Our story
With our employees, clients and partners, TAUW makes a positive impact on the vital living environment. In Our living ambition report we provide an overview of our achievements in 2022.
It’s not just a daily job, it’s… a living ambition
About TAUW
From small beginnings…
Growing from a Dutch company with five employees in 1928 into an employee-owned company with almost 1,300 staff in six countries today, TAUW is on an ambitious journey to becoming a leading European Environmental Consultancy by 2028. For almost one hundred years, TAUW has been shaping a vital living environment through its impactful solutions and by combining strong expertise with valuable partnerships.
… to making an impact
TAUW collaborates with its customers and partners to provide support on environmental issues, from strategic consultancy work to environmental monitoring, from on-site technical support to transactional services, and with a broad range of services in spatial planning and development. TAUW’s passionate experts strive to balance economic, environmental and social aspects in everything they do.
as a Leading European environmental and engineering consultancy
TAUW makes sustainability tangible and feasible. It is our mission and our business. This report shows the steps we took last year and how from this year, we will chart our course to a sustainable world where nature and human activity co-exist in harmony.
“We purposely focus on environmental consultancy because that is how we can have the greatest significance. Through impactful and innovative solutions, we made positive contributions to a range of projects last year."
– Ralph van Roessel and Henrike Branderhorst, co-CEOs TAUW Group
We have included a selection of these impactful projects in 2022 in Our solutions.
TAUW on track in 2022
TAUW performed well in 2022 – a year which was characterised by unpredictability. The ongoing war in Ukraine caused disruptions in the market and led to price increases and material shortages. That, and regulations by the Dutch government to halve nitrogen emissions by 2030, resulted in a lack of continuity in our work. Major projects, particularly in our largest market, the Netherlands, were put on hold or cancelled. The aftermath of the pandemic affected our projects and our people across TAUW Group. The labour market is strained and post-Covid sickness absence was high.
“In spite of the challenging year, we were able to make a significant impact through our consultancy work,” says Henrike Branderhorst, “but we also had a social impact. We are active participants in the public debate on environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity and the transition towards a sustainable industry. We increased the diversity of our staff, took measures to reduce our own footprint and joined biodiversity initiatives such as Trees for All.”
TAUW’s strength lies in increasing its handprint, i.e. helping our clients reduce their footprint on the environment. As part of our sustainability strategy, we took significant steps to increase and monitor our tangible impact on our people, our projects and our organisation. In a changing world, that demands a flexible approach. We implemented innovative, data-driven solutions and new business models that help us remain flexible and not only adapt to, but actually embrace, change.
The road ahead to 2028 and beyond
The EU and the UN have set ambitious targets for 2030 and 2050 to combat the effects of climate change and to promote circular economy and biodiversity. Challenging yes, but it is also an opportunity for TAUW experts to show their added value. We are developing long-term strategies to help our clients prepare for the world of 2030 and 2050. Our environmental expertise is needed now more than ever and we have the chance to make a significant and sustainable impact on our living environment.
Ralph van Roessel: “We are already making a difference through our consultancy. We now need to lose a little of our humility and assume a more confident and daring attitude so we can really unleash the potential that we as a company have.” Our most valuable asset in that respect is our people. As an employee-owned company, TAUW will continue to focus on employee inclusion and job satisfaction. Retaining staff is a priority for us, not least because we plan to grow our turnover and number of staff outside the Netherlands.
Leading by our values
TAUW is a purpose-driven consultancy – we take action on creating a more sustainable world through our consultancy. Our employees are proactive in leading the way by applying TAUW’s vision, mission and core values to every aspect of their work. By working together as TAUW Group, we will disseminate our expertise across the TAUW countries and develop our international mindset further for effective cross-border, internal and external collaboration between the various TAUW Group countries.
Our living ambition
This year, we have continued to take specific steps to live our ambition and contribute to a vital living environment. In the next years, we will further increase our handprint and reduce our footprint. We will continue to differentiate ourselves from competitors by our knowledge and expertise, and by creative and impactful solutions. We strive for growth, both organically and through focused mergers or acquisitions. We are looking forward to our continued journey together on a future-proof TAUW, with our 2028 Ambition as our compass: becoming a Leading European Environmental Consultancy.
It’s not just a daily job, it’s… a living ambition
