Ensuring a sustainable world

In your role as Tender Manager, what changes are you seeing in clients’ priorities?

I work across many of Rejlers’ departments and countries to understand client requirements. While reducing project costs was usually the main concern, reducing climate impact is now clearly a top priority.

The climate crisis is no longer a future scenario. It is already impacting biodiversity, infrastructure and resource availability. Organisations can no longer ignore these risks, for their own long-term viability or for society.

How are sustainability requirements affecting public procurement in Norway?

Sustainability regulations are also tightening. In Norway, public procurement rules now require that environmental factors account for at least 30 percent of the evaluation criteria in tender assessments. This makes environmental impact a substantial and clearly measured part of procurement decisions.

Norway invests a huge amount in public projects, and the public sector is one of our main clients. Our clients want partners who can help them achieve their sustainability goals.

How can Rejlers help clients achieve those goals?

At Rejlers, we do this by sharing insights across the industries we work in and by proposing smart engineering solutions early in a project, sometimes reducing energy and material use by half.

Sustainability is part of Rejlers’ identity. We live it every day, in everything we do. For example, in Norway we are increasing the share of electric vehicles in our car fleet and holding digital meetings whenever possible. In Oslo, Rejlers Norway has also moved into a BREEAM-certified office – one of the world’s leading sustainable building standards. And across the organisation, we are working towards net-zero emissions.

What does Rejlers’ EcoVadis Gold rating mean from a client perspective?

Rejlers’ sustainability efforts have been recognised this year with an EcoVadis Gold rating. In Norway, an EcoVadis rating is increasingly a prerequisite for public procurement tenders. But our Gold rating also gives us a competitive edge, demonstrating that we have strong policies, processes and systems in areas such as environmental responsibility and ethics, verified by a third party.

This confirmation of our sustainability actions is highly sought after by today’s clients.

Finally, what responsibility do you think engineers and advisors have in the sustainability transition?

At Rejlers, we all believe that we have a big responsibility. As engineers and advisors, everything we do has an impact – on nature and on people. That’s why we are ensuring that our choices help shape tomorrow’s sustainable world.

Learn more in our Annual and Sustainability Report