ARCADIS conducts business in a sustainable way, taking responsibility for the impact of our activities on the human habitat. Sustainable business conduct is anchored in our General Business Principles, which state that ARCADIS wants to compete and conduct business honestly. Employees support this by signing the code. At least as important, however, is the attitude of our people, which reflects the role ARCADIS has fulfilled in society throughout its 120-year history: committed and passionately contributing to the sustainable development of the human habitat, in open communication with all stakeholders.
The environmental balance of our company is positive. Much of our business involves cleaning up contamination and otherwise working to reduce the impact of projects and processes on the environment. We limit to the extent possible the impact of our own business conduct. In addition, we are involved in the communities across our global footprint. Integrity is one of our core values, and we have a health and safety program that we consider to be one of the best in our industry. Also our corporate governance and human resources policy are in line with social responsible business conduct.
The impact of our work on the human habitat
Impact of our projects
By far, the largest impact of our work is through the projects that we execute for our clients. Sustainability concepts are considered an integral part of our work. In infrastructure, our goal is to design and implement projects that minimize potential impacts on the environment and to be as energy and resource efficient as possible. Our work involves mass transportation, renewable energy development, replacing congested systems, sustainable land development, clean water supply and wastewater treatment. In environment, a significant part of our activities relates to the cleanup of the historical environmental legacies of our clients. In addition, we provide clients with services related to current and future environmental topics including air, water and land pollution, climate change, and the entire spectrum of services related to efficient energy development, transmission and use. In buildings, as with infrastructure, we are mindful of the potential environmental impact of projects, which we address with designs that include energy efficiency and other sustainable or "green" components, including the reuse of building materials.
We continually invest in new technologies, products and services that create environmental benefits for our clients; for example, a solid waste gasification plant in Poland to minimize solid waste dumping, while creating energy; or the remediation of Biscayne Bay in the United States where a complex natural situation requires new thinking to ensure mangrove forests are not affected; or the development of sustainable office buildings in Belgium and the statistical work for the European Commission on pesticide risk indicators.
Sustainability in our own business conduct
During 2007, we continued our internal sustainability activities in the operating companies, across our global footprint, with progress reported on the following aspects:
Energy conservation, including equipment substitution for higher efficiency.
Development of energy off-sets.
Renewable energy purchase.
Water conservation.
Reduction, recycling, and recovery of paper, electronic equipment, chemicals, etc.
Waste minimization for non-recyclable wastes.
Maximization of office space efficiency.
Paper selection for increased use of recycled or sustainably developed paper.
Telecommuting.
Travel minimization and optimization.
Selection of sustainable purchased materials and products.
In addition, 2007 has been a planning year for a global Sustainability Program, which will be introduced across ARCADIS in 2008. This program builds on our existing successes with the objective to reduce our "corporate" impact on the environment. We will measure and monitor progress against our program goals and report that progress in transparent terms. Our internal sustainability program is focused on the following components:
Energy and water usage in our offices/facilities.
Paper usage and paper type.
Waste reduction and disposal or recycling.
Transportation - ground and air.
Selection of purchased materials and products.
In each of these areas, we aim to meet the needs of our business while minimizing the environmental impact of our activities.
Social involvement
Working on projects in the community
Together with the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Heidemaatschappij Foundationa large shareholder in ARCADIS, we worked on projects aimed at the improvement of the human habitat. Others were performed by our local companies. A sample of this work includes:
"Community with Spirit." ARCADIS employees, using company-provided time off for volunteer work, supplied technical advice to participating groups in the community.
Macambira and Anicuns water streams. The team restored water streams in Brazil through macro drainage and sanitation works, while also adding parks, neighbourhood improvements and housing and social infrastructure projects.
Sponsorship of a scholarship program for geology students with the Institute of Geology at the University of Wroclaw in Poland.
"ARCADIS for Children." Our Polish company began a campaign to support orphanages, which included a drawing competition for company Christmas cards.
Supporting cultural goals
ARCADIS actively supports community activities and the development of local culture:
The ARCADIS art collection aimed at the acquisition of modern art, to encourage young artists.
The Dutch Academy of the Arts where talented young artists receive grant money to participate in a resident study program.
The Prinses Christina competition for young musicians.
The restoration of paintings at the Cristo Operario Church in Brazil. In addition, we created a cultural calendar to promote local artists.
Integrity as a principle
The ARCADIS General Business Principles
This code serves as a guideline for our business decisions and activities and is applicable to all employees. The General Business Principles describe our responsibilities to our stakeholders. With regard to society, we commit to comply with national laws and respect local cultures and also to respect the environment when executing projects. With regard to clients, professional integrity is key: reliability, independent professional judgment, as well as transparency regarding potential conflicts of interest. With regard to employees, we commit to being an equal opportunity employer, offering personal development and career opportunities in healthy and safe working conditions. With regard to shareholders, the focus is on increasing shareholder value. The full text of the business principles can be found here.
Dealing with dilemmas
Although the integrity code is prescriptive, it cannot possibly provide a solution for every dilemma we may face in our day-to-day activities. An active integrity policy ensures that possible problems are discussed and that responsibility is taken for the choices made. Employees are therefore encouraged to discuss issues with their supervisors.
Accountability
The management of each operating company certifies the implementation of the Business Principles in a Letter of Representation. Employees will not be held responsible for the loss of work resulting from abiding by the General Business Principles. ARCADIS has also introduced a whistle blower policy for employees, so they will not suffer negative consequences for reporting violations of the code. However, an offense against these principles can lead to sanctions up to and including termination of employment with the Company.
Health and safety
Health and safety are part of the company culture
In ARCADIS' General Business Principles, we have committed to providing a healthy and safe work environment for all our employees. To that end, we have a firm-wide health and safety vision and policy in place, based on a proactive and preventative behavior-based approach. Working healthy and safely is an integral part of the overall company culture and should be reflected in the behavior of our employees. Our goal is to protect our staff from injury and illness. To realize this, health and safety has the same priority as our other core values and is an integral part of the solutions we provide to our clients.
Health and safety management system
According to our plan, we have implemented in 2007 a globally compatible, systematic approach for the management of health and safety risks throughout the entire company. This means that ARCADIS companies:
Comply with applicable legal and other requirements.
Assign responsibilities for health and safety to line management.
Identify and meet client-specifi c health and safety expectations.
Assure the necessary health and safety competence of all staff.
Recognize positive health and safety behavior among employees, suppliers and clients.
Set targets for continuous improvement and implement systems to achieve them.
Actively promote subcontractors to be in alignment with our health and safety policy.
Track and report health and safety performance.
Include health and safety into projects to reduce impacts to our clients and stakeholders.
Strong health and safety performance
The implementation of the global health and safety management system contributes to protecting our most valuable resource, our employees, but also makes health and safety a differentiator with clients. Increasingly, clients are stating that solid health and safety programs with continuous improvement, management stewardship and employee engagement are conditions for working for them.
ARCADIS' health and safety metrics continued to improve. Since the second quarter of 2007, the reporting system for commonly tracked Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is on line. Taken globally, ARCADIS reduced its Total Recordable Case Frequency (TRCF) by 31%, while the Lost Time Frequency (LTIF), dropped by 51%. Additionally, by the end of 2007, all of the ARCADIS operating companies reported TRCF's below the publicly available U.S. benchmark for the Architecture and Engineering Industry.
2008 global health and safety objectives will focus on:
Continuing to drive down our TRCF and LTIF.
Increasing near-miss reporting to proactively implement preventive measures.
Improving the stewardship of health and safety throughout the organization.
