Sustainability

Foruminvest is fully aware of the consequences of climate change and accepts its responsibility on this front as a project developer and investor. Right from the start of a project, we take into account our own sustainability ambitions and those of the local authority. Foruminvest recognises five pillars of sustainability:

FORUMINVEST DISTINGUISHES FIVE PILLARS:

Energy: Foruminvest strives to realise buildings that are extremely energy efficient, or energy neutral if possible.

Sustainable construction: Foruminvest uses sustainable materials, keeping the material cycle as small and closed as possible.

Flexibility: Foruminvest builds future-proof buildings by taking into account potential future changes in use in the construction phase.

Green systems: Foruminvest takes a critical approach to the paving of local environments in connection with heat stress and reduced drainage. This why we add as much green as possible to the areas we develop.

Vital cities: To reduce CO₂ emissions, we believe it is important to stimulate the use of bikes and (shared) electric cars.

Circulair construction

When you work according to circular construction principles, you develop, use and reuse buildings without the unnecessary use of natural resources, and without polluting the local living environment or damaging local ecosystems (the Dutch government’s Transition Agenda Circular Economy, 2018).

We assess which materials can and cannot be used in the early stages of a project, based on their recycling potential and the environmental impact of their production.

The Raw Materials Agreement is part of the Dutch government’s ambition to have a 100% circular construction industry in 2050. That’s a wonderful ambition. But to achieve it, every single player in the construction industry will have to learn how to work according to circular construction principles. Collaboration and challenging each other will take us closer to this goal.

We believe it is vital that we work together to set measurable goals for new projects. We use the Building Circularity Index (BCI) to set these goals. The BCI is a tool used to assess the environmental impact and the separability of each material used in a project. This helps us and our designers to make the right choices to achieve our project goals.

We document and store all the materials used in a project in the Madaster digital library of materials. This makes every building a source of reusable materials for new buildings in the future.

Shared mobility

Our use of mobility is changing rapidly and radically. In a very short space of time, we have seen individual car ownership displaced as the only standard. Depending on the typology of a location and the make-up of the local population, mobility can take any number of forms. This is often based on the Dutch S.T.O.M.P. principle: Stappen (walking), Trappen (cycling), OV (public transport), MaaS (Mobility as a Service), with the P for Private car the final part of the equation. The closeness of amenities such as shopping and public transport links plays an important role in environment-friendly mobility, but so does the adaptability of everyone involved. Foruminvest is a part of the City Deal ‘Electric Shared Mobility in Urban Area Development’ initiative. This is a partnership involving the national government, provincial authorities, local authorities and a number private players in the electric shared cars sector.