"It will be an exceptional rush, running through the very boroughs where the projects I've worked on are being built to improve our experience of the urban environment."

Marathon For Maasai

With Kenya facing its worst drought in living memory, AECOM runners are teaming with three Maasai warriors, actor Edward Norton, and magician David Blaine for the race of their lives.

On November 1, the AECOM team will run the 2009 ING New York City Marathon to benefit the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT). Each AECOM runner will raise a minimum of US$5,000 to help preserve the Maasai tribal lands of East Africa and promote sustainable land practices.

Over the past year, AECOM has been working pro bono with the Maasai tribe and the Trust to develop conservation, land management, and organizational strategies to conserve the Maasai tribe's lands and way of life. Now, with Kenya devastated by drought, donations to MWCT will help to reduce the impact by funding water conservation measures, new water resources, and development of a sustainable water management plan for livestock.

AECOM will match a portion of the funds raised by our runners for MWCT. A Massai Marathon website showcases the cause and provides a way for people to contribute to the AECOM runners and other team members.

Passion for conservation
Ted Wilson, an AECOM architect in Ontario, Canada, recently built a pair of "thousand milers"— the sandals with rubber tire treads that the Maasai use for training—as part of his race preparation. "I did a five miler with these. I have tremendous respect for anyone who would go farther!"

In his work, Ted focuses on the design of buildings that inspire collaboration toward resource conservation, such as the new Ganaraska Forest Centre in Ontario, Canada. For this project, the team has blended a vision of the "forest as classroom" into a new facility for a program than hosts six thousand students annually to learn about our relationship with the natural environment, many for the first time.

"At the opening we propose to launch a new global link with the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and the Ganaraska Forest Centre providing each the opportunity to support their collective efforts to foster a more sustainable world."

Claire Bonham-Carter, a principal and director of sustainable development for AECOM, is a veteran of nearly a dozen half-marathons, but will join the Maasai for her first full marathon. "I always felt a marathon was too long— the time to train and the potential for injury are too great," Claire said. But the cause of the Maasai Conservation Wilderness Trust resonated deeply with Claire. "Something convinced me that running in the ING New York City Marathon for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust would be a great thing to do."

Claire leads climate change policy work and promotes sustainable communities. She is moving the company to a more embedded, low-impact approach in everything we do, including a comprehensive operational guidelines and sustainability reporting.

Brian Field is a landscape designer in NYC who has been inspired by his opportunities to work in the public realm and use sustainably driven ideas to create safe, enjoyable, lasting urban environments. "It will be an exceptional rush, running through the very boroughs where the projects I've worked on are being built to improve our experience of the urban environment."

Brian's work includes creating an enhanced and unified park and bicycle corridor connecting upland, city and the waterfront; reforestation and restoration of tidal pools, wetlands and upland habitat at the dormant Bush Terminal Piers; and a plan for a new park open space on abandoned industrial waterfront with adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

(Learn about more AECOM runners and others supporting this effort.)

Connected vision
Brian Goldberg, an environmental project manager with AECOM, has been leading AECOM's pro-bono project work with the MWCT and working to promote the fundraising efforts for the MWCT. "Most of us working in planning, design and development at AECOM are here because we feel passionate about the environment," he says.

He describes an active network across AECOM and around the world, working to support the fundraiser. It's a process reflective of the defining value of AECOM–connected knowledge and experience coming together to address complex problems, regardless of scale or location.

Runner Ted Wilson shares his goal for the marathon effort: "My hope is that through the connection of the Maasai community and others engaged in conservation efforts around the globe, each will gain greater hope for the preservation and renewal of their part of the world."

Erik Miller