Sustainability involves everyone

At BAM, sustainability goes far beyond a sustainable approach to energy and materials or simply adding more greenery. Social value and biodiversity are also key concepts for us. Wouter Schakel , Group Head of Sustainability: ‘My responsibility is to work with as many colleagues as possible to implement BAM's sustainability strategy.’??

Wouter: ‘For me, sustainability means the well-being of people and the environment, for the long term. How can we ensure that our Building a Sustainable Tomorrow strategy continues to be in line with what is happening around us? And how can we make sure that we achieve our ambitions? These are the questions I focus on.’?

Your department plays an important role in monitoring progress in the area of sustainability. What does this involve???

‘The BAM Netherlands and BAM UK & Ireland divisions translate the policy into concrete plans. Our task is to help us achieve the objectives of our Building a Sustainable Tomorrow strategy with these concrete plans. We have far-reaching ambitions in this area. To give just one example: BAM usually only implements sustainable solutions and alternatives when the client wants to pay for them. Last year, however, it became clear in a number of projects that the clients were not willing to compensate for the rising additional costs due to the use of biofuel. In order to achieve our CO2 reduction targets, BAM decided to use biofuel for these projects anyway and to bear the additional costs ourselves.’???

Your work involves not only dealing with the ambitions of BAM itself, but also with many other parties. How does that work??

‘BAM takes its stakeholders into account in its sustainability strategy. These obviously include our clients and chain partners, but also parties such as the Dutch environmental organisation Milieudefensie and the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO). We have an annual meeting with the latter. Biodiversity is one of the things we consider important. We show what we are already doing in this area and, conversely, ask what they would like to see. These kinds of insights allow us to see if and how we can adjust the plans in our strategy accordingly. After all, it’s important for us to work together with our stakeholders to achieve our goals.’?

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You mention biodiversity. To what extent does BAM have an influence on this??

‘In the region of Europe where we operate, biodiversity is declining enormously. We recognise our role in this and are examining how we can do better. Biodiversity is therefore one of the six pillars in our sustainability wheel within our Building a Sustainable Tomorrow strategy. The impact on biodiversity for most companies lies in the chain, such as agriculture and mining. But we also have a direct influence on our construction sites: our construction and what we build change the environment, so we have a direct influence on improving or worsening the situation for animal and plant species. Take the construction or widening of a motorway in a nature reserve, for example. We must therefore pay close attention to reducing our ecological impact here but can also make a positive contribution to biodiversity, for example by providing more space for nature in area development.’?

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Aren’t you also dependent on other parties for this??

‘Of course.? We are partly dependent on the extent to which our clients are willing to go along with it. But the trend is very clear: municipalities and provinces want much more varied vegetation and wildflowers in verges instead of grass; this is already fairly standard in our road projects. And you can also see it in the urban environment, with neighbourhoods and office buildings being given green roofs and facades. There is much more greenery these days. Although this hasn’t been happening for very long in the Netherlands, it has certainly been the case for some time now elsewhere, especially in the UK. All these changes significantly reduce the ecological impact of projects. And of course this is very cool.’?

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Do you think BAM's sustainable ambitions will turn out to be achievable??

‘BAM operates as a construction company in a sector in which margins are not particularly high, so unfortunately we don't have the luxury of spending huge sums to make the world a better place. Our efforts must go hand in hand with a healthy operating result. And I do think this is possible. By deepening relationships with the right clients, by working with parties that share our ambitions. I think our challenge is to be proactive. I can see great opportunities if we bring sustainable solutions to the market. Take our own housing concept BAM Flow , for example. We believe in this innovative, more sustainable way of building homes. Ultimately, the market also expects us to offer these kinds of solutions.’?

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What does Focus, Transform & Expand mean for you??

‘I would summarise it as moving ‘from grey to green’. Most of what we do could be much greener. We therefore wish to make an increasingly large part of our portfolio greener. And I also come back to the fact that it’s important for us to work with partners who add value to the contracts. In the UK, we call these key accounts. We also have a number of these in the Netherlands, such as Tennet. They have a huge task which involves increasing grid capacity and will be investing billions in the years ahead. So this is economically interesting, but certainly also when it comes to the question: under what conditions can you do this? We must be able to play a role in this transition. So if we can increase this Focus, there are excellent opportunities out there. And then we come to Transform, the greening of our portfolio: if we can do this in a healthy way, with stable profit margins… then yes, then I think we can make many more good steps in this area too.’?

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What would you like to tell colleagues about this topic??

‘As a major construction company, BAM can have a huge impact on the built environment in terms of sustainability. What we build will continue to exist for fifty to a hundred years or even more, so it has a long-term impact. We therefore have an inspiring challenge, which I think everyone at BAM can contribute to. It already starts with bringing sustainability up for discussion in our projects. From small and local to structural changes in the way we work and purchase materials, how we design our offices, how we shape our mobility policy. Sustainability involves everyone, that's how I see it. It’s very important to open up the conversation about it.’?

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What would the What If be for you??

‘That’s somewhat wishful thinking, of course. But for me, it would be: suppose BAM were to have such a leading position in the sustainability arena that we could be selective in what we do and don't do. Currently, we are still largely dependent on the market and clients. But what if we could really be at the forefront and are also recognised in such a way that clients come to us instead of the other way around?’?