All De Hoop Terneuzen concrete mixing plants CSC certified

19 November 2021

All De Hoop Terneuzen concrete mixing plants have achieved their CSC certificates for concrete. On behalf of SGS, Jeroen Pos presented the certificates to the managers of the De Hoop Terneuzen concrete mixing plants on 17 November 2021.

SGS has recently awarded all concrete mixing plants of De Hoop CSC certificates. Our companies Betonmortel Grevelingen, VTO, De Hoop Betonmortel and Betoncentrale Haringman were awarded their silver certificates on 17 November. "Achieving CSC certification is in line with our 'CSR policy', which basically boils down to sustainably extracting raw materials with respect for the environment whilst being open to social interests. As the central values of De Hoop Terneuzen of continuity, balance and loyalty perfectly match the core values of a sustainable economy, it was decided in early 2019 to have all of our Dutch concrete mixing plants certified to the CSC standard. We ran a pilot project with the Betoncentrale West-Brabant plants for the certification process in 2019. Now all our plants have been successfully certified", says Henk van Holten, Commercial Manager for the De Hoop concrete mixing plants.

Concrete Sustainable Council

CSC, Concrete Sustainable Council, is a global quality mark for concrete. The CSC quality mark guarantees that concrete is produced sustainably. The quality mark may only be carried by companies which fulfil strict requirements regarding reliability, expertise, sustainability and safe working. In addition to this, holders of the CSC quality mark give advice on the environmental profile of concrete, and supply concrete of a high quality. They also strive for a high secondary materials content in their concrete mortar and they have to demonstrate the responsible origins of raw materials.      

Circular economy

Based on international agreements, the Dutch government has formulated some objectives which have a major impact on the construction chain. The Dutch economy should be fully circular by 2050. Our company chooses not to sit back and passively await developments, but actively encourages new initiatives, provided that they are truly circular. ‘Greenwashing’ will not do. 

Various initiatives have already become operational, such as using concrete granulate in fresh concrete, recycling our own production waste, introducing new products based on secondary raw materials and producing modular houses. In addition, the relevant environmental indicators are provided along with an increasing number of products, so that customers are not only informed about technical matters, but also about environmental impact performance.

In our group of companies, we pay a lot of attention to ecological developments in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Examples are De Hoop Terneuzen's involvement in various projects to ensure the concrete chain is truly circular. Our investment in 100 hectares of forest which are planted in collaboration with Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch forestry commission) also fits in with this policy and is part of our organisational objective to minimise our CO2 emissions and offset them where possible.