Envidan will not bring specialists together in a sustainability department

As one of Scandinavia’s leading consultants within the water cycle, we believe that the high ambitions for a sustainable water sector must be realized by letting sustainability permeate all the company’s activities and be an integral part of the project solution across disciplines.

 

At Envidan, the focus on sustainability is an integral part of the company’s overall business strategy and not a separate strategy that lives alongside the business strategy. Similarly, there is a desire to include sustainability in all projects and to upskill all employees in order to maintain the close link between water expertise and sustainability. Therefore, we work with a decentralized approach, where all departments have the right competences to incorporte sustainable approaches into projects that do not have an innate focus on sustainability.

Mads Uggerby, Director of Sustainability at Envidan, explains:

‘If Denmark is to succeed in making the water sector truly sustainable, it won’t help considering sustainability as an autonomous, disconnected discipline. When we advise on climate change adaptation, wastewater treatment or water distribution, the sustainability aspect must always be an integrated part of our consulting, and not something that we can detach and attach to the projects depending on finances, time, scope etc.”

“We need to integrate sustainability into our water expertise in all projects if we want to make a difference,” he elaborates.

Does not underestimate the need for skills

Although Envidan has chosen not to be organized with a central sustainability department, we recognize that sustainability is a highly specialized discipline and it is crucial to have cutting-edge expertise within the field. Development Manager at Envidan, Jeanette Agertved Madsen, is one of the industry’s absolute leading experts with more than 20 years of experience within sustainability and environmental management in the wastewater industry. She is now head of Envidan’s interdisciplinary ‘Center of Excellence’ on sustainability, which among other things will orchestrate the decentralized behavioral change and ongoing competence building.

Jeanette explains:

“We have some of Denmark’s best specialists when it comes to specifing sustainability in projects and actually quantifying the impact of, for example, CO2 or nitrous oxide emissions with LCA (life cycle assessment) and assessing and comparing sustainability in projects using multi-criteria analysis, which covers all three parts of sustainability (environmental, social and economic). And these specialists are our front runners as regards to the necessary behavioral change and continuous competence building we achieve through internal training and knowledge sharing across the whole company.”

No opting out of projects

Can you take responsibility for the development of a sustainable water sector if you are still carrying out projects that aren’t born with a sustainable DNA? Our opinion is yes.
The water sector is not at the end of the sustainable transition. Often, it is only the big projects in large municipalities and utilities that have a big focus on sustainability. And what is the reason for this? It’s very simple: The vast majority of engineers in the water sector are not trained in sustainability and do not know how to practically approach it. In Envidan, we won’t turn down projects that haven’t taken sustainability into account from the outset. We would rather get involved and, based on skills, facts and solution-oriented consulting, transform the project from less sustainable to more sustainable by engaging in dialogue with the clients to move the projects in a sustainable direction.

“We will not achieve a sustainable or climate-neutral water sector by 2030 without involving all employees and all projects in the sector,” Mads Uggerby concludes.

Contact me
for more information

Mads Uggerby

Managing Director, Innovation & Sustainability

+45 42 12 54 72

mau@envidan.dk