COWI is an international group working in engineering, economics, environmental science, and architecture, with more than 7,500 staff in around 40 countries. In North America, COWI provides planning, design, and program management across the transportation, water, energy, and marine sectors, with particular strength in bridge engineering, including inspection, evaluation, rehabilitation, and new design.
Much of COWI’s Canadian work takes place on the traditional territories of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, and a growing share of it is for Indigenous owners. COWI has put real work into how it engages in that context, and it continues to build that capability across the life of a project, so that earlier and better engagement leads to better engineering.
COWI’s vision is to do the right thing, always. In Canada, COWI believes that economic reconciliation is part of how good engineering gets done, and that acknowledging and respecting the territories where the firm works is part of that commitment. COWI’s Canadian practice is highly specialized, and the firm usually joins a project after early planning decisions have been made, so direct engagement with Indigenous communities has historically been limited. COWI has set out to change that, and is doing so through specific actions.
