Life Cycle Assessment, ECI and CO2: Towards sustainable and circular business operations
Our clients – Rijkswaterstaat, provincial administrations, municipalities, grid operators, water authorities and contractors – have ambitious sustainability-related goals. We help those organisations achieve their climate-neutral and circular objectives by analysing their performance and identifying the necessary measures at all levels, from project to policy.
Measurable: from cradle to grave
Environmental impact is measurable and calculable. One important method of achieving this is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA, ISO14040/44). This allows the CO2 emissions and various other environmental effects of all life cycle phases to be quantified, from the cradle to the grave.
This allows us to answer the demand for information in the tendering market etc. with the ECI (Environmental Cost Indicator), sustainability in design processes (sustainable civil engineering (Duurzaam GWW)) and reporting requirements (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive).
We also develop useful software tools, including DuboCalc and the +Circular Design Tool, as well as the Witteveen+Bos sustainability report.
Civil engineering and construction
In the Dutch civil engineering industry, we use the ECI. In the construction industry, we use the Environmental Performance Calculation for Buildings (MilieuPrestatie Gebouwen, MPG) indicator, which analyses 11 environmental impact categories to produce a single score to allow an integrated comparison of multiple aspects (sustainability, impact, costs etc.).
We follow international (ISO14040/44) and Dutch standards (the Environmental Performance Assessment Method for Construction Works (Bepalingsmethode Milieuprestatie Bouwwerken) by NMD) and protocols (protocol for demonstrating and calculating ECI value by Rijkswaterstaat).
The limits that we must not exceed if we are to guarantee a liveable planet for everyone are under increasing pressure. With LCA, ECI and MPG calculations, we can quantify the contribution to various global environmental effects, and subsequently optimise our projects to develop sustainable solutions.
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