Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2019

As a global supply chain solutions provider, Broekman Logistics is part of the logistics industry which plays an important role in making the world more accessible, smaller and closely connected. We have a responsibility towards the environment when it comes to preserving and taking care of our people and planet, whilst maintaining good business results.

Our focus on digitisation and corporate social responsibility becomes truly tangible. Providing transparency in all our efforts with the launch of our second CSR report in a row, enables us to take some significant steps in providing sustainable solutions to our key stakeholders. By offering multimodal transport alternatives, we allow our clients to make their supply chain more efficient and our partnerships more sustainable.

We want our customers, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders to know who they are in business with when they cooperate and collaborate with us. That is why, like in 2018, we have assessed all activities that took place in 2019, in the Netherlands and now included the activities in our Belgian warehouses, according to the internationally renowed Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standard Reference Indicators. 

In 2019, we have relocated our Nijmegen warehouse to our state-of-the-art warehouse in Venlo, doubling our warehouse facilities and hereby decreasing the local CO₂ footprint with 63% per square metre. A significant achievement for which we thank all our colleagues who worked on this effort!

Raymond Riemen (CEO) & Diederik Günther (CFO)

From left to right:
dr. J.P. van den Akker (Representative Limburg Province), W. Heylen (Owner Heylen Group), R. Riemen (CEO Broekman Logistics), E. Boom (Councillor Economy, Labour Market and Higher Education at Municipality Venlo)

We measure and transparently report on our activities by using an integral Triple-P approach; finding the right balance between the best for People, Planet and Profit. This CSR report covers this integral approach regarding our business activities in the Netherlands and Belgium.

To support us in providing transparent and insightful information about our activities, we again believe the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework to be the best fit framework for measuring our sustainability performance over 2019.

We contribute to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, a benchmark to assess our sustainability performance in our international offices, being socially responsible and respecting human rights, working conditions and the environment in our business operations. During the year of 2019, we have embedded responsible business conduct into our policies and management systems (step 1 out of 6 in the due diligence process) as well as identified and assesssed adverse impacts in operations and business relationships (step 2 out of 6 in the due diligence process). 

Looking ahead to 2021, we are determined to create an even more global view by measuring the sustainability performance of our offices in India, Poland and Czech Republic. We will be doing this by using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standard Reference Indicators whilst applying the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 

We attract new talent by offering several programs for graduates to enter the labour market: a Management Development Traineeship and a Professional Traineeship. We also offer a Young Potential Program for young professionals.

Since July 2019, Steven Hansen is a Management Development Trainee at Broekman Logistics. He has been working on a project within the Warehousing & Distribution Division, implementing and engaging new customers as well as optimising processes and systems in our warehouses.

“I experience this traineeship as the perfect possibility to gain knowledge of the logistics sector and implement my skills and knowledge in several projects. I get to work in very entrepreneurial projects which include a large variety of business processes – from sales and operations to finance related aspects – and I’ve been challenged to (further) develop all my skills.”

Broekman Logistics ensures a good and safe working environment through safety procedures and processes certified according to ISO9001 and SQAS. We try to minimise absence by illness as well as the number of accidents taking place on our terminals and in our warehouses. In 2019, the absenteeism rate was 5,77% and the number of accidents was 3 (decline compared to 2018).

Each operational location organises daily toolbox meetings and has 1 or 2 health and safety officers (SHEQ) responsible for the Risk Inventory & Evaluation (RI&E). Since 2019, Broekman Logistics works with two company physicians who consult, both preventively and curatively, on a weekly basis.  

Jeroen joined Broekman back in 2016 as a Management Development Trainee starting in the Forwarding & Shipping division. During the traineeship he gained experience in forwarding, but soon realised that his interest lied within the Warehousing & Distribution division. Starting as a project manager working on operational projects at our warehouse location in Born and Nijmegen, Jeroen is currently responsible for implementing new customers within the W&D division and optimises internal processes and systems. In 2019, Jeroen was involved in the process of relocating our warehouse locations in Nijmegen and Maastricht to our new warehouse in Venlo.

Relocation of warehouses: a real challenge

“I’ve been involved in the relocation of our warehouses and thereby the stored goods of our customers in Nijmegen and Maastricht. During the preparation phase, we set up an operational action plan for every customer in our warehouses, to provide the best way possible of relocating their goods whilst causing minimal interruption of regular business operations. With a few customers, we agreed upon a longer time period to naturally reduce stocks in Nijmegen and Maastricht and ramp up new stock to our new warehouse in Venlo.”

To reduce the CO₂ emission of the relocation, Jeroen and his colleagues created a calculation model. “We created this calculation model to determine which combination of goods fitted best together, hereby optimising the capacity of our trailers. This resulted in a reduction of the number of truck rides and thus CO₂ emission.”

As a global business, we recognise the importance and feel the need to take care of the environment in which we operate. We support local initiatives and collaborate with many stakeholders in the local areas of our offices, terminals and warehouses:

• We contribute to the DeltaPort donation fund;
• We donate to the Sophia Children’s Hospital as our end-of-year gifts for customers;
• We actively support local sports events such as the Harbour Run in Rotterdam, Netherlands;
• Young Broekman organises a bootcamp for our employees;
• We are actively associated with the World Port Days organised in Rotterdam;
• We are a business partner of municipal initiatives in the municipality of Sittard-Geleen (Limburg), Netherlands;
• We support the Local Sailor House in Eemshaven (Groningen), Netherlands;
• We try to locally purchase the majority of our resources (fuel, cleaning/ catering/ handyman services, recycling of waste)

At Broekman Logistics Belgium Antwerp, we’ve developed a supplier assessment which has been applied to a small number of primary suppliers of this warehouse location. In 2020, the supplier assessment will be applied to all primary stakeholders.

As a logistics service provider, our impact on the environment can be divided into, our business operations on the one hand and business operations of our (logistics, personnel or product) suppliers on the other. 

We hold both, and operate under, an environmental- and an energy policy, which are annually evaluated during the ISO9001 and ISO14001 audits. 

In 2019, we initiated a number of energy-saving initiatives to reduce the impact of our activities on the environment:

• Relocation to warehouse Venlo (Triple A++ energy label), increasing (energy) efficiency and reducing CO₂ emission with 63% per m²
• Cut down the speed of our heavy-lift reachstackers above 10 tons at Broekman Distriport (BDP), which resulted in a 23,2% CO₂ reduction
• Control of hours and use regarding the gas-fired heaters at Broekman Logistics Limburg, resulted in 48,8% CO₂ reduction
• Relocation to new office with LED lightning at Broekman Eemshaven Services (BES)

The relocation of our warehouses in Nijmegen and Maastricht to a new state-of-the-art warehouse in Venlo has resulted in a safer and healthier workplace for our employees, more efficient processes and a reduction in CO₂-emission. In fact, our Venlo warehouse is approximately 2.3 times larger (63.578m2) than our Nijmegen and Maastricht warehouses were combined. 

The total amount of CO₂ that is reduced by the relocation of our warehouses to Venlo is 137,1tons, a reduction of 63%. We now emit 16,5kg CO₂ per square metre (m2) compared to 44kg in 2018. 

The warehouse is built to the latest technology and state-of-the-art facilities. This, among others, includes LED lightning, use of a heatpump, insulation, a sprinkler installation, etc. "The relocation of our warehouses allows our clients to make their supply chain more efficient and makes our partnership with our clients more sustainable", adds Raymond Riemen, our CEO.

As a full logistics service provider we take care of everything that comes with global transportation, ranging from raw materials to finished goods. We always aim to shorten value chains and continuously unburden our customers in terms of transportation and the flow of documents. To this means, we apply international recognised standards: ISO 14001 / ISO 9001 / AEO / FONASBA / IATA / ISPS / SQAS and SKAL.

Our services consist of:

• Forwarding & Shipping: Forwarding providing freight forwarding services including value added services such as organising the flow of documents (customs/VAT) and Shipping represents more than 10 liner services offering worldwide ocean transport;
• Warehousing & Distribution: carrying out inbound & outbound distribution, import and export as well as value added logistics such as packaging, labelling and assembling of products;
• Breakbulk Terminals: handling, storage and packaging of breakbulk cargo as well as providing solutions in markets that require complex logistics. For instance, parts of wind turbines.

2019 marks the year where Safic-Alcan Necarbo, celebrated 50 years of partnership. The distributor of raw materials for the coating and plastics industry, and water treatment grew significantly over the past 50 years, and so did the relationship between both parties. According to Stefan Groskamp, Logistics Manager at Safic-Alcan Necarbo, there are multiple benefits to a long-lasting relationship with Broekman Logistics. "We know their employees, and the employees know our products, principals and customers". 

Safic-Alcan Necarbo is one of the customers that made the move from the warehousing location in Nijmegen, to the new state-of-the-art warehouse in Venlo, in 2019. The move towards Venlo allows for the partnership to expand even further, as a result from the new techonologies and improvements at the hypermodern facility. 

Willem-Jan van Amersfoort, Managing Director Warehousing & Distribution concludes: "Our partnership with Safic-Alcan Necarbo is growing stronger every year. Our growth stratetegy being in line with our customers' growth strategy, is one of our key focus points, we strive for sustainable, long-lasting partnerships, of which Safic-Alcan Necarbo is a perfect example".

Broekman Logistics made great efforts in digitising its breakbulk terminals in 2019 using the Mendix App. At the fully digitised Broekman Distriport terminal, every cargo is literally tracked from minute to minute. ‘What Domino’s can do with the pizza tracker, we can do with our cargo.’

Broekman Logistics records the process at the terminal from minute to minute. That is a unique development, explains Rob van Dijk, Director of Operations at Broekman Distriport. “It sounds simple, but digitisation has never been implemented in breakbulk to this degree before. It offers a lot of advantages, and it provides insight into the entire supply chain. We literally follow everything in real time, and that gives clients the option of having real-time insight as well.” 

On a special dashboard, our clients can follow their cargo, into detail in real-time, strengthening mutual trust in the relationship but also adding to transparency which is very important to both us, and our partners.  

Commitment GRI
This CSR report is based on the latest generation guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). These guidelines have been applied at the SRS referenced level. The report was reviewed by the organisation itself. 

Scope of the report
This report concerns the activities of Broekman Logitics in the year 2019, for the Dutch and Belgian sites that were under its control throughout the entire year 2019. During the reporting year, no significant changes took place regarding the structure or ownership of the organisation. Regarding the size, we've relocated our warehouses in Nijmegen and Maastricht to a new logistics campus in Venlo, the Netherlands and added the activities of our warehouse in Antwerp, Belgium to the scope.

Frequency
It is our intention to present a CSR report on annual frequency and to expand the scope to all global activities.

If you would like to review our CSR report for 2018, it is available here.

Contact
For questions about this report contact the project manager of the CSR project group within Broekman Logistics; Chris van der Tuin, Director Group Controlling.