At Cornerstone, we are beholden to our clients, to each other and our families, our community, and the environment. As a professional services company, we proudly employ and serve our diverse set of clients in engineering, land development, regulatory and policy, and carbon management – this means that in addition to our direct environmental and social impacts, we support and influence a wide range of projects with indirect impacts. We are committed to taking responsibility for a balanced ESG approach to our community and to California.
Our Impact on the Environment
We have small, direct environmental impacts on the choices we make every day from locating our office proximate to our employees homes and maintaining a robust and secure computer network that supports remote work to the solar powering 100% of our building’s electrical load. We strive to make responsible choices in our consumption of energy, water, and goods.
Additionally, we provide professional engineering, design, and geologic services encompassing many different types of environmental impacts. For example, our regulatory team works with the state to ensure diligent and responsible disposal of fluids from oil and gas operations in a manner that protects our aquifers. Our natural resources team is focused on carbon-reducing projects as well as water beneficial re-use projects. From carbon capture and sequestration to hydrogen transportation and solar electric thermal energy, our staff provides strategic planning and engineering services to decarbonize California and provide a more drought-resilient Kern County.
Our Impact on our Social Ecosystem
Cornerstone believes that good-quality jobs that provide more than a “standard living wage” is a key to a prosperous and thriving community. We have grown from about 8 people to nearly 90 in the past 4 years and continue to employ some of the top talent in Kern County. Employment opportunities are extended to talented people who are service-minded toward our clients and one another, including partnering with America’s Job Center to provide consistent opportunities for student internships. Consequently, we employ a diverse workforce in terms of age, race, and country of origin.
As a company, we support local community events, such as local non-profit softball leagues for youths, science fair judging, Meals on Wheels, backpack drives with the Henrietta Weill Foundation, and hosting Houchin blood drives. We encourage our staff to make community contributions about which they are passionate.
Cornerstone also takes a role in supporting local coalitions aimed at supporting Kern’s economic growth. We hold a Board seat on Better Bakersfield and Boundless Kern (B3K) who’s mission is job growth and help drive the Energy Subgroup as well as a Board seat with the Kern Leadership Alliance (KLA) where our staff drives an education outreach to high school students around financial literacy and careers in Kern County. Through an Executive Board seat with Kern Venture Group (KVG), we support transformational investments to start-up technology companies in our community, many of which are ESG-focused.
Our Governance
We are proudly a Women-Owned Business and support diversity in our staff and management and are honored to employ many United States military veterans. We provide equal employment and with our double-digit growth have been able to regularly provide new and challenging positions and promotions to our staff. We believe it’s not only the right thing to do but also creates enhanced product deliverables to our clients through diverse perspectives. Additionally, we invest in a leadership program, Strata, that celebrates and fosters strong character.
We are honored and have been uniquely gifted with team members to lead many of these initiatives such as B3K, KLA and KVG, our growth of decarbonization efforts in California, and our character and principles-based culture. The Cornerstone Leadership Team is committed to expanding our ESG awareness and its positive impacts to our staff, our community, and our clients.