What are we doing
We are defining what is meant by sustainability for each sector of our business and what that means for how we work and for our clients. Grontmij in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom already have standards and guiding principles. This gives us a starting point. By sharing best practice, we can more easily establish Group-wide definitions and processes.
On delivery, a network of sustainability champions has been put in place throughout the organisation. This is a bottom-up approach that allows Grontmij people working directly with the client to determine what is expected and needed from us. Requirements are then incorporated into the development of concepts for clients by our design engineers and consultants. For example, we have worked with Anglian Water in the United Kingdom on the design and implementation of a strategic sustainability programme for their water infrastructure management process. This has involved both top-down and bottom-up stakeholder involvement to produce a comprehensive management manual. This manual covers the entire project management lifecycle for fixed asset design and construction. Embedded in the programme are tools for sustainable design along side processes for communications, knowledge management and training and raising awareness.
Sustainability at work
We are also innovating so that we can offer customers real solution to, often, pressing problems. In Sweden, we developed a business concept for the production of biogas. Locally produced waste products will be turned into vehicle fuel so that consumption of fossil fuels is reduced. But this solution has another very positive spin-off. The main by-product can be used as a biofertiliser. For this customer, there are further costefficiencies as the gas is produced at an existing CHP plant. In Belgium, we have created a biomass energy plant that will also be used to show visitors what can be achieved. The solution we came up with to replace a natural gas plance was to use a shredded wood grate boiler. For the client, this will represent major savings and reduce the company’s CO2 emissions by around 12,500 tonnes per year. This project was a cross-border effort by our Belgian and Swedish teams.