Modern family business in sustainable brushwood products

Take even more steps toward a greener future

If there is one company that can rightly be called sustainable, it is Van Aalsburg BV. For over 55 years, this leading company has specialized in processing brushwood into products for ground, road and hydraulic engineering. Think of zinc pieces, legacies and shoring. "We do business in the most sustainable way possible," Dick van Aalsburg emphasizes.

Electric excavator

"Since the beginning of this year, we have had our first, all-electric midi-excavator running," Dick says proudly. "We use that for our own brushwood cultivation, but in the meantime it is also running in full swing on various projects with shoring work or jute sinkers." He really notices that the demand for sustainable solutions is ever increasing. "Especially in nature reserves, where we often work. The power supply in such places is often a challenge, which is why we purchased two battery packs from GreenHybrid. With one battery we can work for 6 to 8 hours, the other battery recharges in the meantime at our company location, with our self-generated solar and wind energy. Matter of swapping and we are in continuous operation with this electric excavator." 

Dick says they spent more than two years getting this all done: from converting the machine to electric and applying for the EIA subsidy to buying the battery packs. "But that doesn't stop us from becoming even more sustainable. In addition to the solar panels and windwheels on our premises, we already have, of course, a 30 kW EnergyHub with three windwheels and six solar panels in place. We also run on HVO, have as much electric small equipment as possible and already have two electric mowing boats and three electric company buses," Dick lists. "There are bound to be more battery packs and electric excavators to come." These are hefty investments; this electric crane is about three times more expensive than a normal crane. "But we can also use the battery packs elsewhere, and together with the manufacturer we have calculated that instead of 15,000 working hours, this electric midi-excavator should be able to run around 25,000 working hours. That's because of the even load on the electric motor, so you also get a completely different revenue model in terms of depreciation. But I think it is even more important that we keep our promise to customers and radiate it: propagate what we indicate in EMVI plans."

Second business location

With the opening of a second business location in the province of Groningen, Van Aalsburg is taking even more steps toward a greener future. "This will strengthen our presence in the north of the country and enable us to serve clients such as the Department of Public Works even better. For example, for the next six years we will be busy with the maintenance of the osier dams along the wadden coast in Friesland and Groningen, where we not only refill the osier dams, but also take care of the height measurements and vegetation survey," Dick says in conclusion.