Spearhead 3: Sustainable material services

We are working on solutions to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions on construction sites. We are doing this by investing in smart logistics, making our equipment fleet more sustainable and cooperating with supply chain partners.

Bouwhubs

A BouwHub is a logistic transhipment location, located on the outskirts of the city. From there, the entire logistics process of the construction chain (from supplier to building site) is monitored and coordinated. We believe that this concept is indispensable to continue building in urban areas in the future. We are also increasingly seeing that smart logistics is a component of tenders. Construction traffic is increasingly being kept out of the city because of inconvenience.

Since our first BouwHub in Utrecht (2015), we have taken steps with our chain partners to improve the concept and take it further. The BouwHub is now an important part of our sustainability strategy and additional hubs have been opened in Amsterdam and Groningen. We also expect to open BouwHubs in Eindhoven and Groningen in 2021. Not only VolkerWessels companies, but also fellow builders and various suppliers make use of our BouwHubs. We applaud this, because the more users, the more logistics optimisation and CO2 and nitrogen reduction.

Sustainable equipment and the NoNOX filter

The Dutch Climate Agreement obliges the construction sector to emit a maximum of 0.4 megatons of CO2 from construction equipment by 2030. In 2026, the progress will be evaluated by the government. It is possible that zero-emission construction equipment will be laid down in legislation and regulations in 2026. Zero emissions means 0% emissions of CO2, nitrogen and other harmful substances.

The nitrogen regulations have increased the urgency of making our equipment fleet more sustainable. We continue to invest in new zero-emission equipment. We are adding more and more electric alternatives to our fleet, such as electric variants of the shovel, road roller and asphalt spreader. We also invested in the Netherlands' first all-electric mobile crawler crane. We successfully developed NONoX filters for mobile and large stationary equipment, which reduce nitrogen emissions by 99%. These filters have been used extensively on our projects, resulting in virtually nitrogen-free work on the construction site.