grids. And through Design 4 Others, more than 200 of our employees have provided architecture, engineering and planning services to communities in need. Recent projects have included a new school in Kenya to expand capacity and increase the number of students who have access to education and a new outpatient clinic in rural Malawi that provides community-based care to more than 20,000 residents.

• Health and Safety
  We want our employees to bring their best self to work, which is why we work hard to make wellness a significant part of our culture. Our full-time wellness manager, along with over 130 volunteer employee wellness coordinators dedicate their time to promoting healthy lifestyles through multidimensional wellness initiatives. From health education, to tobacco cessation programs and financial wellness, the goal is to improve the quality of life for our employees and their families. And while we want our employees to come to work happy and healthy, we also strive to make sure they go home safely — every day. We foster a culture of safe behaviour to ensure a safe work environment both in the office and on our project sites. Careful planning, comprehensive training, continual observation and feedback, root cause analyses and consistent management support are the cornerstones of our philosophy that “good enough” is never good enough when it comes to safety.

• Sustainable Business Practices
  We are committed to reducing our environmental impact through the use of sustainable business practices. We continually examine our day-to-day activities to determine where we can make business improvements that deliver long-term sustainable value. We set measurable goals and assess the results to see how we should move forward. One target we have set is to reduce GHG emission levels 20% by 2020 from our 2011 baseline, adjusted for growth. Our emissions reductions from 2011-2018 were more than 10%. We are working to achieve this reduction through targeted operational initiatives, as well as educational and awareness. Some recently implemented strategies include:
  • Issuing a company-wide Waste Prevention and Recycling Standard, to reduce the amount and type of waste that goes into landfills.
  • Completing a materiality assessment and using it to inform our 2020 Sustainability + Corporate Responsibility Report.
  • Continuing to work with meeting venues to introduce composting, promote reuse and enhance recycling efforts.
  • Working with our Real Estate Department to ensure office fit-outs and renovations identify energy efficiency opportunities and implement the best solutions.