Our story
Through our work TAUW helps to shape a vital living environment. We do so with and for our employees, clients and partners. Our Living Ambition Report shows the progress we made in 2023.
In this annual report, we present our performance across all key areas, highlighting our impact, challenges, and strategic direction for the future. The solid foundation we established sets us up for continued success in the coming year. We are pleased to announce that our ambitious journey to become a leading European environmental consultancy by 2028 is well underway.
About TAUW
Starting in 1928 as a Dutch company with five employees, TAUW can proudly say that today it is an employee-owned company with almost 1,400 dedicated experts, operating in six countries. Initiating change is deeply rooted in our DNA. We are committed to fostering a harmonious coexistence between nature and people. This ambition has driven us for nearly a century and will continue to steer us for generations to come.
TAUW guides our clients through the transitions ahead and prepares them for the world of 2050 by providing comprehensive support on environmental issues. Our services range from strategic consultancy work to environmental monitoring, on-site technical support, transactional services, and a wide range of services in spatial planning and development. We offer tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of each project.
Embracing change
For TAUW, change is the new constant. We see change not as a storm to be weathered, but as a wave bringing us forward to a better future. We embrace the opportunities of a changing and challenging world.
Ralph van Roessel, co-CEO
“In 2023 we benefited from the increasing societal need for green industry and a vital living environment. This driver enabled us to restore the multiyear positive financial trend in 2023, generating more profit than the previous year in the face of uncertainties and high inflation. And all without compromising our strategy. That is something to be proud of.”
In 2023 we saw that the effects of climate change are becoming unavoidable, the level of economic uncertainty is still high and public support for the Green Deal is crumbling. We were faced with continuing social unrest, unprecedented inflation and expanding technological developments. Closer to home, a tight job market and declining business climate for industry affected the operations of our clients and our own.
But despite wage indexation putting pressure on our profitability, we were able to ensure continued business success and even growth. Our employees are fundamental to that success. We actively recruited new staff and set up various programmes to retain staff. We developed our employee and client value propositions and defined our vision of the world in 2050 with a detailed backcasting programme.
Henrike Branderhorst, co-CEO
“Our employees are a key asset to achieving our 2028 ambitions. Thanks to their expertise and dedication, TAUW is able to push boundaries and find innovative solutions to the environmental challenges facing our society. ”
Making sustainability tangible
Social and environmental sustainability continues to rank high on our agenda. In line with our mission statement, we are making sustainability tangible and feasible: last year TAUW committed to the UN Global Compact principles, and we became signatories of the SBTI NetZero Commitment. We initiated various diversity and inclusion activities such as the Refugee Talent Hub partnership within TAUW NL. The preparatory measures for CSRD reporting which we took last year mean that we expect to be CSRD-proof by the end of 2024. We developed a tool to calculate and show the increase of our handprint and reduction of our footprint.
TAUW made a significant investment in the future with the acquisition of drone specialist GEOzicht, helping us to advance our expertise in data gathering and visualisation. We achieved organic growth as planned and took management development initiatives to ensure our organisation and leadership is ready for the future.
We contributed to technological change, by designing our own TAUW AI platform. We also launched the TAUW store, offering a range of self-designed apps for our colleagues and clients.
Our living ambition
Our living ambition is to create a vital living environment in which nature and human activities co-exist in harmony. We employ some of the best minds who specialise in finding innovative, technological solutions to the complex issues of an unknown future. Empowering these dedicated professionals requires a daring and caring leadership working in a mission-driven organisation. Our responsibility as co-CEOs is to set an example and inspire clients and employees to join us on this exciting journey.
It’s not just a daily job, it’s… a living ambition
