News 15 January 2018 News from SKAO
TBI Infra: The CO2 Performance Ladder has to be upheld by everyone
With the implementation of the CO2 Performance Ladder, TBI Infra aims to conduct its business in a sustainable and ecological fashion. The Dutch construction company reduced its CO2 emissions by 35 percent within three years. Due to measures of CO2 reduction, TBI Infra has managed to gain award advantages in certain projects. Jeroen Ritzer – van Dinther, coordinator of Sustainability at TBI Infra, talks about his experiences with the CO2 Performance Ladder and how the management system has to be integrated within the project and the company.
TBI Infra consists of four independent operating companies, namely: Mobilis, Timmermans Infratechniek, Servicis en Voorbij Funderingstechniek.
“Mobilis has implemented the CO2 Performance Ladder all the way from the beginning, since 2008 and in 2010, three other companies within our concern were also included. We started on level 3 and moved onto level 5 on the ladder. I noticed that the implementation of the CO2 management system took a reasonable amount of time. For this reason, we invested a great deal of time and energy to make the leap from level 3 to level 5. We wanted to ensure the success of the CO2 Performance Ladder within our company. This resulted in a significantemissions reduction. In 2013 we emitted 6.300 metric tons of CO2 and in 2016 this was brought back to 4.800 metric tons of CO2”, Ritzer – van Dinther says.
Focus on CO2 reduction
The projects in which TBI Infra gained award advantage due to the CO2 Performance Ladder consist of the development and maintenance of tunnels in the Dutch cities of Elst, Zutphen and Bilthoven, among others. The coordinator of Sustainability notices that municipalities and organizations such as ProRail and Rijkswaterstaat, the operational institution of the Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, structurally use the Ladder in tendering procedures. H expects and hopes that even more commissioning parties will follow. “The CO2 Performance Ladder should be seen as an important part of the project and the organization. This is why we have initiated a CO2 project plan, along with the Dutch companies Bexis and Van Gelder, in which we focus on diminishing CO2 emissions within construction projects. The aim of this plan is to apply measures of CO2 reduction in collaborative projects.”
“When the CO2 Performance Ladder becomes an important part of projects and organizations, more commissioning parties will implement the system in tenders. Contractors who do not have a priority in sustainability will not be pleased by this notion. However, if we want to focus on CO2 reduction and increase the relevance of the ladder, we must represent the CO2 management system in all organizations and involve the employees. The organizations that hold a certificate on the ladder may have managed their CO2 emissions, but the point is to manage emissions within projects as well and to make CO2 reduction a priority. This means that the CO2 Performance Ladder is not a one-man-show, because it needs to be upheld by every stakeholder involved. Both the contractors as well as commissioning parties.”
Working more efficiently
Thanks to the implementation of the CO2 Performance Ladder, the construction company works more efficiently at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ritzer – van Dinther. The company claims to have gained more insights on the emissions that are caused by its activities, which led to an efficient way of reporting about its activities and applying measures that reduce CO2. “The biggest success of the CO2 Performance Ladder within TBI Infra is that it is being embraced by our employees. The cooperation with other organizations has improved. Our stakeholders have invested enormously in safety awareness in these last couple of years, but they also understand that sustainability is essential in business”, he says.
“At first sustainability was thought of as just another cost. Yet it results to many advantages through energy savings, CO2 and even cost savings. The irony is that many of the energy efficiency measures have been applied within our company, long before the CO2 Performance Ladder was even applied. However, the people who applied the energy saving measures did recognize them as sustainable. This is why we encourage our employees to think further, to see opportunities for measures of sustainability and to grab those opportunities. The fact that we have managed to reduce our CO2 contributes to a growing motivation for sustainability.”
Sustainable energy container
In order to reduce its CO2 emissions, TBI Infra solely makes use of renewable energy. An example of this notion is the sustainable energy container that the construction company utilizes in the project Waterfront in the Dutch city of Harderwijk. The container is provided with twelve solar panels and two wind turbines that generate electricity, after which the electricity is delivered to the local energy supplier. The container is also used to provide electricity during construction projects. Due to the combination of solar panels and wind turbines, TBI Infra claims to have the capacity to generate renewable energy the whole year through. The company also claims to be awarded projects due to the application of the sustainable energy container.
Furthermore, TBI Infra focuses on diminishing its CO2 footprint by means of sustainable vehicles. Ritzer – van Dinther: “We wish to reduce our actual CO2 emissions and not the emissions that have been estimated by the car manufacturer. In most cases, the estimated CO2 emission is nowhere near the actual emission of the vehicle, which is why it does not make sense to reduce estimated emissions. The actual emission of the vehicle is mostly higher than the estimated emission. For this reason, we make use of a system that provides us with insights about the actual emissions of our leased vehicles. In order to save fuel, we plan to influence the driving styles of our employees and implement different types of motors. Soon we will start with an awareness campaign that encourages our employees to save fuel while driving.”
The construction company aims to keep its CO2 footprint at its lowest through a policy that focuses on sustainability. “TBI has the ambition to promote sustainable entrepreneurship with its partners and works according to five pillars, namely: people, finance, environment, market and society. The CO2 Performance Ladder is aligned with our own standards. It results to economic advantage and a head start in sustainability.”