Sustainability plays a major role within Valstar Simonis.
It is not without reason that our mission is to make maximum use of our knowledge for a healthy and sustainable world. The energy transition is, of course, an important driving force behind our actions. We do our utmost to contribute with our advice to the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement. And preferably sooner than expected.
Since 2015, the theme of circularity has been added to our sustainable palette. Circularity revolves around preserving the value of used products and materials and thus eliminating the extraction of new raw materials. The latter exhausts the earth, often costs a lot of energy and causes considerable pollution of the environment. As initiator of the TVVL Expert Group Circular Installations, Valstar Simonis has been active for years to get the theme higher on the agenda within our industry. We see the question coming back more and more often and we encourage the theme to our clients.
Circular design
Within circularity we distinguish three important pillars: the design, the product and the business model. We can exert the most influence on the design ourselves. We are increasingly focusing on material impact in our design process and strive for maximum flexibility in a building. In this context, we provided our input to the CB'23 Circular Design action team. CB '23 is a platform that connects many organizations to achieve circular construction in concrete terms.
Materials passport
The other circular pillars are a circular product and a circular business model. Although we usually do not directly prescribe the supplier ourselves, this is the focus for the industry. The materials we use in installations are supplied by the manufacturers and suppliers. Good chain cooperation is therefore of the utmost importance. Little is known about the origin and possible future of installation products and materials. That is why we constantly insist on the application of a materials passport in our projects.
As a consultant, we see it as our task to continue to emphasize the importance and to actively question parties about this aspect. A passport is not an end in itself, but a means to gain insight and a starting point for taking action. Circular propositions are also slowly emerging in our industry, such as the 'As a Service' model or a buy-back guarantee. Not the holy circular grail, but it does place the responsibility and the possibility for reuse of products or materials in the right place: the producer of the product.
Active knowledge sharing
It is not only important for new construction projects to actively promote and implement circularity. There is enormous potential within the existing building. Valstar Simonis has therefore actively contributed to the Framework for circular existing buildings, published by the Dutch Green Building Council. Together with partners, we wrote a pragmatic framework in which the installations component has been given a clear place. Concrete guidelines have been formulated, such as, for example, the integration of a circular maintenance plan. We often share the knowledge that we build up within Valstar Simonis. For example, we provide expert lessons at the HIT-W training of Avans+, we give (online) lectures via TVVL, among others, and we participate in the Scientific Committee of the Clima2022 conference.
Integral assignment
The COVID crisis and the IPCC report of early August 2021 have once again made it clear that stimulating circularity is an integral task. The interests can sometimes conflict in this respect and vary per client and situation. We therefore have a major challenge ahead of us, which we cannot and do not want to tackle alone. We need the entire chain for that!
About the author:
Olaf Oosting joined the Valstar Simonis management team in the summer of 2020. Olaf is an authority in the field of sustainability and circularity. He does this not only as a senior advisor on the projects of Valstar Simonis, but also as a board member of TVVL throughout the installation industry.
