79% Dutch companies making sustainability improvements, many avoid energy conservation

Most (79 percent) of businesses in the Netherlands took measures this year to make their operations more sustainable, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday. Twenty percent said they took sustainability measures in the field of energy. But according to Investico, Trouw, and De Groene Amsterdammer, at least 60 percent of companies don’t comply with the energy-saving rules.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) surveyed companies in industry, car, and retail services in September. Nearly 39 percent said they had taken a combination of measures this year to make their businesses more sustainable. Nearly 20 percent took measures to be more energy efficient, 14 percent moved toward a circular economy, and 6 percent invested to reduce emissions.

A fifth (21 percent) of Dutch companies did not take any sustainability measures this year. A third of companies consider their operations largely or completely sustainable. Nearly half said their company is partially sustainable.

According to Trouw, companies seem to be ignoring the national law requiring them to invest in energy-efficient pumps, machines, and insulation. About 60 percent of companies visited by an inspector in the past three years did not comply with the energy-saving rules. The actual percentage is expected to be higher because inspectors only recently started checking these rules, and thousands of businesses haven’t submitted the mandatory energy report yet, the newspaper wrote.

Research agency TNO calculated that if companies adhered to the energy-saving rules, the Netherlands would need 350 fewer wind turbines or over 400,000 football fields worth of solar panels less, plus 10 percent less gas from Groningen than last year.