Boskalis Sustainability Report 2020

65 rarely stay in a single location for long and each project and each project site is unique. Understanding these elements of our business was very important defining the most important pressures to address and the level of ambition and feasibility of the corporate goals and objectives. Despite this complexity, together with our business and the experts at IUCN, we were able to apply the guidelines and identify the pressures and key biodiversity priorities at the species, habitat and ecosystem service level. We determined a common set of related operations, processes and services that can be influenced by Boskalis to help minimize our adverse impact and enhance our positive impact on biodiversity. Due to COVID-19 the work was conducted primarily through a review of data, documents and reports, and online interviews with a variety of staff with roles directly and indirectly linked to biodiversity. BOSKALIS BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Based on our existing approaches, the recommendations made by IUCN and our findings in the business, we have drafted a biodiversity framework that identifies biodiversity priorities and clarifies our ambition and objectives for biodiversity. These cover the protection of marine and coastal habitats, spill mitigation, the introduction of alien invasive species, habitat restoration, turbidity and animal strikes. Using the framework as a base, we aim to improve measurement of our biodiversity impacts and the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. Looking forward, Boskalis will evaluate and further improve the framework by, for example, testing potential data indicators in project sites around the world. Many of the potential indicators are already partially or wholly being reported at the project and/or fleet level (e.g. spills, animal strikes, turbidity and ballast water practices). Others require a deeper level of thought (e.g. habitat protection and enhancement, and nature-based solutions).

The scope of our agreement also covers the potential for developing value propositions for our projects, the promotion and mainstreaming of best practices to enhance the sustainability of maritime and dredging projects and the improvement of both parties’ performance actively sharing knowledge and experience on this subject.

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

In 2020 we took a large step in the focused management of key environmental risks and opportunities, as well as transparency on our progress, by exploring the relatively new field of corporate biodiversity management and reporting. Through collaboration with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) we are developing best practices in biodiversity performance planning and monitoring. The first phase of the collaboration focuses on our Dredging and Inland Infra activities which can have an important impact on biodiversity. The aim of this effort is to define a handful of reliable core indicators for biodiversity that are appropriate across projects and that we can communicate at the project (client) and corporate level. These indicators will enable Boskalis to better communicate biodiversity performance to our stakeholders, in line with expectations we see in tenders and Non-Financial Reporting Guidelines. IUCN and Boskalis teams worked through the first three stages of IUCN Biodiversity Guidelines for Business. One of the first steps was to consider Boskalis’ scope of influence, to discuss where we may have control, and where we have less influence. As a contractor Boskalis rarely has influence over certain choices affecting biodiversity, such as the location or masterplan design of a project. These elements are usually pre-determined by governments and clients prior to Boskalis being invited to tender. In addition, we

BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK

Ambition: To lead the industry in the development of nature-based solutions to protect and enhance coastal ecosystems, and to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals through our environmental management approach. We aim to translate our biodiversity ambition into our operations across five key areas and associated objectives:

Providing effective, nature-based solutions and developing new technologies and ways of working

Nature-based solutions

Priority habitats and species

‚ Seeking opportunities to contribute to the protection or enhancement of priority biodiversity ‚ Applying appropriate precautionary management and mitigation measures where we are active close to priority biodiversity ‚ Accounting for sensitive breeding or migration patterns in our approach ‚ Avoiding impact to marine mammals, marine turtles or coral

Achieving zero oil spills across our activities

Pollution

Avoiding the introduction of alien invasive species

Invasive species

Protecting sensitive priority biodiversity by managing turbidity

Turbidity

‘Priority biodiversity’ for Boskalis is defined as the species and habitats that fall within our main scope of biodiversity influence, and on which we want to minimize impact or to proactively conserve or restore.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2020 – BOSKALIS