On Wednesday, April 10, the kick-off of the Community of Practice CO2 Performance Ladder for Water Boards was given. No fewer than seven water boards will start using the CO2 Performance Ladder. These frontrunners are in a select, but fast-growing group: the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, the province of Gelderland and the municipalities of Barneveld and Renkum already have a CO2 Performance Ladder certificate.
Construction company Rutte Group has been certified for years on level 5 of the CO2 Performance Ladder. Sven Hiskemuller van der Zijden, sustainability consultant for Rutte Groep, therefore dares to state that the sustainable ambitions of the company were partly achieved by the CO2 Performance Ladder. "The Ladder has set it all in motion."
With five employees, Arie Arts Landscaping is a relatively small SME in the green sector. However, that does not mean that there are no opportunities in terms of CO2 reduction and sustainability. The green company went to work with the CO2 Performance Ladder and has now been certified at level 3.
Since 2016, Meerlanden Holding has been certified at level 3 of the CO2 Performance Ladder. The company strives for both CO2 reduction and circularity, whereby waste flows are returned to the chain as much as possible. To achieve its ambitious goals in the field of CO2 reduction and circularity, the company makes use of the CO2 Performance Ladder, among other things, to gain valuable insights. SKAO discussed this with Meerlanden.
The German IT corporation Bechtle has recently been certified on level 3 of the CO2 Performance Ladder. The activities of the organisations that fall under the umbrella of Bechtle, vary from developing a wireless IT infrastructure to building digital work places. With a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder, Bechtle aims not only to structurally reduce its carbon emissions, but also to collaborate more effectively with all its entities to achieve common goals of sustainability.
As the first Dutch province with a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder, the province of Gelderland aims to become carbon neutral, climate neutral and waste free by the year 2030. The province knows that more efforts are required to achieve these ambitious goals than solely tackling the energy streams of their buildings. With the help of the CO2 Performance Ladder, Gelderland expects to not only accelerate their transition to sustainability, but also to come up with concrete solutions that will be accessible and applicable in all layers of the organisation.
Meat processer Bolscher from the Dutch city of Enschede has been certified on the CO2 Performance Ladder level 3 since 2018. The company is the first of its kind to work with the CO2 Performance Ladder on reducing its carbon emissions. In order to cut back their carbon emissions, the company invested in electric vehicles and energy efficient cooling systems, among other things. Furthermore, Bolscher seeks opportunities to increase its market share of vegetarian products. This too will lead to less carbon emissions.
The Dutch construction company Heijmans has collaborated alongside research organisation ECN part of TNO, Solar Energy Application Centre (SEAC) and the Dutch municipality of Uden to develop the pilot project Solar Highways. In this project, an initiative from the Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Water management and Rijkswaterstaat, the parties have developed a traffic noise barrier that contains double sided solar panels to generate green electricity. The noise barrier is installed along the A50 high way of the city of Uden.
The Dutch company Loonbedrijf Van Diepen has been certified on the CO2 Performance Ladder since 2014. The organisation specializes in greenery, horticulture and livestock farming, among other things. It focuses on activities such as maintenance of public greenery across roads and highways and landscaping. With a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder, Van Diepen aims to gain insights in its carbon emissions and structurally reduce the CO2 caused by its business activities.
The Dutch province of Gelderland has been certified on level 3 of the CO2 Performance Ladder. It is the 900th organisation certified on the Ladder. Deputy Jan Markink of the province has accepted the certificate on Wednesday the 13th of February. With the implementation CO2 Performance Ladder, the province has made further developments towards becoming a climate neutral organisation.
It is essential to focus on the acceleration of new developments and technologies that reduce carbon emissions in order to realise climate neutral infrastructure. This is one of the most important findings of the research ‘On the road to climate neutral infrastructure in the Netherlands’ conducted and published by SKAO and the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft). So which sustainable innovations actually contribute to climate neutral infrastructure in the Netherlands?
