Bernadette Fitzgerald
Director of Sustainability and Climate Change
National Discipline Director Property & Buildings
Bernadette has been working within the Australian Property and Construction sector for the last 15 years. As her involvement in sustainability has been over a period of immense change within the ESG landscape in Australia, she has developed skills across a variety of aspects of sustainability governance, including corporate reporting, strategy development, project planning, design, and delivery.
Bernadette is our Sustainable Infrastructure practice lead, developing and implementing sustainability strategies within the transport, power and water sectors. She also plays a key role in WSP’s Decarbonisation Strategy. Between 2014 and 2017, she was the manager of the Victorian Sustainability Team as it expanded from 6 to 18 staff and she was part of the leadership team that established our national sustainability practice in 2016.
Bernadette has extensive experience working with clients operating both new and existing property portfolios, including Lendlease, Frasers Property, Intrapac Property, Vicinity Properties and ISPT Property. She has great strength in managing multi-disciplinary teams and building engagement with staff to support high performance results. Her experience spans the full life cycle of property and organisational programs from business case and master planning through to project delivery and operations. She has worked extensively on existing buildings and precincts as part of re-lifting programs and has supported clients to develop organisational level sustainability strategies.
Bernadette's recent appointment to National Discipline Director within the Specialists and Property & Buildings Teams in 2023, shows her vision, leadership and diverse thinking about growth opportunities in key markets across Property & Buildings.
These strategic appointments support WSP's ESG position, align with our Strategic Plan 2022-2024, and assist in halving the carbon footprint of our design target.