AECOM Leads Resilient Cities Activities for U.N. R!SE Initiative Launch

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2014 /3BL Media/ — AECOM Technology Corporation, the world’s #1-ranked engineering design firm, announced today that it led the resilient cities activity stream during the launch of the United Nations’ Disaster Risk-Sensitive Investments, or “R!SE”, Initiative.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the initiative’s founding members, joined with the Economist Intelligence Unit, Florida International University, the Principles for Responsible Investment, AECOM and Willis, as well as other companies and institutions, to build a broad alliance to support the R!SE program.

Driven by the need for practical action to build long-term resilience, the R!SE Initiative is a response to the global challenge of developing a new form of collaboration between the public and private sectors to lead disaster-risk-reduction efforts.

“The scope and nature of disasters and climate risks are so broad-ranging and so serious that no single actor, no single institution can address them on their own.  We simply have to do it together,” said U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

By 2020, the initiative seeks to build a strong alliance that will span the globe — connecting countries and allowing for exchanges within and between industries and sectors to create shared value by making all investments disaster risk sensitive.

“AECOM’s participation in the launch event exemplifies our support for this initiative,” said Dale Sands, AECOM's senior vice president for global environmental practices.  “Our resilient cities activity stream focused on linking local business communities and government departments to help increase disaster resilience in their municipalities and cities.  We highlighted the quantitative Disaster Resilience Scorecard AECOM developed in partnership with IBM that measures city-level disaster preparedness and resilience.  We also shared our experiences from conducting workshops to facilitate engagement in disaster risk reduction, response planning and recovery between both sectors.”

Representing AECOM at a separate, recent event, Sands also chaired a plenary session promoting the business case for public-private sector engagement in disaster risk reduction at the Fifth Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Abuja, Nigeria.

For more information on AECOM’s involvement in the R!SE Initiative, read the company’s pre-event news release.

About AECOM

Ranked as the #1 engineering design firm by revenue in Engineering News-Record magazine’s annual industry rankings, AECOM is a premier, fully integrated infrastructure and support services firm, with a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government.  With approximately 45,000 employees — including architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management and construction services professionals — serving clients in more than 150 countries around the world, AECOM is a leader in all of the key markets that it serves.  AECOM provides a blend of global reach, local knowledge, innovation and technical excellence in delivering solutions that create, enhance and sustain the world's built, natural and social environments.  A Fortune 500 company, AECOM had revenue of $8.0 billion during the 12 months ended March 31, 2014.  More information on AECOM and its services can be found at www.aecom.com.

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Media:

AECOM Technology Corporation
Ed Mayer, +1.732.564.3380
Director, Corporate Communications
Ed.Mayer@aecom.com