CO₂ half-year figures: CO₂ emissions business activities Ballast Nedam reduced by 29% since last year

With a 29% reduction compared to the same period last year, Ballast Nedam is seeing a substantial reduction in CO₂ emissions from its operations. This is according to figures based on the first half of 2022.

This decrease is due to significant turnover growth and only a small increase in CO₂ emissions at our projects, thanks to HVO fuel and other CO₂-reducing measures.

"By identifying which activities cause the most emissions, we can tackle emissions at the source. We are making our offices, construction sites, production sites and vehicle fleet more sustainable," says Patrick Ballast, Head of Sustainability at Ballast Nedam. "On our construction sites, for example, we are working hard to make our equipment more sustainable, as it is responsible for about half of our CO₂ emissions. We are also increasingly using our own green electricity, generated by our solar roofs and wind turbines."

We can tackle emissions at the source
Patrick Ballast Head of Sustainability Ballast Nedam

Emissions in different scopes

In the first half of our 2019 base year, Ballast Nedam reported a footprint of 23.0 tonnes of CO2 per million sales. In 2021 it was 19.9 tonnes for the first six months and in this first half of 2022 it is 14.1 tonnes. This footprint is made up of three 'scopes' through which we measure and report carbon emissions. Included below are the emissions from the first half of 2022 up to week 24.

  • Scope 1 | 7.970 tonnes (natural gas, diesel, petrol and other fossil fuels). Due to an increase in business activities, the scope 1 footprint increased slightly in the first half of 2022, but relative to the increased turnover, it actually decreased sharply.
  • Scope 2 | 230 tonnes (electricity, district heat, supplemented by business travel). The scope 2 footprint thus decreased slightly due to the greening of electricity in our rental properties.
  • Scope 3 | 967 tonnes (emissions from commuting allowances and locations managed by Ballast Nedam Asset Management and belonging to our own scope). Scope 3 | emissions decreased significantly due to the high in-house generation of electricity at the Zaanstad Penitentiary Institution project managed by Ballast Nedam Asset Management.

CO₂ in figures

Overall, CO₂ emissions from business activities decreased by 29% in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year. Compared to last year, offices have much lower emissions. This is due to the mild winter, savings in gas consumption and greening of electricity in our rental premises. Production sites also have somewhat lower gas consumption thanks to the mild winter.

Higher emissions at construction sites are due to increased construction activities. Partly due to the use of HVO fuels, CO₂ emissions remained limited. Overall, there was even a significant decrease in CO₂ emissions compared to turnover.

Despite a large investment in the number of electric lease cars, mobility emissions increased slightly. This is because colleagues are present in offices and projects more frequently again since the pandemic. The electricity consumption of our vehicle fleet is offset with green certificates (GVOs Dutch wind) from our own wind turbines.

Ambitions

Since 2021, Ballast Nedam has exclusively used 100% green electricity at all office, production and construction sites. With the ambitions of being carbon-neutral by 2030 and energy-neutral by 2040, more and more sustainable steps are being taken. A short-term goal is to have more than 20% of electricity consumption sustainably generated by our own wind turbines and solar panels by 2023. Therefore, Ballast Nedam is investing heavily in solar panels on its own roofs, such as in this first half of 2022 the expansion in Almere (895 kWp) and the construction in Leerdam (528 kWp).

Overall, there has been a significant reduction in CO2 emissions compared to turnover. With these results, Ballast Nedam is well on its way to being CO2 neutral by 2030. An ambitious, but extremely important goal.