Our core beliefs
Contemporary corporate ethics can be summarized as trying to not be evil. Indeed, Summum will not commit to projects that have a demonstrably or overtly negative impact on people or the environment, and is pleased to rely on commendable services provided by others: sustainable banking, ethical smartphones, recycled business cards, and so on.
But, unlike traditional engineering practice, Summum will not limit itself to so-called corporate social responsibility. In many firms, socially responsible business practices and guidelines are applied while at the same time, for example, executing projects in the fossil fuels industries, operating in cultures where construction workers are heavily exploited, or working for governments that patently violate human rights. Summum will refuse and has in fact refused such projects and clients.
Our overarching objective is to do good and be credible, by forming a moral and ethical corporation, affecting real change, and having a net positive impact on the world. Along these same lines of thought, the company is structured as a worker-owned cooperative and social enterprise. A worker-owned cooperative is an association with a business, with members that are both employees and owners, fostering a truly democratic workplace. A social enterprise primarily operates from a societal mission and sees profit as a means rather than an end in itself.
Our statutory goal is in fact, “to make a net positive contribution – through our projects and services – to society and the environment in general, and to a sustainable built environment in particular, as a moral and ethical consulting engineering firm.“
Summum is pro-active in seeking a clientele and building a holistic portfolio in support of its vision of a moral enterprise that contributes to a sustainable built environment.