Our ambition is to operate completely emission-free by 2030. In doing so, we take our responsibility for the climate and commit to the agreements in the Paris Climate Agreement. To a large extent, we can achieve this ourselves and to some extent we need help from others.
Sustainability
VolkerWessels is a proud, locally involved and financially healthy family company with a long history. The solutions we realise for living, working and mobility last a lifetime. We don't think in years, but in generations. Sustainability, as one of VolkerWessels' core values, is naturally an important part of this.
Own responsibility of VolkerWessels and role of operating companies
We work with a target of 70% CO2 reduction in 2030 compared to 2019. We will be held accountable for this. We will achieve our fair share based on the so-called science-based targets methodology. To this end, we take measures such as making our vehicle fleet and office locations more sustainable, investing in emission-free equipment and using construction logistics hubs.
In addition, each operating company has an additional sustainability policy to ensure they meet the emission targets. This explains what the ambition is, what (quantitatively) the main objectives are and provides a substantiation in figures, measures and responsibilities of how to achieve these objectives. In addition, operating companies provide insight into how investment decisions contribute to whether or not the emission targets are met.
Download the Emission-free2030 infographic here
Shared responsibility
To be able to work completely emission-free, VolkerWessels and its operating companies are also partly dependent on others. We are therefore committing ourselves to this ambition. We do this by intensively seeking cooperation with our clients, regulators, the supply chain, knowledge institutes and other partners. We actively show how together we can make solutions even more sustainable and lobby to make them feasible. For example, we make agreements together on the sustainable use of materials such as concrete, asphalt and timber. To counter the effects of climate change, we jointly invest in biodiversity and climate resilience of forests.
More than emissions
An emission-free 2030 is the common thread running through VolkerWessels' sustainability policy. Climate change and its consequences is something that affects us all, and that we all have an impact on. However, this does not mean that we limit our policy to this. Sustainable entrepreneurship is the basis of every healthy company. Also for our divisions and operating companies, in addition to the emission-free 2030 target, other topics are included that are important by and for the business.
Social return
An example of such an additional topic from our sustainability policy is social return. VolkerWessels helps people with a distance to the labour market to find valuable and suitable work. By doing so, we add value to our works and to our society. We aim for a social return score of 1.9% in 2025. This means that for every 100 colleagues, we employ almost 2 employees at a distance from the labour market. One of the ways we achieve this is through VolkerWessels Inclusief, VolkerWessels' (internal) work-study company.
Read more about VolkerWessels' sustainability policy in '2022 in beeld, word & cijfers’ (from page 26, in Dutch)
Download '2022 in beeld, woord & cijfers'