Sustainability
Our ambition is to operate completely emission-free by 2030. In doing so, we take our responsibility for the climate and commit ourselves to the agreements in the Paris Climate Agreement. Some of these things we can do ourselves, sometimes we need others.
Emission targets operating companies
Each operating company also has an additional sustainability policy to ensure that they meet the emission targets. This explains the ambition, the (quantitative) most important objectives and 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 objectives are achieved.
VolkerWessels' own responsibility and role of operating companies
We are working with a target of 70% CO₂ reduction in 2030 compared to 2019. We will be held accountable for this. With this, we will achieve our fair share based on the so-called science-based targets methodology. To this end, we are taking measures such as making our vehicle fleet and our office locations more sustainable, investing in emission equipment and using construction logistics construction hubs.
Shared responsibility
In order to operate 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 cooperating intensively with our clients, regulators, the supply chain, knowledge institutes and other partners. We actively demonstrate how we can work together to improve sustainability even further and lobby to make those solutions feasible. For example, we make agreements together on the sustainable use of materials such as concrete, asphalt and wood. To combat the effects of climate change, we are jointly investing in biodiversity and climate-proof 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. For our divisions and operating companies, in addition to the emission-free 2030 goal, other topics that are important by and for the business are also included.
Social return
An example of such an additional topic from our sustainability policy is social return. VolkerWessels helps people with a distance to the labor 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 labor market. We achieve this through VolkerWessels Inclusief, VolkerWessels' (internal) work-study company.
