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Rutte Group: The CO2 Performance Ladder is a stimulant for sustainability

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."

The Rutte Group was originally a transport company, but added road construction in the 1980s. About 20 years ago, concrete recycling was added. Today, the company has around 200 employees, serving the Amsterdam region in the areas of transport, road construction and recycling.

Leader in sustainability

In all these sports, the Rutte Group is slowly but surely becoming the leader in sustainability and CO2 reduction. This makes it the first company in the world capable of producing circular concrete: an innovation that Rutte Group and New Horizon Urban Mining brought to the market. The machine can grind used concrete into four streams: cement glue, gravel, sand and unbound cement. Apart from the cement line, these streams can immediately be used to produce new cement. This is an important development because the concrete sector is responsible for around 9 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Rutte Group has also distinguished itself for years as a sustainable leader and innovator in the field of transport and road construction. Earlier this year (again as the first company in the world), it carried out a road and hydraulic engineering project fully electrically. Hiskemuller van der Zijden: “We transport building materials and machines over water, for example, with electric push boats and barges. But the machines themselves are also increasingly electric. For example, we purchased the first electric shovel in Europe and we have electric re-paving machines and cranes. ”

Sustainability in the DNA

Add to that the fact that an increasing share of the Rutte Groups car and transport fleet is also electric and you understand: the title of sustainable leader is far from unjustified. The company was therefore allowed to receive several prizes for its sustainable initiatives. “Companies often say that sustainability is in their DNA; a very large cliché that you often have to ask yourself if it is true, "says Hiskemuller van der Zijden. “Nevertheless, I also dare to make that claim for Rutte Group. In fact, the company has always chosen the most sustainable route, even when sustainability was not on the agenda. "

It will not surprise you: Rutte Group was certified early on on the CO2 Performance Ladder. The sustainable company has now been certified for level 5 for years. “We embraced the CO2 Performance Ladder at that time to make CO2 reduction proprietary and see what it would mean. For us it turned out to be a stimulamt for sustainability. We had wanted to work more intensively with sustainability for a while, but were not sure how. The CO2 Performance Ladder has taught us how to approach that. ”

Identify and seize opportunities

Step one in the certification process of the CO2 Performance Ladder is gaining insight into ones own CO2 footprint. A good thing, says Hiskemuller van der Zijden: “Creating a company-wide inventory of your CO2 emissions is simply the best starting point to get started with sustainability; it shows where the opportunities lie for you. The CO2 Performance Ladder obliges you to actually gain that insight. "

For Rutte Group, the greatest opportunities were initially in the area of ​​fuel. "We use several hundred thousand liters of diesel per year," says Hiskemuller van der Zijden. More and more employees of the company are now driving in plug-in hybrid or fully electric cars. For example, seven fully electric cars were put into operation last quarter alone.

In the area of ​​large transport, the Rutte Group made the switch wherever possible to green gas and HVO, a synthetic diesel made from waste and residual flows. A good first step, thinks Hiskemuller van der Zijden, but at the same time there are opportunities. “Large transport can also be carried out completely electrically at one time. It is not that far yet, but by that time we definitely want to be at the forefront. ”

To achieve and maintain level 5 on the CO2 Performance Ladder, it is furthermore necessary to set up cooperation projects within the chain or sector. A challenging job, says Hiskemuller van der Zijden: “Take the transport sector, where competition reigns supreme. It is difficult to get things like combined transport off the ground there. But we will try. "

In addition, the Rutte Group is also part of the so-called SME circle, within which various companies are exploring opportunities for cooperation with each other. It also joined forces with parties such as TNO and Amsterdam Economic Board for the "Amsterdam Vaart" research program, which investigated the potential of construction transport by water.

City of the future

The Rutte Group has now gained so much experience in the field of sustainability that it is no longer necessary to take guidance from the CO2 Performance Ladder to take steps. “But it was a perfect starting point to put our sustainable ambitions into practice