Resource use and circular economy

Resource use is a major cause of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. The construction sector is responsible for 26% of the total resource use in the Netherlands, meaning Heijmans also has a significant negative impact on the environment. According to the latest figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), this amounted to almost 100 billion kilograms of resources. As an example, concrete accounts for around 7% of global CO₂e emissions and 9% of global industrial water use each year. In addition, the unsustainable use of wood leads to a loss of biodiversity on a large scale.

Heijmans endorses the Dutch Raw Materials Agreement and the national goal to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050. With that belief in mind, we take specific actions to reduce the negative impact of our use of resources.

Impacts, risks and opportunities

Where the 2024 Sustainability Statement identified a material positive impact relating to resource outflows, the reassessment of our   has shown that our impact is in fact negative in relation to resource inflows. This has led to a change in material impacts, risks and opportunities, and therefore to different policies, goals and benchmarks. As a result of these new insights, this section has a different perspective to the previous year.

Role in the circular ecosystem

As a major player in the Dutch construction sector, Heijmans is acutely aware of the negative impact our resource inflows have on the environment. That is why we are taking an active approach in this area and, as part of resource inflows, we are also focusing on better use of resource outflows within and outside our operations. We are encouraging the development of the secondary materials market, as a developed secondary materials market provides a destination for material outflows and ensures there is greater availability of secondary materials both inside and outside our operations.

Resource use and a circular economy focuses on how materials are used as well as the lifecycle of materials or products and waste. What we mean by type of use is explained in the figure below. We distinguish between primary and secondary resource use, and between biobased and non-biobased materials.

Policy

The 'Master of Material Flows' policy was further refined in 2025. The policy focuses on the entire lifecycle of materials in our operations, from design and procurement to construction, management and end-of-life processing. As a result, the policy affects Heijmans' entire value chain.

With this policy, we comply with the Dutch Environmental Management Act and the Soil Quality Decree. The policy has also been drawn up in line with the frameworks and guidelines set out in the Raw Materials Agreement and the national ambition to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050.

We are focusing on making non-biobased material flows more sustainable and using biobased material flows. In addition, waste streams are managed responsibly by paying attention to separation and recycling in order to minimise the number of waste streams that are sent to landfill or incinerated. However, the negative impact of the residual flows from our operations is small compared to the negative impact arising from our material inflows. Heijmans’ ambition therefore focuses primarily on reducing the negative impact of material inflows by reducing primary non-biobased material inputs, promoting high-quality recycling and encouraging the reuse of released materials.

This policy is made available to internal stakeholders who are responsible for translating actions and guidelines into their business areas. Such internal stakeholders include sustainability managers, sustainability advisors and management of the holding and business areas.

Resource flows

Our policy covers all resource flows within our own operations, all Heijmans business areas and the entire value chain. In this sustainability statement, the reporting and associated actions and indicators focus on limiting the negative impact of resource inflows.

From this perspective, a study looked at the most demanding and most used resource flows within Heijmans' operations. This selection was made based on the following criteria: expenditure on the material inflow, the environmental impact associated with the material inflow, the mass representing the resource inflow, and the strategic importance of the resource inflow. The results of the study have pointed us towards four significant resource flows: asphalt, concrete, steel and wood.

Reducing primary resource use

By investing in renovation projects and management and maintenance projects, we contribute to extending the lifespan of existing infrastructure and buildings. This commitment leads to increased efficiency and utilisation of the built environment over its lifetime. This also contributes to reducing the use of resources in our operations, while we reduce the use of resources to meet the housing, infrastructure and non-residential demand in the Netherlands. This policy encourages a more sustainable earnings model, where longer and better use can be made of existing buildings and infrastructure.

We are also focusing on innovative solutions to reduce the use of resources, such as hollow concrete piles to reduce the use of concrete. We do this by making solid concrete piles hollow, meaning less concrete is needed for the same output. Another example is Recoflex, an innovative solution for managing and maintaining roads and cycle paths. Recoflex allows existing roads to be used as foundations, which means less asphalt needs to be used. This is made possible because only one layer of Recoflex is applied, as opposed to the traditional approach where the entire road surface needs to be replaced.

Use of secondary resources

Another component of the policy focuses on replacing primary resources with secondary resources. Construction is characterised as a resource-intensive industry. It will therefore be necessary to continue building given the current demand for housing and infrastructure. It is important, however, not only to make better use of existing buildings, but also to reduce the negative impact of our use of materials. By using more secondary resources, processes with a high environmental impact such as the extraction or transformation of raw materials can be avoided. Furthermore, this would also reduce the pressure on the future scarcity of raw materials.

A specific example of Heijmans' commitment to the use of secondary resources is our cooperation with a concrete supplier. On the one hand, we finance secondary concrete purchases from this partner in order to provide financial scope for innovation, which increases access to the secondary use of materials. On the other hand, we offer the same supplier access to our concrete outflows. By actively targeting these outflows, we increase the availability of secondary materials in the value chain and encourage circular material flows and earnings models. Other examples are described in the section ‘Circular applications’ in the Management Report.

Use of biobased materials

The use of sustainable biobased materials, such as wood or hemp fibre, is a focal point for Heijmans. These materials can be recovered time and time again and can replace primary, non-biobased material flows when applied. Heijmans is therefore committed to increasing the use of biobased materials. One way to achieve this is by developing more timber-frame homes with a high proportion of timber use.

A major advantage of developing timber-framed houses and using wood is that wood can replace environmentally harmful materials such as concrete. Wood also contributes to the long-term storage of CO₂, allowing Heijmans to not only reduce the impact of the use of materials, but also achieve a positive impact on climate change. A detailed explanation of this initiative can be found in the section 'greenhouse gas removals’ in the ‘Climate’ chapter.

The use of wood also comes with the downside that it leads to deforestation, a large-scale loss of biodiversity, and CO₂ emissions from changes to land use. As a result, Heijmans has adopted a policy of purchasing only FSC- or PEFC-certified wood.

Cross-overs with other topics

The use of resources and the circular economy affect all of Heijmans' sustainability pillars to some extent. The relationship between circular solutions and the impact on climate, water and biodiversity is unclear. These environmental impacts are determined in lifecycle analyses (LCAs). As part of Heijmans' strategic approach, the impact of the use of resources is assessed separately for each topic (Climate, Water and Biodiversity), with Climate proving the key topic. No separate actions are defined in this policy plan for Climate, Water or Biodiversity in terms of the environmental performance of resource. This section focuses on the use of materials and the sustainable procurement of resources. The initiatives around Climate, Water and Biodiversity are explained in more detail in the chapters on these specific topics.

Targets

We have not included a central target for the use of materials and the circular economy in 2025, even though this topic represents a high-level goal in our projects. This year, we are reporting on the resource inflows for the first time. The insights gained from this initial reporting, together with the direction set out in the Raw Materials Agreement, form the starting point for establishing a formal target in 2027.

Actions

Heijmans has defined actions for each material flow in order to reduce the negative impact of our use of resources. Each material is unique and can contribute in different ways to reducing the environmental impact of overall material use.

Currently, there is insufficient insight into the resources used to implement the strategy and how progress is monitored.

Metrics

The table shows the total use of Heijmans' significant material inflows. It also shows the amount of secondary or sustainable materials purchased for each material inflow.

Reporting requirements