International Women’s Day 2024

On International Women’s Day, we turn the spotlight on Sarah Peterson and her career as the theme of the day turns to #InspireInclusion. 

Our Director and Head of our Edinburgh operation is designing the road not only to net zero but for female engineers, today and every day.

With a career spanning more than 20 years, Sarah Peterson joined xburo last year and already in that short time, she has led our Energy and Sustainability division and been instrumental in the team winning Best Small UK Consultancy at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) as well as being shortlisted for CIBSE’s Building Performance Awards.

Sarah has been instrumental in advocating to persuade women to join the profession throughout her career through mentorship, talks and presentations, and in her role as Chair of ACE Scotland.

Sarah said: “Marking International Women’s Day continues to be an important necessity as we inspire inclusion particularly within the world of engineering which continues to be male dominated. We know statistically that in 2022 women make up 16.5% of all engineers and although this number has continuously improved, we still have a long way to go to achieve equality of opportunity for girls and women in this country.”

“Accepting that more needs to be done is an ongoing issue and I see this in my work across industry to convince more young women that there is a place for them in what can be an exciting and rewarding career.

“We each have a role to play here whether it be getting into schools, joining industry bodies to be representative or engaging better with our universities. For me, ultimately it is showcasing the work that women are doing across the industry as part of large or small teams and speaking to young people about their contribution to net zero and what they can bring to the workplace. It is also important to recognise that inspiring inclusion is improving but the pace needs to pick up to change the statistics and the outcomes for women.”

And the pace is quickening for Sarah and her team as they have picked up a number of new projects lately with a pipeline of work focused on energy, sustainability and net zero.

As the company scales and grows following its recent success at recognised industry awards, xburo has sought to go beyond engineering and to reach out to individuals, organisations and groups to help them to reach their potential through mentorship of young female engineers, intern opportunities and sport sponsorship including amateur golfer, Megan Docherty and Jayla Kepler.

“As we scale and grow, xburo is looking to inspire inclusion. There were several people that inspired me during my career, from teachers to pioneering female engineers who forged a path in the industry and I am aiming that companies like ours will be just that for future engineers and we will continue to see an advancement in women engineers across the board where there is room for all voices and a seat at the table for the best engineers in every design team.”