Boskalis Sustainability Report 2020

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CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2020 – BOSKALIS contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For over 100 years we have been providing services that are essential for society and I’m proud to say we continue to do so today. Through our activities, we protect land from the consequences of climate Shortly thereafter, the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent. Lockdown measures were announced across the globe, working from home became the norm, the aviation industry came to a grinding halt and as a consequence, keeping our projects and vessels around the world operational and staffed became an unprecedented challenge. The welfare of our employees was our number-one priority throughout and we immediately introduced measures to safeguard safety as well as to ensure the continuity of the projects of our clients. At the start of the pandemic, the Board of Management and our Emergency Response Team convened daily to set priorities. Together with the Corporate Travel Clinic in the Netherlands, we established our own testing and travel procedure by mid-April, allowing us to provide the much needed relief for the vessels and projects. Some colleagues spent months away from their loved ones, stranded on a vessel waiting for relief crews, others were at home longing to get to a project or vessel; and of course many have been working from home juggling work and personal priorities. I want to express my great admiration and respect for the dedication shown by everyone at Boskalis during this challenging year. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we continued with the execution of our new strategy, launched early 2020, and have made progress in the last twelve months. Through our sustainability strategy we support our business strategy and strengthen our of the future, in the fields of infrastructure, the energy transition and the protection of coastal regions from the impact of climate change. Sustainability would continue to be a main driver in delivering these solutions. The year 2020 has been exceptional in many ways. At the beginning of March we presented our new Corporate Business Plan for 2020-2022 and were confident that the upward trend we had signaled would continue. We were also positive about the longer term as we expect Boskalis to make a relevant contribution to solutions for the challenges

change, create resilience infrastructure for trade, help keep the oceans clean and contribute to the energy transition. The vast majority of our revenue is generated in one of these business areas and contributes to the achievement of the SDGs. PROTECTING AGAINST THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change sits firmly at the top of the global agenda and we read with disturbing frequency about floods, and other extreme weather conditions linked to climate change, in the media. Protecting against the impact of climate change is an area where our activities can make a substantial contribution to ‘reversing the tide’. In 2020 our work began on the new coastal defense structure in Southsea, UK, that will help reduce the risk of flooding for more than 10,000 homes and 700 businesses. Our delivery of coastal protection works in Romania will help counter steady erosion in the region whilst creating a favorable habitat for local ecosystems. And we continued our long history of dike protection in the Netherlands with reinforcements to the protective Houtrib and Markermeer dikes. However, we face significant hurdles before climate-adaptive solutions like these can be scaled up globally. This year we formed an internal climate adaptation workgroup to address this challenge as well as to identify and accelerate opportunities that could add commercial value for our business and create sustainable protective measures for the environment and communities living in coastal areas.