Boskalis CSR report 2017

Impact on Local Communities CSR 2017 – BOSKALIS 22

COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS

quality of the beach. And during the execution of a landfall project in Abu Dhabi, the Boskalis project team decided to clean up a number of local beaches. They were joined by enthusiastic employees from our client and subcontractor. Their efforts were rewarded with a Certificate of Appreciation from the client. THE OCEAN CLEANUP We continue to sponsor and support The Ocean Cleanup: an initiative of Boyan Slat, a young Dutch entrepreneur, who aims to develop an installation to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California. His models indicate that a full-scale system rollout could clean up to 50% of the patch in 5 years. Based on the results of the North Sea prototype test in 2016, the focus in 2017 was on a new and improved system design in close collaboration with experts from Boskalis. In August, a new North Sea prototype was deployed to verify elements of the updated design. Expectations are that the first working system will be floated in 2018.

Many community initiatives were carried out at project level and by our local offices in 2017. This included sponsor runs for cancer research and the Dutch Burns Center, as well as cultural and sporting events. BOSKALIS BEACH CLEANUP TOUR Protecting the Dutch coastline has been one of the core Boskalis activities since our inception. We see clean seas and beaches as a social responsibility. That is why we are the main sponsor of the Beach Cleanup Tour organized by the North Sea Foundation for the fifth year running. Early August, a record number of 2,748 volunteers collected 14,929 kilograms of waste in a fortnight along the full length of the Dutch North Sea coast. It is very encouraging to see that colleagues across the organization and far away from the Netherlands have spontaneously taken to organizing their own, local version of the Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour. Colleagues from VBMS working on a landfall on the French coast held a spontaneous beach cleanup. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, Boskalis Westminster colleagues organized a beach cleanup after Boskalis had executed a beach nourishment operation to strengthen the coastline and improve the