News

Sustainability at ZJA

From the design of buildings and structures that require less material and energy to the development of a “sustainability toolkit” and the switch to driving electric vehicles, over the past year ZJA Architects & Engineers has once again taken great steps forward in the field of sustainability. With the year approaching its end, this is the perfect moment to look back on all our sustainable efforts.

Future value

In its architectonic designs, ZJA always strives for an optimal combination of functional value, experiential value and future value. To integrate this future value even better into our projects, we have developed a special ZJA sustainability tool that supports us in our efforts. We also continually monitor and measurably improve our own company’s emissions. Not for nothing have we been certified on level 3 of the CO2 Performance Ladder since last year.

ZJA sustainability toolkit

The ZJA sustainability toolkit is both a reference work and a manual, in which various aspects of sustainable design are dealt with in a coherent and well-organized manner. It has been developed to help the staff of ZJA to understand which principles of sustainability they can apply, so that ZJA designs are both sustainable and high impact. The toolkit makes it easier to integrate sustainable design solutions into the design process at an early stage.

 

The toolkit offers practical guidance focused on four main themes: Energy, Materials and Circularity, Health and Welfare, and Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate adaptation. It gives designers insight into the impact of specific interventions as regards sustainability, and they can use that knowledge to contribute to a future-proof built environment.

Presentation during themed lunch

Rinze Wassenaar (designer and sustainability expert at ZJA) says, “Last summer we organized a themed lunch with our sustainability team at which we presented the toolkit, and especially how to use it, in an interactive way to all our staff, so that it can be deployed in our projects.”

CO2 performance ladder

ZJA continues to work on making its operations more sustainable, including by reducing its own operational CO2 emissions. Since 2023 the company has been certified on the CO2 performance ladder of the SKAO. This certification scheme provides a structured approach to supporting companies in reducing their CO2 emissions. ZJA registers its CO2 emissions annually, including scope 1 (direct emissions), scope 2 (indirect emissions via the energy it buys in) and scope 3 (indirect emissions as a result of business trips).

 

Based on the first calculations in 2022, we formulated reduction measures and reduction goals to reduce ZJA’s CO2 emissions. Every year we publish a new evaluation of our emissions, with accompanying reduction measures. Our operational CO2 emissions for 2023 can be found in the below diagram.

Like to know more about ZJA and sustainability? Our vision and more sustainability objectives can be found on our special sustainability page.

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