Every individual, every organisation has an impact on their environment and on other people, simply by existing. Companies effect their environment through their policies and strategies, and through the way they conduct their day-to-day business. Examples of positive effects are employment and (economic and social) progress, while on the negative side there are issues like carbon footprints and social and economic inequality.

ECORYS Netherlands takes its corporate social responsibility very seriously. That is why ECORYS Netherlands has adopted a CSR policy which binds our organisation and its staff members to a set of core CSR principles. The central thought in our CSR policy is that:

ECORYS Netherlands aims to achieve its business objectives in a sustainable and corporately responsible manner through recognising the economic, social and environmental implications of our activities.

The primary domains our CSR policy and actions cover, are:

• Environment
• Employee benefits
• Socially responsible procurement

Environment
ECORYS Netherlands strives to organise its operations in a sustainable manner. We continually monitor, assess and manage the environmental impacts of our operations. We choose and promote effective environmental management systems and practices wherever possible. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our environmental performance. It is our goal to reduce our company greenhouse gas emissions and our use of office supplies by 5% per year. Measures we take in this respect cover a wide array of  issues and activities, a.o..:

• Recycling waste paper;
• Standard double sided printing for all internal documents;
• Improving the energy efficiency of our offices;
• A low emission lease car policy (limiting to cars in emission A/E category and excluding F and G categories cars from 2008);
• Providing incentives for usage of public transport;
• Offsetting the remainder of our environmental footprint by buying VER’s.

Employee benefits
The welfare and wellbeing of our staff is of major importance to our functioning as a company. ECORYS Netherlands strives to be the best employer it can be and to provide its staff with equal opportunities. We have an active and comprehensive Employee Benefit Programme in place, including policies on removing barriers for diversity, employment of disabled staff, health care benefit schemes and part time working. Some elements of our Employee Benefit Programme are:

• ECORYS aims to be majority owned by the majority of our staff. An active shareholding programme stimulates staff to participate in our company by buying shares;
• A yearly Trainee Programme is organised and accessible for a limited number of excellent young candidates. Trainees get to experience different parts of the ECORYS organisation in an international rotation;
• Training and development facilities are offered to all staff and PhD scholarship is supported;
• Employee Assistance is offered and organised on national and local levels and is available to all staff;
• A comprehensive set of secondary benefits is in place, which is organised according to national laws and regulations.
• Various forms of informal activities are organised frequently at local/office level.

Socially responsible procurement
ECORYS Netherlands recognizes the importance of socially responsible procurement (the purchase of goods, works and services in an environmentally and socially responsible way that delivers value for money and benefits to all relevant stakeholders and to ECORYS Netherlands) and strives to continuously improve its performance in this respect. Our ambitions include:

• Further replacement of FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) by fair trade / sustainable alternatives;
• Responsible procurement of office supplies;
• Buying more local products.

Beside these three primary domains (environment, employee benefits, socially responsible procurement), ECORYS Netherlands is currently studying ways to also integrate interaction with the local community and development aid into our CSR policy.

For more information on ECORYS Netherlands’ CSR policy and activities, please contact:

Marten van den Bossche
T +31 10 453 88 00
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