Non-financial targets and sustainability

For more than 60 years Peab has contributed to sustainable social development and worked to improve everyday life for people in the local community. We do this by building everything from homes, schools and hospitals to bridges, roads and other infrastructure. Working sustainably is a strategic matter for Peab that primarily takes place locally, connected to everyday life based on our core values, business concept, mission, strategic targets and Code of Conduct.

We monitor our business based on nine external targets – both financial and non-financial – that also identify our material sustainable aspects. These are found in the strategic targets Best workplace and Leader in social responsibility. We monitor our targets quarterly, semi-annually or annually. In connection with this year-end report we present the outcome of all nine targets for 2023.

Most satisfied customers

It is imperative for a long-term, sustainable relationship that Peab deliver on its obligations to customers. A satisfied customer is a customer that comes back and is vital to marketing our company. This is why our annual customer survey is an important measure of how well we are meeting our customers’ expectations while also indicating where there is room for improvement. Our latest Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) score for 2023 remained at 80 (80), which is a continued good result and higher than our target of 75. Customers’ perception of Peab’s price worthiness and planning ability were the areas where scores increased the most. Regarding our business areas, Construction and Civil Engineering increased their CSI scores compared to 2022.

Best workplace

Peab’s employees work locally, close to our customers throughout the Nordic region. The total number of employees per December 31, 2023 was 14,107 (15,040). The average number of employees for the whole year was 13,808 compared to 14,211 for the full year 2022. The calculation of average number of employees has changed as of January 1, 2023 and is based on the sum of hours worked.*

Serious accidents

A safe work environment is the foundation of our business. Everyone at our workplaces should be able to be there under safe and secure conditions, despite the fact that there are risks involved in the work we do. In order to prevent incidents and accidents at our workplaces we develop quality-ensured work methods and train our employees. Our focus is on planning and risk assessment in projects, taking safety measures and learning from reported risk observations, incidents and accidents.

Our zero vision of workplace accidents and target of a contracting trend in serious accidents* comprises everyone at our workplaces. During the fourth quarter there were 14 serious accidents, of which 9 referred to our own employees and 5 referred to subcontractors. Calculated for a rolling twelve month period the number was 48 per December 31, 2023 (49 per December 31, 2022). Of these, 30 referred to our own employees and 18 referred to subcontractors. The level of serious accidents is still too high and we continue determinedly to focus on these issues so that the trend is a material reduction in the number of accidents. Our preventive work concerning the work environment and measures to prevent accidents from reoccurring as well as continuous information are key to reducing the number of workplace accidents.

We also monitor the number of workplace accidents with more than four days absence, excluding the day of injury (LTI4), and workplace accidents according to the same definition per one million hours worked (LTIF4) for our own employees. In the fourth quarter this year the number of LTI4s was 39 (30 third quarter 2023) and the LTIF4 frequency rate for a rolling twelve month period was 5.9 (5.7 after the third quarter 2023), which is a deterioration of the positive trend we have seen over a long period time.

Every remedied risk is one less potential accident, which is why we are highly focused on working preventively and monitoring remedies for reported incidents. During 2023 the organization reported a total of around 55,000 risk observations*. Since October Swedish operations have shifted focus from measuring risk observations to having our employees produce work preparations together before they begin a job. Risk elimination, in other words identifying risks and measures, is limelighted in work preparations to increase the safety of our workplaces and reduce accidents and incidents. This means that the number of risk observations is expected to diminish.

* For a definition see section Alternative performance measures and definitions.

Attractive employers (eNPS)

We should be the best workplace in the industry and thereby the obvious choice of employer. Everyone should feel they are in safe and inclusive workplaces with good work conditions and opportunities to develop at Peab. Twice a year we hold our personnel survey The Handshake so that we can continuously develop and improve as co-workers and teams. The questions in The Handshake mainly concern productivity, the team’s sustainability and if employees are willing to recommend Peab as an employer to friends and acquaintances (eNPS). The latter is also one of our nine external targets that we report twice a year and should be above the benchmark for the industry (industry and manufacturing). In the autumn survey the eNPS score fell slightly from 27 to 26 but the results are about the same as in the spring survey, despite a tough market situation. The Nordic benchmark has dropped from 21 to 19. Notable in the autumn survey was that satisfaction among female skilled workers rose considerably as in business area Civil Engineering which has not been hit as hard by the current difficult market situation. Participation in the autumn survey was 87.3 percent, which is the highest ever.

Leader in social responsibility

Climate target for carbon dioxide intensity

As the Nordic Community Builder we have a big responsibility for reducing the considerable climate impact of the construction and civil engineering industry at the rate required by the Paris Agreement.

Peab impacts the environment and the climate through our own operations and the impact our suppliers and customers have. Our operations primarily cause emissions of greenhouse gases by using various materials in production like concrete, steel and asphalt. Two other major sources of carbon emissions in production are energy consumption and transportation. Therefore our prioritized, emission reduction activities can be found within the framework of these areas. As community builders we also have a comprehensive perspective on our climate work and strive to contribute to a sustainable society on the whole by building, for example, solar power plants and railroads or by building in such a way that people can live more sustainably. We have a life cycle perspective in our operations and take responsibility for both making and meeting demands in our value chain. We have an advantage in that we can supply our construction contract operations and the projects we develop ourselves with input goods and raw material through business area Industry, which augments our ability to actively steer towards lower carbon emissions.

In 2045 Peab will be climate neutral. Our targets by 2030 are to reduce carbon dioxide intensity by at least 60 percent in our own operations (Scope 1 and 2) and for input goods and purchased services (Scope 3) by at least 50 percent compared to base year 2015. The outcome after 2023 revealed that developments are going in the right direction although to different degrees. Carbon dioxide intensity in our own production has gone down by 49 percent compared to base year 2015 and by 9 percent for input goods and purchased services. This means that we are well on the road to converting the production we ourselves have control over but the greater challenge is when we are dependent on other parties for a reduction in our carbon footprint. It is therefore vital that we continue to make explicit and stringent demands as well as point out choices that are better for the climate in order to reduce emissions. We work actively to increase the completeness of our measurements of carbon dioxide intensity, which is particularly demanding in Scope 3 reporting.

Equal opportunity

Only about five percent of those that graduate with, for Peab, degrees in relevant, practical education are women. This means that the construction and civil engineering industry has a major role to play in taking advantage of all the competence society has to offer. As one of the largest Nordic community builders we have a responsibility to nudge the entire industry forward. Our target initially is therefore to strive for the percentage of women recruited to Peab for our core skills to always be higher than the percentage of women who have graduated with, for us, relevant degrees on the education markets. We are focused on core skills in production (skilled workers) as well as in production management and production support (white-collar workers). At the end of 2023 the percentage of women in new recruitments was 14.2 percent in production and processing compared to our target of more than 5.0 percent. We are raising our target to 6.0 percent for 2024. New recruitment in production management and production support dropped to 18.8 percent whereas our target is at least 30.0 percent. The reason behind the reduction was the few recruitments during the year because of the current market situation.