Company

Acting responsibly and delivering measurable sustainable impact for our stakeholders.

Acting responsibly is a core element of Ramboll’s 2025 corporate strategy, The Partner for Sustainable Change. We have the ambition to be a role model in our industry by how we act, especially with transparency and disclosure. We find it essential to ‘walk the talk’ so our clients and stakeholders consider us credible partners for sustainable change.

In 2023, we will develop a new environment, social, and governance (ESG) roadmap to define Ramboll’s performance and reporting going forward, tied closely to the company strategy. The roadmap takes point of departure in our new double materiality assessment conducted at the end of 2022, in alignment with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requirements and accompanying European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Below we detail our 2022 activities and achievements within environmental, social, and governance topics.

Key numbers

: 42%
reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions (2019 baseline, target 2022: 13% reduction)

: 28%
reduction in scope 3 business travel emissions (2019 baseline, target 2022: 8% reduction)
: 52%
our suppliers by emissions who set science based targets in (target 2025: 80%)

Focus on

B-score for CDP disclosure

CDP is recognised as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency and disclosure. A CDP score assesses a company’s performance on environmental action. Externally, it indicates a company’s level of commitment and progress towards climate action to customers, investors, and other stakeholders. Internally, the scoring provides a roadmap to companies to achieve best practice, improving its environmental strategy to reduce climate risks.

A ‘B’ score indicates a company has addressed its environmental impacts and ensures good environmental management. For Ramboll, the score reflects our commitment and action to reduce our climate footprint, in line with the 1.5°C pathway laid out in the Paris Agreement. Our performance is outstanding in the areas related to our environmental targets, emissions reduction initiatives, emissions accounting and verification, and energy consumption.

Environmental management system

As stated in our environmental management policy, Ramboll respects and follows internationally recognised environmental principles according to the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which includes a precautionary approach.

We manage environmental impacts from both our projects and our operations through our ISO 14001 certification. In 2021–2022, 70% of Ramboll sites were ISO 14001 certified, and our aim is for remaining business units to be certified by the end of 2023.

Ramboll Group is awarded a gold medal as a recognition of our EcoVadis Rating, as of September 2022. Ramboll has reported at Group level to EcoVadis since 2020.

Key numbers

: 40%
Share of eco-labelled products in 2022
: 94%
suppliers managed by Ramboll’s global procurement unit signed our Business Associate Code.

Focus on

Environmental Analyst ranks us #7

In 2020–2021, Ramboll ranked seven out of the top 10 global environmental and sustainability consultancy firms. We ranked first in the category of climate and energy consultancy, according to a report by Environment Analyst released in August 2022.

Environment Analyst, an international membership community for the environmental services sector, provides a comprehensive report each year on the trends in the global consultancy industry within environment, water, and climate services.

Human rights

As an employer, and when working on clients’ projects, Ramboll can potentially cause, contribute, or be linked via our business relations to, adverse human rights impacts. In 2022, we reviewed our human rights due diligence practices, and in 2023 will strengthen our due diligence processes to align with the requirements of the upcoming EU legislation on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, and the CSRD.

The Group Ethics Committee makes decisions on company dilemmas arising from our legacy, values, and commitments, including some cases posing human rights risks.

We aim to embed respect for human rights in employees, helping them understand why and how they are expected to integrate these human rights risks into their daily work and projects. We do this through an online training course dedicated to human rights that is accessible to all employees in Ramboll. The training allows employees to learn about and give feedback on our current human rights protection practices. It also provides the opportunity for them to suggest better ways to embed human rights in our work with projects.

Remedial access is enabled by our grievance mechanism through the Ramboll Speak Up Programme, which includes a whistleblower system and is available to employees and external stakeholders.

Human Rights were identified as a material topic for Ramboll during the double materiality exercise performed in 2022. Through a risk-based approach, Ramboll will strengthen the protection of human rights throughout our global value chains and include the necessary safeguards into our projects. When identifying risks of negative impacts on human rights in our operation and/or in our projects, we will implement new ways of assessing and influencing our business relationships and effectively engage with stakeholders. Through our projects we strive to have positive impacts on societies.

Ramboll has deep expertise in advising clients on how to develop and embed their company human rights policies to ensure they are aligned with international standards and apply due diligence. This includes conducting human rights risk or impact assessments, as well as tailor-made trainings for management and key employees.

Our commitment to human rights

We commit not to undertake projects with an aggressive, destructive, or suppressive purpose towards nature or people. Ramboll commits to respect human rights in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights including the International Bill of Human Rights, the eight fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines for multinational enterprises.

In addition, we follow requirements in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act (United Kingdom, 2015), as well as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act (India, 2013).

Focus on

Business integrity leadership workshops

Business integrity is an integral part of the sustainability agenda. A key area of focus in 2022 by our global business integrity function was to roll out a ‘business integrity leadership game’ to the top 300 leaders (L10-12) in Ramboll. The aim was to address what it takes to lead the business integrity agenda and to increase attention on business integrity.

This was done by facilitating interactive, three-hour in-person workshops at our offices across the world. Here the participants discussed the grey areas of corruption risks in order to enhance capabilities within business integrity leadership.

Social impact

Every year, many of our employees volunteer their time and skills to support charitable work in countries around the world. In June 2022, a team of ten volunteers from Ramboll’s operations across seven countries teamed up with NGO Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) to build the Gikombe Trailbridge.

Driving the sustainable transformation

Through 2022, Ramboll continued to drive the climate agenda with bilateral engagements and thought leadership towards global policymakers. There are many here-and-now solutions to the climate crisis, in terms of technology, finance, and companies willing to deploy them. What is often lacking is political will and cross-sectoral collaboration needed to deploy solutions at speed and scale.