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Corporate Social Responsibility

As a family business, we look at the long term. We are not tempted by quick wins, but are committed to continuity. In doing so, we bear our responsibility for society and the generations that follow us. We do business in a socially responsible way and we do this by taking into account issues such as sustainability and safety in the broadest sense of the word in our projects and processes.

We create space
Space for water, space for land and space to live in. As a family business, we focus on continuity for the long term; sustainability is a natural fit.

Our focal points in this regard are:

  • Sustainable employability of our people
  • Preventing waste by reusing materials and striving for circularity
  • Conducting our operations with the least possible disruption and emissions

Health and Safety
In the context of sustainable deployment of our people, health and safety in and around the workplace plays a hugely important role. As a company, we make every effort to ensure that our employees can perform their duties in a healthy and safe environment. We believe it is important that our people feel physically and mentally safe during their work. We also want them all to return safely to their families and friends at the end of the working day.

Safety Culture Ladder
Using the Safety Culture Ladder, formerly known as the Safety Ladder, we work continuously to improve safety on and around the workplace. We try to prevent unsafe situations and (near) accidents. We do this by raising safety awareness and improving safety attitudes and behavior. Initiatives we have taken in addition to regular things like toolbox meetings and audits include:

  • Multi-year ongoing safety campaign: ‘STAY SAFE – We work safely together.’
  • 2x a year the presentation of the Herik Safety Heroes
  • 2x a year a Safety FIKA
  • Participation in the national Consciously Safe day

Sustainable innovations
In addition, we find it important to remain innovative, also in the field of sustainability. We try out many new ideas and techniques, on a small scale ‘in-house’ and when successful as a pilot or project. A very good example of this is our collaboration with The Great Bubble Barrier®. As a Technical Partner of this start-up, we are working together to clean up our rivers.

Read more about The Great Bubble Barrier©

Working Circularly
Van den Herik is a family business. We have been around for more than 75 years and the third generation is at the helm. Continuity of the company is more important to us than quick profits. Besides making well-considered investments, ‘being frugal’ is also part of our corporate culture. As little waste as possible, reusing raw materials and refurbishing equipment in order to extend its lifespan or give it a second life is normal practice for us.

Read how this looks in practice here!

 

The T.S.H.D. Charlock is a hopper dredger with “clean ship” certification.

Making equipment fleet and office more sustainable
One of our biggest challenges is the emissions from our ships. Adapting and renewing our equipment is therefore an ongoing process to which we devote much attention and money.

In making our assets more sustainable, we are taking a big step forward. Already much of our fleet is equipped with stage V engines as a minimum. Two ships and a floating crane have already been made electric in the base, these can be powered modularly by stage V or hydrogen generators, or can be (partially) battery or plugged in.

We recently added two all-electric crawler excavators to our equipment fleet, which will enter service during 2024.

In addition, our in-house technical department is particularly inventive and innovative. They are constantly modifying our equipment so that we can continue to carry out our projects in the best possible way and one step more sustainable every time.

Triple A status
Our beautiful office building, located on the Beneden Merwede in Sliedrecht, is over 80 years old. However, that does not mean that it is not up to date. We invest in sustainability there as well, so we are proud of our A+++ status in terms of sustainability and electricity consumption.

We are working hard to reduce CO2!

In line with our sustainability efforts, we achieved the CO₂-Aware certificate level 5 of the CO₂-Performanceladder in 2016 and have been operating at this highest level all along. Our latest innovation in this area is the Prins ZEs – our Zero Emission dredger!

92-Arrow Right Want to know more about the Prince ZEs? Click here! > CREATE PAGE ABOUT PRINCE 6