Building with Nature

Circular business using sustainable natural materials

When you talk about sustainable construction and circular enterprise, you are talking about Van Aalsburg. The third-generation family business builds high-quality laying dams, sinkers and shoring from willow. "Protecting and preserving nature with nature, in a circular, sustainable way. That is what we are all about," says Dick van Aalsburg. "Here we strive to use 100% naturally degradable materials, without compromising on quality."

Full on innovation

Last year Dick exclaimed that they want to reduce the 1 million m2 of geotextiles Van Aalsburg applies annually in hydraulic engineering to 100,000 m2 within 10 years. "We are putting in as much as is realistic to achieve that ambitious goal. So we are innovating in full force," says Dick. "For example, we are looking at whether geotextiles can be replaced by jute, for example." Van Aalsburg has partnered with Zwarts, the only jute weaving company in the Netherlands, on an innovation project. "Jute is now almost equivalent to geotextiles in terms of tensile strength. Now we especially want to raise its durability even further. Various pilots are underway to make jute sustainable in an entirely natural way. In this way we hope to be able to give yet another boost to longer durability."

Looking for more opportunities

"We are always looking for more opportunities to use our products more broadly. That's why we took part in an SBIR program of the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO), through which the government challenges entrepreneurs in an innovation competition. We submitted a circular bank protection product for this." Dick is pleased that Van Aalsburg's product, alongside an innovation from another company, is through to the final round. He notes that more and more water boards, Staatsbosbeheer and Rijkswaterstaat want to eliminate plastic in their projects and move toward using 100% natural materials. "A great goal, but that also means we want to submit calculations for our constructions in materials on projects, showing what the impact is. We are also working on that from the SBIR program." 

Corporate sustainability

"Furthermore, we are doing business in the most sustainable way possible," Dick says. Among other things, he mentions further electrifying equipment and applying the energy hub to projects. "We are considering installing a 2 MegaWatt battery pack on the business, which can trickle full during the day with our own acquired solar and wind energy, which we can use to charge our equipment in the evening and at night. This way we relieve the grid a bit more at peak times and make maximum use of our natural energy resources. It's an on-going process with us, one that's accelerating even further. And that's the way it should be, right?"