With the certification at level 5 on the CO2 performance ladder, BESIX Europe and several Belgian subsidiaries (1) of BESIX Group demonstrate their concrete commitment to decrease their CO2 emissions and to fight against climate change.
This certification is part of the BESIX Group's objective to become carbon neutral, both for its own direct and indirect emissions, by 2050 at the latest. By 2030, BESIX Europe and the certified BESIX Group’s European regional entities will already have reduced their own consolidated scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions (2) by 40% per million euros of turnover compared to the reference year 2019. Specific scope 3 targets have been set with a special focus on building materials such as concrete and steel.
BESIX Europe and the certified Belgian subsidiaries join BESIX Nederland and BESIX Unitec Nederland, already at level 5 of the CO2 performance ladder since a couple of years. As an example, this has led BESIX Nederland to decrease its CO2 emissions by 2% every year since 2014.
Pierre Sironval, Deputy CEO of BESIX Group: “The Netherlands have been global pioneers of the CO2 performance ladder as early as 2011. Today, we are extending the same policies to drastically reduce our emissions to all BESIX Europe entities, including in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Italy, as well as to several BESIX Group subsidiaries in the Benelux. BESIX Group is committed to actively contribute to the transition to a low-carbon society, which requires ambitious measures in our internal policies, supply chain and service offering in design, construction, and long-term management to improve the sustainability of our clients' projects and our own real estate development and concession projects. In this respect, we are determined to be a leader in the European construction sector, in line with our purpose: Excel in creating sustainable solutions for a better world.”
In addition to its internal ambitions, including a zero-emission company car fleet, locally produced renewable electricity, sustainable plants & equipment, and alternative fuel solutions, BESIX Group is committed to playing a key role in building state-of-the-art sustainable projects.
BESIX offers its clients first-class solutions for the design, construction, and long-term management of their projects. The group's engineering teams are already offering sustainable engineering solutions, including world-class smart buildings, advanced energy solutions, alternative materials such as green concrete and low-carbon steel or aluminium, sustainable site facilities, the use of materials passports, and a wide range of efficient and environmentally positive digital and robotic solutions.
Other opportunities include safeguarding our natural resources by favouring the use of more sustainable and recycled materials and developing digital tools such as material passports to promote circularity and subsequent recovery of used materials. In addition, BESIX Group is consistently aware of its supply chain management, and therefore continues to carefully consider all potential environmental and social impact when procuring and sourcing directly from suppliers and (sub)contractors. BESIX encourages its supply chain to develop environmentally friendly initiatives, notably the producers of building materials.
(1) Regional entities include BESIX Nederland BV, BESIX Infra, BESIX Infra Support, BESIX Unitec, BESIX Connect, BESIX Unitec Automation, BESIX Unitec Nederland BV, Appermont Gebroeders, Franki Foundations Belgium, Franki Grondtechnieken BV, Atlas Fondations, and BESIX Environment.
(2) According to the leading GHG Protocol corporate standard, a company's greenhouse gas emissions are classified into three scopes. Scope 1 and 2 are mandatory to report, whereas scope 3 is voluntary and the hardest to monitor. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources (eg. fleet, aircon...). Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, from a utility provider. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions - not included in scope 2 - that occur in the value chain of the reporting company (commute, travel, waste...).