Sustainability is not a luxury. It is normal.

Meilink is a leader in the industry

At the end of December 2020, the Energy Audit Report (EED), which is required by the Dutch government, confirmed once again what we actually knew ourselves. Meilink is doing very well compared to its sector colleagues. Better said: Meilink is a leader in the sector in the field of sustainability. As far as Frederiek Rikken-Rengers, deputy director HRM & Legal, is concerned this is of course a nice compliment for the organization, but in fact the result of years of consistent investment in sustainability in both business operations and reduction of CO2 emissions: "We've never been too showy about it, but as a family business investing in sustainability is quite normal because from a long history you also look further ahead. You just want to ensure a bright future."

Annual CO2 footprint inventory

Frederiek Rikken-Rengers: "Since 2013 we have had measurements done every year in connection with CO2 certification for the ISO14064 standard. The inventory is done according to this standard, but also according to the Greenhouse Gas protocol and the CO2 performance ladder manual. In this way we now have 8 years of results. How nice it is then when you see the effects of your approach reflected in the scores. Compared to the starting year, there is no less than a 42% reduction in direct CO2 emissions according to the Kg CO2 versus FTE measure. This measure serves to reduce the size of business activities to a comparable unit. Indirect emissions, that is, emissions from suppliers as a result of our purchasing, have even decreased by 85%!"

A question of doing

"We switched to purchasing all-green Dutch power from windmills since 2018. This immediately resulted in a huge drop in CO2 reporting. The green power is also used for the charging stations on our sites, as 63% of our cars are fully electric and 20% are hybrids. For this purpose, we have also installed charging stations at employees' homes. The remainder of our petrol and diesel cars will be replaced by electric ones in the near future. We are also making all our buildings more sustainable through better insulation and we have a total of 1,316 solar panels on the roofs in Borculo, Boxmeer and Edam. These are good for 389,000 kWh per year, equivalent to the consumption of 114 households. In Raamsdonkveer, we invested in a modification of the control technology, which resulted in a 27% reduction in gas consumption. All in all quite a long list. Visitors so often say 'You are already doing so much' that, in my opinion, it is time to communicate this more clearly. Because we will continue on this path! Thus Frederiek Rikken-Rengers.