UTRECHT, 17 May 2010 – In 2009, Strukton actively began to take measures to limit its CO2 emissions. Partly due to the lease regulation that now only allows the fleet to lease cars with an A, B or C energy label, Strukton’s CO2 emissions remained limited to 45,859 tons in 2009.

2010 CO2 programme
For the year 2010, Strukton has set itself the goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 2% from the 2009 levels. In order to achieve this goal, the right measures must be taken. For example, the lease regulation will be made stricter by adding a CO2 ceiling per category and use of the NS-Business Card will be encouraged, so that the fleet is employed less often. In addition, the target of 80% sustainable energy consumption in 2012 remains in force. Moreover, several initiatives are being implemented within the business units, from Strukton Civiel’s poster campaign to encourage the exchange of good ideas to a session about ProRail’s CO2 performance ladder, organised by Strukton’s youth network Scope.

Strukton also takes responsibility for the sector and actively and proactively responds to developments, such as storing the braking energy of trains. Strukton also works with NGOs like VNM and Urgenda, which supports the electric car among other things. In addition,  several initiatives have been taken to discover ways to reduce CO2 emissions in the coming decade. A start has been made with chain analyses, including those for concrete, glass and the transport of ballast.

2009 carbon footprint
Strukton reports its CO2 emissions according to the international standard, divided into three categories: scopes 1, 2 and 3.

• Scope 1 concerns direct emissions, from cars and materiel, for example.
• Scope 2 concerns indirect emissions resulting from energy consumption.
• Scope 3 concerns all indirect emissions not resulting from energy consumption.

In 2009, the emissions were as follows:

• Scope 1: 32,629 tons (was 28,502 tons in 2008)
• Scope 2: 6,535 tons (was 6,232 tons in 2008)
• Scope 3: 6,695 tons (was 6,410 tons in 2008)

Measures
Almost half of the total emissions are the result of the fleet’s fuel consumption (part of scope 1). For that reason, various measures have already been taken in recent years to reduce this. For example, since the start of 2008, the fleet only permits the lease of cars with an A, B or C energy label.

Strukton also encourages its employees not to drive, but to take the train instead. For 2009, the target was for employees with a company car to collectively travel a total of at least 41,600 business-related kilometres per month by train with the NS-Business Card. That was amply achieved: in the last quarter of 2009, no less than 47,658 kilometres per month were travelled using the NS-Business Card.

Ambitious target
Strukton had set itself the goal of reducing the CO2 emissions by 2% in 2009. This ambitious target was, in absolute terms, not attained. One explanation for this is the increase in turnover that Strukton achieved, from EUR 1.25 billion in 2008 to EUR 1.37 billion in 2009. This increase in turnover was accompanied by an increase in employees, from 5,962 to 6,232.

In addition, due to the severe winter of 2009-2010, a lot of temporary construction shelters were necessary, which were accompanied by extra energy and fuel consumption.

The extra measures taken to reduce the CO2 emissions were insufficient to compensate for this. Strukton Rail Business Unit, by contrast, was able to achieve a reduction of 6%.

The past year has increased awareness relating to CO2 reduction, both among employees as well as suppliers. They feel jointly responsible, as has been shown by the many ideas that employees have submitted and the completion – en masse – of our Sustainability Statement by suppliers.