Improving quality of life through sustainable recruitment

About Arcadis

Arcadis is the world’s leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. Right now, more than 29,000 Arcadians across 70 countries are working to address the world’s challenges, such as climate change, urbanisation, digitalisation and poverty.

Our company’s story began back in 1888 in the Netherlands, where we started out developing unusable land into places for people to live and establish communities. Nowadays, we focus on creating better housing, revolutionizing transport systems, creating iconic spaces, and finding new solutions to complex environmental challenges. Our mission is to improve quality of life and given our origins, sustainability is at the heart of what we do.

Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the world. Each year, the devastating effects of the manmade climate crisis are being felt even more and our Early Careers team felt we could do more to reduce our impact. Like many companies, our pre-pandemic Attraction Programme included travelling to campus events, face-to-face assessment centres and in-person interviews. We also handed out thousands of printed brochures and merchandise to students. We made the decision in 2021 to review our recruitment strategy and to drive sustainability throughout what we do.

Moving to sustainable graduate recruitment

We have pledged to keep our waste production down and reduce our carbon footprint through a number of different approaches:

• Brochures: Since 2020 we no longer print brochures. We provide students with a QR code during our events that links straight through to our digital brochure and website.
• Merchandise: Our merchandise has been cut down and reviewed to ensure the few items we do use are sustainable and sensibly sourced.
• Couriers: We have cut down the need for couriers. We have established three ‘hubs’ where our employees can pick the kit up when they are in the office.
• Public Transport: Where travel is necessary, Arcadis strongly advocates for the use public transport or car-sharing where public transport is not a viable option.
• Assessment & Selection: Since 2020 we conduct our assessment centres and interviews virtually.
• Onboarding: Laptops are provided without a headset, keyboard, bag etc. Instead, these items can be requested separately to avoid the distribution of unnecessary items. Graduates and Apprentices are provided with a Welcome Pack, which includes a reusable water bottle, a desktop garden and a reusable tote bag. Our Regional Inductions and Onboarding modules are virtual.

Our Future Plans

At Arcadis, our value proposition is to improve quality of life. Part of that is making sure we place sustainability at the heart of everything we do. We recognise our responsibility to eliminate carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions in our operations. That is why we have set an ambitious target to becoming a net zero company by 2035 and have set specific goals to accomplish this over the coming years. This will be driven by Arcadians who challenge the status quo and are passionate about doing the right thing. We are excited to be a part of the Sustainable Recruitment Alliance and how we can continue to be problem solvers for the planet.