Community and environment

CAE reached its carbon neutrality commitment on September 28, 2020, becoming the first Canadian aerospace company to reach this goal. Our strategy is organized into three phases targeting three ways to reduce our carbon footprint: consume less, consume better, offset carbon emissions.

During the last year, we became carbon neutral by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) in the countries where we operate to offset our use of electricity and investing in greenhouse gas reduction projects (carbon offsets), including wind energy projects in India and forest conservation in Canada.

Our long-term strategy is to determine how we can reduce at the source, through initiatives in partnership with our industry.

We believe that reporting practices bring discipline and accountability that enhance CAE’s ability to manage our key business issues and execute our strategy, which led us to implement TCFD disclosure recommendations as part of our reporting practices in 2020.

At CAE, education is a big part of who we are and getting young people fired up about science and encouraging them to explore rewarding careers in STEM is a mission we strongly believe in championing.

Every year, we participate in events promoting STEM careers and digital literacy in our communities in addition to sharing our know-how, which occasionally involves visits to our facilities.

As an advocate for work-integrated learning opportunities, offers many co-op and student positions worldwide. Our work-integrated learning program CAE Tech also offers the opportunity to future technicians from various fields in participating Canadian institutions to start a career at CAE with internships, grants and other opportunities.

We also collaborate with various postsecondary entities and participate in scholarship programs to recognize students in our core areas of expertise and facilitate access to education in our communities.

Through our presence in more than 35 countries around the world, we’re helping create economic growth by delivering goods to our customers, jobs for our employees, payments to our suppliers, investments in communities and value to our investors.

Investing in communities and local economies is also key to building a reputation for being a neighbour of choice everywhere we operate. It also helps strengthen employee engagement across CAE. This includes university scholarships, charity events, technology competitions for young people, award-winning fundraising campaigns for humanitarian organizations where CAE operates and where employees live and work.

At CAE, many employees are committed to causes that are dear to their hearts. Our CAEvolunteering program aims to support employees and the various causes they cherish to help them make an even greater positive impact. The program has three components: ‘Volunteer of the year awards’, ‘Dollars for your cause’ and ‘Team volunteering’. By volunteering their time and skills, CAE employees make a significant difference in other people’s lives.