How to Aid Smart Growth But Preserve Resources
With a new South Bay office, ESA looks to aid clients in transportation, public works, water supply, flood risk reduction and habitat restoration, and an eye on expanding its reach into new sectors, i.e. tech.
SAN JOSE—Headquartered in San Francisco, national environmental science and planning firm Environmental Science Associates/ESA recently announced the opening of a San Jose office. ESA’s office is located in a new building on The Alameda, a mixed-use project with access to downtown.
Starting with a staff of a half-dozen, the office has the capacity to support ESA’s expected growth to around 25 employees in the South Bay. ESA has worked in the South Bay for many years for clients including the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Jose International Airport and the Santa Clara Valley Water District, helping to develop sustainable solutions to urban development, infrastructure and ecological projects.
Bay Area restoration and ecology program manager John Bourgeois will lead the new office. In this exclusive, he shares his insights on issues facing the region such as climate change and housing, and how science-based planning can inform development.
GlobeSt.com: What kinds of projects are you currently working on in the South Bay and what potential do you see for your new San Jose office?
Bourgeois: Since I moved to the South Bay in 1999, I’ve been involved in a variety of project types in my professional as well as personal life. In addition to my technical focus on large-scale habitat restoration, I’ve also been a planning commissioner and a small business owner. With this diverse perspective, I’m personally excited about the intersection of policy and planning with the incorporation of nature into the urban landscape. Having lived in the South Bay for 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand the drastic changes in housing, traffic and increased threats such as wildfires and flooding.
ESA was established in San Francisco in 1969, so we have a long and established history of working on projects and with clients across the Greater Bay Area. Opening a dedicated office in the South Bay has been a goal for some time as we have increased work with clients including the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Jose International Airport and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Our philosophy is to work with clients to take a holistic view of how each project can help serve the community, developing sustainable solutions to some of the region’s most important urban development, infrastructure and ecological projects. For example, both ESA and I, before joining ESA, have long been involved in the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, one of the largest wetland restoration projects in the United States.
Our new San Jose office is purposely located near a major transportation hub, Diridon Station, so we can walk the walk by getting our employees out of their cars to the extent possible. This move shows not only a commitment to better serving our clients and communities, but to our regional employees who will have improved work-life balance with shortened commutes and access to the many amenities offered by this new convenient location.
GlobeSt.com: What challenges are your clients facing in today’s landscape?
Bourgeois: Climate change is the issue of our time and will begin to shape our work in ways we have yet to realize. As daunting a challenge as this is, it is encouraging to see the Bay Area region face it in new and innovative ways. I look forward to being a part of this more regional thinking as projects and solutions, get bigger to address the coming changes. This includes staying involved in the regional working groups focused on climate adaptation and bringing that broader perspective to our clients.
The region’s exponential and accelerated growth has also trickled down into various issues, with the most visible being an extreme shortage of affordable housing. We are now seeing companies like Google proposing large-scale housing development projects. In this capacity, they morph from a technology company to a community builder, and thus find themselves facing new and often unfamiliar challenges.
GlobeSt.com: What is on the horizon for South Bay Area environmental and development projects?
Bourgeois: ESA’s San Jose office will be focused on serving our existing South Bay clients in transportation, public works, water supply, flood risk reduction and habitat restoration, with an eye toward expanding our reach into new sectors such as high-tech. We are now in a position to better engage with and build on our long-standing South Bay client relationships on a more local level. We are committed to finding innovative and sustainable solutions to aid in the region’s smart growth while preserving our resources and valued ecosystems.