Annual Report 2008 Sustainable design & engineering - Grontmij

Corporate Social Responsibility
Grontmij Denmark has provided consultancy on SIB Zero+, the first
+energy house in Denmark, which will deliver more energy than it
consumes. Designed for the average Danish family, it is 200 m 2 and is
modern and comfortable.
Mitigating the effects of climate change is deeply embedded in
Grontmij’s roots. The company was established to reclaim arable land
from the sea. With roughly half of the country below sea level, the
Netherlands is a living example of managing high sea and
ground-water levels and the risks of flooding from rivers. We are
currently working on a project to develop a ‘sand motor’, which will
add 20 m 3 of sand to the Delfland coastal system. The sand will be
redistributed through natural current processes. This will result in the
expansion and development of the coastline. The principle of
‘building with nature’ has never been applied before in the
Netherlands – or anywhere in the world – on the scale of the ‘sand
motor’. Grontmij has been given the assignment of drawing up an
extensive introductory memorandum for an environmental impact
study for this scheme.
We are lead consultant for Volvo Logistics Corporation in Gent in
the construction of the first CO 2
-free enterprise in Belgium and the
fi r s t C O 2
-free automotive company in the world. Our work has
resulted in a building with energy consumption four times lower
than that of an average new construction and ten times
lower than that of a standard office unit.
On a day-to-day basis in all countries Grontmij is involved in work to
mitigate such challenges through the establishment of dykes and
sustainable urban drainage, undertaking urban and rural planning in
harmony with the water environment and developing buildings and
infrastructure in a manner that is ‘waterproof’.
We work extensively across Europe on issues relating to water supply
– an area of increasing challenge as our weather patterns alter with
the changing climate. We are working across Europe to assist In the
implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the
Birds and Habitats Directives
We have begun to establish common databases across the group
with ideas and solutions for many of the kinds of projects on which
we work. Through this initiative we will inspire our designers and
consultants to share best practices in sustainable projects. We also
want to be able to share these ideas with our customers to inspire
them to demand more sustainability and improve the solutions they
require. By working together in this way, we aspire to put climate
change and other sustainability measures firmly into project
planning and into the design of sustainable solutions.
We have selected a measure from the core financial indicators of
GRI guidelines to demonstrate our performance in this area.
Our full report is shown in the table on page 67.
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