Environmental Impact

'Hannemanns Park' outside Ramboll's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark
Ramboll’s Sustainable Procurement Ambitions 2021
- Design & implement a strengthened Travel Policy to reduce travel overall
- Design & implement a Green Travel Policy to secure that necessary trips can be end-to-end as sustainable as possible (e.g. Green hotel chains, green ground transportation, etc.)
- Rollout a Green Car Policy globally (with relevant regional adjustments)
- Develop a more structured and transparent approach to sustainability in IT and digital solutions
- Full roll-out out of our ‘green pen kit’ – together with Pilot and Lyreco
- Complete design and rollout of our sustainable furniture catalogue globally (with relevant regional adjustments).
We manage both our business and operations’ impact, risks, opportunities, legal requirements, and relevant actions regarding the environment through certification according to the ISO 14001 environmental management system. Ramboll’s target is to have all Business Units certified by the end of 2022. In 2020, we obtained certifications for Ramboll in Finland, Denmark and India. As reflected in our environmental management policy, we respect and support internationally recognized environmental principles as stated in the Rio Declaration including applying a precautionary approach. Our ambition is to certify Germany, Singapore, Ramboll Energy and Ramboll Management Consulting in 2021.
Ramboll’s offices, business travel and other operational activities are our main sources of emissions to air, such as CO2.
By monitoring our emissions and working towards reducing them, we can limit our own contribution to climate change. We have therefore implemented a data management system to better capture our CO2 emission levels.
In 2020, Ramboll’s total CO2 emissions were measured at 14,444 tonnes, equal to 1.05 tonnes per employee (FTE), a substantial decrease from 2019 (2.07). Across the board, Ramboll’s sustainability data for 2020 show reduced activity when it comes to business travel, energy consumption, water and waste. The reduced activity is a consequence of COVID-19.
Sustainable project management
Responsible business behaviour and sustainability are integral elements to all projects that Ramboll delivers to its clients.
As part of implementing sustainability across our value chain and as part of our Project Excellence framework, we continuously develop the project procedures in relation to project risks, quality management and sustainability in design.
In 2020, an updated Project Model was introduced to further improve our project delivery. This also included a digital project integration tool, which ensures project managers will follow Ramboll’s requirements in relation to project delivery. Procedures have been updated including for sustainability and digital training has been offered to the organisation.
Our ambition for 2021 will be to focus on embedding the Project Model and PI tool through training and follow-up.
Sustainable procurement
We ask that all our suppliers commit to our Business Associate Code of Conduct. This ensures that Ramboll’s suppliers demonstrate responsible business conduct to mitigate adverse social or environmental impact. In 2020, 84 per cent of suppliers managed by Global Procurement signed the Code. We have made good progress in the past two years with monitoring and increasing compliance levels. In 2021, we target full compliance on agreements owned by Global Procurement and will introduce measures to drive compliance in all areas. Ramboll procures products and services for our offices and operations globally, and, as part of this, suppliers are screened for sustainability measures. Global Procurement helped move the Ramboll office in Oslo to a new location. Weighting on sustainable and eco-labelled furniture in the tender material was a very large part of the total selection parameters and on level with the price.
Ramboll continues to promote the use of eco-labelled office supplies. Today, the global share of eco-labelled products is approximately 28 per cent. The objective for the end of 2022 is that the total share of eco-labelled products reaches 75 per cent.
In Denmark, where our headquarters is located, Ramboll was among pioneers in 2020 with a policy to allow only EVs and Plug-in Hybrid cars in the company carfleet when new vehicles are purchased. In 2021, 35 pool cars will be replaced with full EVs. In line with the new policy, we expect to lower our CO2 emissions by 74 per cent by cars by year-end 2023 compared to 2019.