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There are many more resources in the world being used than created. Pollution of the environment and the atmosphere is continuously growing. It is obvious that an entirely new way of handling energy, resources and environment is necessary.

We at Bartels believe in solutions, not problems. Practical, affordable solutions that can actually be found and implemented. We are convinced that technology and science will discover the really big solutions in the area of sustainability.

Corporate Social Responsibility at Bartels
As engineers we can play an important role concerning social responsibility. Bartels has therefore explicitly chosen to give our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a prominent place in our general policy and way of doing business. Instead of dividing our CSR policy into the commonly used ‘people, planet, profit method’, we divided our policy in three important categories: 

  • Sustainability at our work
  • Sustainability in our work
  • Advisor in sustainability
Sustainability at our work
A better world starts with yourself… At Bartels we strongly believe in technical solutions for the sustainability issues. But it is also of course a question of human behavior. As an employer, we want to set an example towards our employees and our surroundings. Bartels registers her CO2 footprint every year, starting in 2009. We strive for an average reduction of 10 % per year.
 
Sustainability in our work
The aspect of sustainability can be shaped on a large-scale with the advice and design of constructions. One can think about work conditions, use of materials (quantity and nature), life time, usefulness of the structure and reuse of material (cradle2cradle).
Of course, we are dependent upon the wishes and opinion of our clients. But we will not fail to alert our clients on this subject and when necessary advise them.

Advisor in sustainability
We want to establish ourselves as independent consultant, to review sustainability in construction projects and advise on possible improvements.

Numerous attempts have been done by (independent) bodies to provide a method for measuring the sustainability of buildings. In total there are now over 50 instruments in circulation. Our view on sustainability matches with the following methods, in which we can advise:

  • BREEAM (NL + International)
  • Greencalc+
  • Energy performance standard
  • Energy label
In our opinion all aspects of sustainability should be considered and weighed integrally as design variables. We have registered assessors in the above mentioned methods. However, we do think that the scores on these sustainability indexes should not be a goal in itself. It is about the overall consideration of all design variables, including costs on short and long term.
 

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