Peab’s sustainability work

For Peab sustainability entails running a business that takes responsibility for both its own impact and the impact of the entire value chain upstream and downstream, as well as working for the good community. Working sustainably is a strategic matter for us, completely integrated into our business model and operations. We make it clear that every employee should promote sustainable development in their role based on Peab’s core values, business concept, mission, strategic targets and Code of Conduct.

Our four busi­ness areas col­lab­o­rating lo­cal­ly give us bet­ter con­trol over the sup­ply chain and thereby the conditions for us to transition to a more sustainable business. Our em­ploy­ees en­sure that we as far as pos­si­ble use local re­sources in the form of our own personnel, our own input goods and sub­con­trac­tors. Together with our en­gage­ment in the com­mu­ni­ty and in­te­grat­ed cli­mate and en­vi­ron­men­tal work this is the basis of our sustainability work and what we call lo­cal­ly pro­duced com­mu­ni­ty build­ing. Our material sustainability aspects are summarized in two of our four strategic targets: Best workplace and Leader in social responsibility.

Regarding Peab’s cli­mate im­pact our ma­te­r­i­al use is a par­tic­u­lar­ly im­por­tant area where our op­er­a­tions gen­er­ate car­bon emis­sions. This is why we try to hus­band re­sources and to greater extent use our own and local ma­te­r­i­al as well as de­vel­op more climate-​improved ma­te­r­i­al. Our in­vest­ments in ECO-​Betong (ECO-​Concrete) and ECO-​Asfalt are two prac­ti­cal ex­am­ples where we both reuse ma­te­r­i­al and mix in al­ter­na­tive binder to re­duce our car­bon footprint. Peab is also a dri­ving force in sev­er­al de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives to op­ti­mize ma­te­r­i­al and ver­i­fy­ qual­i­ty. In 2021 we be­came the first Swedish construction and civil engineering com­pa­ny to partner with SSAB in fos­sil free steel, which means that as of 2026 we will begin to use steel that has been produced fos­sil free in our construction and civil engineering projects. But in some projects we have already used both the fossil free produced steel and the recycled steel SSAB Zero, which is both fossil free produced and transported. Collaboration with SSAB is an example that shows how we together with customers and material suppliers can transition to sustainable construction.

During the year Peab launched ECO-Byggarbetsplatsen (ECO-Construction site), a concept for construction workplaces aimed at reducing the environmental impact of construction sites through solutions for energy, waste, water consumption, logistics and construction equipment.

Research and development

The pur­pose of Peab’s R&D is to pro­vide so­ci­ety, our cus­tomers and other stake­hold­ers with added value. We do this by col­lab­o­rating with uni­ver­si­ties, col­leges and trade or­ga­ni­za­tions and ac­tively par­tic­i­pating in many industry projects. We take part in strate­gic, innovative and op­er­a­tive pro­grams to be able to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in both a current and long-term perspective. Through new dis­cov­er­ies we can im­prove or de­vel­op new prod­ucts, ser­vices and pro­duc­tion process­es. One of the purposes of the function Research and In­no­va­tion at Peab is to support our business in its transition to climate-adapted pro­duc­ts and with investments in new technology. Peab’s in­vest­ment in our ECO-​products is im­por­tant where, for in­stance, ECO-​Betong (ECO-Concrete) has been de­vel­oped to fur­ther re­duce cli­mate im­pact and de­pen­dence on ce­ment.

During 2024 we started up several new R&D projects concerning circular material where we, for example, have studied how soil and old, crushed cement can be reused in new material and projects. In connection with this we investigated old tried and true methods like using natural clay in construction material and buildings. In digitalization we have worked with several projects within autonome measuring and monitoring material and production on construction sites. We have also continued with our far reaching project on storing carbon dioxide in building materials.

Several research projects ended in 2024 such as climate-improved concrete, logistics, energy savings and energy calculations. In addition, we have continued to develop our collaboration with the Swedish start-up CemVision where we have carried out tests and test castings with the company’s climate-improved cement.

During the year we have worked with the industry-wide VINNOVA program Betcrete 3 for a climate neutral cement and concrete industry. We have also worked with Luleå Uni­ver­si­ty of Technology in our long-term strategic partnership in sustainable construction, di­gi­ta­li­zation and re­sour­ce ef­ficiency. At Chal­mers in Gothenburg we participate in the research program “Future Trans­por­tation In­fra­struc­ture” and at The Faculty of Engineering, LTH, in Lund we are active in the “Cen­ter for construction ­ro­bo­tics”. Together with The KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stock­holm we collaborate on a project in road technology and geotechnical engineering. We also participate in other forms of collaboration such as LFM30 (Local roadmap for a cli­mate ­ne­u­tral con­struc­tion and civil en­gi­neer­ing sec­tor in Malmö 2030), In­fraswe­den 2030 (conditions for com­pet­i­tive and cli­mate neu­tral trans­portation in­fra­struc­ture by 2030), Smart Built En­vi­ron­ment (in­no­va­tion for the com­mu­ni­ty build­ing sec­tor) and Mist­ra Car­bon Exit (re­search for cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty by 2045).

In ac­cor­dance with the An­nu­al Re­ports Act chap­ter 6 para­graph 11 Peab has cho­sen to present the statu­to­ry Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Re­port out­side of the Board of Di­rec­tors’ Re­port. The parts re­quired in a sus­tain­abil­i­ty re­port can be found in sec­tions The Sustainability Report on pages 36-106 and the Cor­po­rate gov­er­nance re­port on pages 211–225.