We owe it to our planet and to future generations to think more carefully about the reuse of materials, CO2 reduction and circular construction. After all, construction and infrastructure are responsible for no less than 30 percent of all waste and 45 percent of the use of raw materials worldwide.
The Gilde Group is working hard to significantly reduce its footprint.
The Gilde Group prefers to house employees as close as possible to projects in order to keep the travel distance to a minimum. This housing is also CO2 neutral. These are fully circular homes that can easily be disassembled in order to be rebuilt in another location. The housing is completely energy neutral due to the use of heat pumps and low temperature heating, solar panels, an air heating installation and an extremely low EPC.
The professionals of De Gilde Groep travel with electric transport to and from projects. The Gilde Group also compensates the CO2 emissions of the trips that employees make from their home country to the Netherlands and vice versa.
Once at work, our professionals carry out their work with electric tools that are charged on location by means of solar panels.
The Gilde Group fully supports “The Green Course for Construction and Infrastructure”. An initiative of Bouwend Nederland, BMWT, Cumela and MKB Infra to meet the target in the Climate Agreement by 2030 at the latest: a CO2 reduction of 0.4 Mton compared to 1990 for mobile machinery and (construction) equipment. With the initiative “De Groene Koers”, the chain partners in the construction and infrastructure sectors are jointly committed to zero-emission equipment on the construction site.
Sustainable entrepreneurship also means dealing responsibly with people. That is why De Gilde Groep employs a fixed percentage of people with a distance to the labor market for each project, even when clients do not prescribe this themselves. This could be people who, for whatever reason, have been unemployed for a long time, are on welfare or have difficulties finding a job due to problems. We constantly consult with municipalities and clients. In this way, De Gilde Groep invests in people, so that they can learn a trade and earn their own income.
The Gered Gereedschap (Saved Tools) Foundation has been supporting professionals in developing countries with tools, knowledge and skills for 35 years. The help is practical and concrete. The foundation provides well-used tools and the right machines. They provide qualified teachers and provide guidance to professionals. In addition to recycling the tools, labor participation is also an important element in the Netherlands. We support Gered Gereedschap with collection points for used tools.
Corporate social responsibility is a matter of course for De Gilde Groep. In order to guarantee this, we work according to the NEN-ISO 26000 practice guideline.
The Gilde Groep is affiliated with the trade association NBBU, Bouwend Nederland, the Quality Mark Stichting Normering Flexwonen, the Sustainable Supplier platform and the Governance Code Safety Construction. Our people are VCU and VCA certified. We also invest in education, training and professional skills and our people work with good tools and personal security equipment as standard.
