Blog post by Agnes Bosmans, Director of HR and General Services, VITO

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VITO is a leading, international research and consultancy centre that is accelerating the transition towards a sustainable society. This leadership is accompanied by the responsibility to practice what we preach. As a result, Dirk Fransaer, VITO's Managing Director, signed the Belgian Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 18 October 2016. VITO has concrete ambitions for eight of the SDGs formulated and published on the website of The Shift.

The ambitions include two levels:

On the one hand, we contribute to achieving these SDGs with our applied research in the field of energy, chemistry, materials, health and land use. On the other hand, we also want to adopt an exemplary role as an organisation and become a frontrunner in the field of sustainable organisation. We therefore aim to make the VITO campus climate-positive and our mobility climate-neutral by 2030. The deep geothermal energy plant that is currently being constructed will play a vital role here. What is more, we are aiming to become a paperless office. 

Achieving the transition to sustainability together

Many companies and organisations commit to sustainability projects, but do not always know where to begin or foresee the impact that these projects will have on the organisation. We therefore consider it our task to share our experiences, questions, successes and setbacks. By doing so, we hope to be able to remove any uncertainties and concerns, so that Flemish organisations can put their full confidence in their own sustainability projects.

Sustainability is one of our core values and these values are the driving force behind all of these initiatives. Our people are also highly motivated to not only make Flanders and the world sustainable, but also their workplace. As sustainable growth is the only possible form of growth.

Sustainable vehicle fleet

One of the first projects that we are beginning work on is making the vehicle fleet sustainable. Follow us on social media or visit our website regularly to find out more about our experiences in this and other sustainability initiatives.

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