Sustainability and environment impact assessment
Sweco stands for an integrated approach to sustainability from the start-up of any plan or project. We strive for an optimal balance between the project and its impact on people, the environment and well-being. We try to make this impact as positive as possible and we combine it with a maximum of spatial and process quality.
For this we deploy a variety of tools, depending on the project’s scope: an integral sustainability assessment, an environmental impact study, an energy balance or a more focused assessment of (e.g.) health effects and climate impact. In this way the impact study receives a central place in our procedure and its conclusions flow directly into the plan or project.
In an environmental impact study, after a first definition of the assignment, we immediately perform a screening of the potential environmental and health effects. Via this ‘quick-scan’ we identify as rapidly as possible preconditions and points of attention and we investigate how the project or plan can also take these into account or will have to be adjusted to accommodate them. This is an iterative process whereby the plan or project is in permanent interaction with the environmental study and is further shaped through advancing insight into the potential impact on its environment. In this way, attenuating or mitigating measures are avoided as much as possible or are directly integrated into the plan or project.