For specialized university graduates who want to help save the world and buy a stake in their company while doing it, few firms look more attractive than Victoria-based Golder Associates. Founded in Toronto in 1960 as a soil engineering consultancy, privately held Golder now has 2,000 employees in 80 offices worldwide. It also has a thriving environmental practice. "In contributing to Golder, I'm contributing to the community," says Gail Wada, 32, a fisheries technician who joined Golder in 1997. Wada studied archeology at the University of British Columbia, and has a diploma in renewable resources from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Last fall, she worked on a project counting adult salmon on the Squamish River, just north of Vancouver, for local natives and the federal government. "There's no other company that I know of that combines archeology with fisheries," she says. Like many employees, Wada began buying shares when she joined the company. She says they give her a "vested interest in what I do." Wada's co-worker on the salmon project, aquatic biologist Bettina Sander, 35, says she is impressed with Golder's "commitment to the environment and to the people who work for them. What I do is important and I get to feel that every day."