annual report - Royal Haskoning

stakeholders
report of the board of management
shareholding and business
Our stakeholders are our clients, our staff, our shareholders, our suppliers and our partners. Maintaining good
relationships with all interested parties (stakeholder management) is becoming increasingly important. The nature of our
work brings with it special responsibilities, so we also devote attention to protecting our living environment and to our
relationship with society as a whole. The need for openness in business is self-evident to us. For the second year running
we were awarded the first prize for our annual report in the non-listed companies category in the Scenter survey of clarity
of policy in annual reports.
Our special ownership structure means that we are completely independent, but this also means that there is a risk of
self-satisfaction because the ‘realities of the market’ are missing. This is of course partially compensated by external
benchmarking but additionally, in 2007, we will be introducing a form of market process, which is new to us, by letting
staff also participate in the success of the company through its capital. The preparations were made in 2006 to offer our
staff the option of becoming share certificate holders. Under this new certificate scheme, certificates can be issued for a
maximum of 24.5 percent of the shares. The scheme will further increase our staff’s personal commitment and involvement
in the business.
corporate social responsibility
The well-known 3P balance (People, Planet, Profit) remains a basic principle for Royal Haskoning when planning for corporate
social responsibility. We bear CSR in mind and give it substance in four areas: core values & policy, products & consultancy,
business operations and social involvement. We expect to be able to make the biggest contribution under the heading of
products & consultancy. After all, our projects place us right in the middle of the community every day.
Our knowledge organisation is all about people and, as an employer of choice, we continue to devote attention to personal
development, modern employment conditions and a safe working environment. ISO-14001 certification was completed in
the United Kingdom in 2006. This management system covers all the environmental facets of the primary process and will
also be put fully into effect in the Dutch offices in 2007. Preparations were also made in 2006 for group-wide certification
under ISO-18001, which is aimed at health and safety. We expect safety-driven thinking and activities to increase significantly
in the coming years, especially in our industry.
sponsoring policy and social projects
The social involvement of Royal Haskoning is not only expressed through concern for clients, staff and the environment.
We improved the structure of our sponsoring policy in 2005. In the countries where we operate we want to use our own
primary process, with time, knowledge and expertise, to support socially relevant projects that are otherwise unlikely to
get off the ground because of a lack of money. In 2006, for example, we contributed via the NWP-TRUST partnership and
Aqua for All to the realisation of one of the Millennium Development Goals, namely halving the number of people who do
not have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitary facilities. In the context of our anniversary in 2006 there was
also the social projects initiative, where all employees were given the opportunity to work on socially useful projects in the
immediate vicinity of their offices. There was an enthusiastic response to this and in almost all locations where we have
offices in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom our staff worked on social projects free of charge.
>> increasing importance of stakeholder management
>> iso certification emphasises focus on safety and environment
>> structured sponsoring policy and social projects
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