Boskalis Sustainability Report 2020

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STRONGER TOGETHER

Partnerships and collaboration are crucial to achieving our sustainability ambitions. By pooling knowledge and expertise, from both within our industry and outside the sector, we continue to create solutions that add value for the client as well as address environmental and societal challenges. By participating in research or collaboration projects with other players in the maritime sector, we increase the likelihood of new sustainable technologies, concepts or approaches being approved by legislators or brought to scale, enabling us to offer these solutions to our clients. Entering into dialog with both our external and internal stakeholders enables us to acquire a clear understanding of their expectations and interests and allows us to establish and better understand material topics. While we have a wide range of stakeholders, we see our key stakeholder groups as being: employees; clients and their respective project communities; suppliers and subcontractors; NGOs and civil society organizations; investors and shareholders. For each group, our engagement varies on a case-by-case basis and includes formal and informal channels that are used to varying degrees of regularity. On page 93 we have listed the stakeholder groups and summarized the channels we use to engage in dialog with them, alongside key topics discussed in 2020. Boskalis plays a significant role in a number of industry networks and their associated sustainability committees; the key triggers for our participation are to share knowledge in the sector and to use this knowledge to inform policy and future legislation. By joining with other companies in our sector we are better able to build alignment on new topics and approaches.

within the EU Green Deal. For more details regarding this partnership and others, please refer to our website.

SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION Boskalis aims to be a market leader in the provision of sustainable solutions for our clients. We focus on delivering innovative solutions that enable us, together with our clients, to improve environmental and social outcomes of our projects. This year we renewed our innovation strategy and established a more structured approach to sustainable innovation – innovation that helps us reach our sustainability ambitions. We established a stronger connection to the business units and defined innovation themes directly linked to our corporate strategy. We recognize that innovation is just as much about the way we do things as about new technology. This new technology will be necessary to achieve our sustainable ambitions, but just as important are new ways of thinking and changed behavior. With the stronger connection to the business units enabled by the renewed strategy of our Research & Development department we are more likely to effect a fundamental change in our approach to sustainable business operations and the innovations that are needed to support that. PORTXL For the last five years, Boskalis has partnered with PortXL, a Dutch organization scouting and selecting innovative new companies that can serve the needs of the global maritime industry, bringing external innovation inside the company. For more details regarding PortXL and other sustainable innovations, please refer to our website.

Strategy and ambition SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2020 – BOSKALIS The BOKA Vanguard transporting a floating fish farm from China to Norway

EU PLATFORM ON SUSTAINABLE FINANCE Boskalis takes an active role in the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance that was established this year as one of the initiatives