Becoming SDG Pioneer – after 3 years of Voka Charter Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Today, no less than 88 organisations will receive the SDG Pioneer certificate on Voka’s Sustainable Entrepreneurship Day, at the Global Sustainable Technology and Innovation Community (online) Conference of G-STIC. Together with SBE and Ingenium, we’re the first engineering firm to receive this title. It’s an important milestone for us: “The Charter for Sustainable Entrepreneurship has provided us with the tools to look at our entire business and operations from a sustainable perspective. As a result, we’ve managed to anchor sustainability within Antea Group for the past 3 years,” explains General Manager, Jan Parys. “Although titles or certificates are definitely not the end goal, they do provide a framework for achieving results. So we won’t stop until we get to the SDG Ambassador position!”

“In the beginning, we mainly focused on our 'internal sustainability',” says Geert T'Kindt, responsible for the charter at Antea Group. “When purchasing new office equipment, we pay special attention to 'cradle to cradle' options and/or 'refurbishing' of existing material. For example, we’ve switched to using recycled printing paper, notepads, as well as biodegradable pens. And, in the meanwhile, refillable soap bottles, fair trade coffee, and filtered tap water have become a no-brainer.”

We try to put our best foot forward outside the organisation. On the one hand, socially, through collection campaigns for people in poverty: Last year, we collected 12 m³ of clothing and textiles, as well as 1.4 tons of food approximately. Moreover, every year, we sponsor colleagues who participate in charitable actions during the Warmste Week.

On the other hand, we forge partnerships with the objective to contribute through knowledge sharing. For our sector organisation ORI, for example, we’ve provided substantive support for the vision on the positive contributions that consultancy and engineering firms can (and should) make to combat climate change.

The next step within the VCDO framework is to obtain the title of SDG Champion. To this end, we’re committed to fully integrating the SDGs into the value chain and core activities of our business operations. Through partnerships, such as with sector organisation ORI, we want to take concrete steps to share our pioneering experience with other firms in order to help them implementing sustainable entrepreneurship as well.

We’ll go even further in 2021. Next to corporate social responsibility, we’ll start climate-proofing our business based on the CO₂ performance ladder. The CO₂ performance ladder is a certifiable management system from the Netherlands that focuses on the construction sector. Our colleagues from Antea Group Netherlands have been using it for years as an instrument to structurally reduce CO₂ emissions, both within business operations, in projects and in the supply chain. Moreover, the Flemish and Walloon governments are testing the framework for large public contracts: “In concrete terms, companies that reduce their CO₂ emissions will have a greater chance of participating in these public contracts.” (source: Vlaamse Overheid). Regardless of what’ll be decided by the government, we’ll have already taken up our responsibility.