Catherine Sheane
Director of Sustainability & Resilience, Parsons Corp.
Catherine Sheane is especially proud of her work on the award-winning Gordie Howe International Bridge, a 1.5-mile cable-stayed structure that will provide a six-lane link at the busiest trade corridor between the U.S. and Canada.
A 21-year engineering veteran with vast experience in corporate social responsibility and sustainability in architectural and engineering design, Sheane has worked with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority since 2015, first to develop technical sustainability requirements and later to oversee the public-private partnership developer’s implementation and documentation of their sustainability strategy.
The bridge project recently received an Envision Platinum Award from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure for its sustainability efforts. Sheane was instrumental in guiding the preparation of the Envision application.
This project is one of six multifaceted and complex, design-build or public-private partnership infrastructure megaprojects in North America for which Sheane is leading the implementation of the Envision rating system. Together, the projects are worth over $13 billion.
“I would like to get to the point where we, as humans, are able to get beyond the idea of simply reducing our impact, or doing ‘less bad,’ and to categorically shift our thinking and transform our systems such that they become truly restorative,” Sheane said.
Why Watch
In 2022, her team will focus on advancing climate risk evaluation and mitigation within Parsons corporate operations, working closely with the Environment Social Governance steering committee and executive leadership team to meet Parsons’ science-based target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to continue to advance the delivery of sustainable and resilient design solutions to Parsons clients.
