Sustainable entrepreneurship
Sustainable entrepreneurship is not a passing trend for Cordeel but a way of operating. Our mission is as follows: "Transforming the future as the fastest builder by focusing on innovation to create smart, energy-efficient, and low-carbon solutions."
We firmly believe in making a positive contribution to a more sustainable future for each and every one of us. How? By implementing numerous small and large innovations aimed at reducing the impact of our activities on the environment. This includes not only offering sustainable and circular construction solutions and energy applications to our clients but also starting with ourselves by making our own company site in Temse more sustainable and electrifying our construction sites.
In 2012, Cordeel headquarters in Temse took the first steps by obtaining the ISO 14001 management system. A decade later, we actively commit ourselves to reduce CO2 emissions in our activities. The CO2 Performance Ladder provides us with the perfect benchmark to achieve this in practice. We endorse the UN Sustainable Development Goals to translate sustainability into action
Our ambition: an emission-free construction site
To reduce our CO2 emissions during the construction phase, we utilize electric equipment. For example, our company C-rental provides electric aerial work platforms and wheel loaders. By using our construction site batteries, we can replace conventional power generators, significantly reducing CO2 emissions.
Smart buildings
In 2019, we constructed our impressive headquarters, which serves as a prime example of an energy-efficient and future-proof Smart Building. The construction is based on three pillars. First, we aimed to make the building and user behavior transparent to find the optimal balance between energy production, consumption, and storage. Additionally, we strive to offer solutions for tomorrow's mobility.
To achieve this, the entire building was equipped with numerous sensors that measure various aspects such as energy and water consumption, office occupancy, and more. The basic heating and cooling installation consists of heat pumps connected to a BEO field (Borehole Energy Storage). The innovation lies in how these installations are harmonized with a multitude of other techniques. Central to this is 'ImSight,' a Building Operating System (BOS) developed internally at Cordeel. This system allows us to gather data from all underlying installations to optimize their control. One of the main functionalities of this system is bridging the gap between technical installations and the energy management system, which is a crucial link in the efficient production, storage, and consumption of energy. This energy management applies not only to a single building but to the entire site.
Energy communities
The solutions aimed at reducing our environmental impact extend beyond our headquarters and can be found throughout our production site in Temse. This site serves as a live testing location for various research and development projects, such as the development of an advanced community energy system. It demonstrates what Cordeel Group and its subsidiary, C-energy, will soon offer to their clients through Energy as a Service—an on-site reliable energy system powered by a community of renewable energy sources. A community energy system connects the energy generation and consumption of a location, forming a smart local community of solar panels, batteries, smart meters, and more. By designing an energy system at the community level, operators can manage the greater uncertainty of on-site renewable energy sources without supply interruptions or cable damage.
Sustainable energy production and storage
On our site, in addition to the more obvious elements such as solar panels on the roofs of our various production departments, you will find numerous innovative solutions that enable us to generate and store green energy. A great example of this is our unique and patented energy hill, which is currently under construction and will be operational by 2024. It consists of a hill with a pond at the top connected to a large water reservoir at the bottom of the hill. When there is an energy surplus, we pump water from the bottom to the top. During times of energy shortage, we can allow the same water to flow back down and generate energy according to the principle of a hydroelectric power plant.
Sustainable mobility
Another important aspect we are fully committed to is sustainable mobility. Smart Charging is becoming the norm, and thanks to the expertise of Powerstation, the company within Cordeel Group specialized in sustainable mobility management, all electric vehicles on our site are provided with power according to this principle. But we go even further; Powerstation is developing charging stations made from recycled and recyclable materials such as hemp, an extremely environmentally friendly biocomposite supplied by sister company C-biotech. Since 2022, Cordeel Group has also implemented a car policy that includes a 100% electric fleet. In addition to electric vehicles, we are also exploring the applications of hydrogen. We already have several hydrogen-powered vehicles and our own hydrogen station on our site. Furthermore, this year we will install an electrolyzer that will produce hydrogen from excess generated energy.
The goal is for 70% of the energy consumption in Temse to come from on-site renewable energy sources, which will also protect the site from price shocks in the external energy market.