Sustainability – FAQ

The construction industry has a huge responsibility for ensuring that in the future we have good, healthy buildings that are adapted to the constantly changing climate. The building and civil engineering sector is responsible for a large share of Denmark’s total CO2 emissions, and companies within the sector therefore carry a major responsibility. DS Gruppen is a member of the Danish Green Building Council, which works to reduce the climate impact of the construction and property industry through the sharing of knowledge and experience across the profession. For DS Gruppen, this is particularly about being mindful that we use materials in the right way and that, wherever possible, we find alternative solutions that may be gentler in terms of resource consumption and impact on people and the environment.

The sharing of experience and knowledge is crucial to ensuring sustainable development in the construction industry, and it is a priority both across our subsidiaries and across our strong network within the industry. Through our membership of the Danish Green Building Council, we keep up to date with news and relevant knowledge about sustainable development in the construction industry.

You can aim to have your building project certified in accordance with environmental standards such as BREEAM® or DGNB. You can read more about how our subsidiary DS Flexhal works with environmental certifications in design and build projects.

In addition, you can choose suppliers that are certified according to, for example, ISO management systems and that actively work to optimise environmental conditions. Our subsidiaries DS Stålkonstruktion and DS Stålprofil, for example, are certified to ISO 14001 and focus on reducing energy consumption and optimising waste management in both production and administration.

At DS Gruppen, we are always happy to share our knowledge and experience if you want to work on making your building project more resource-efficient and reducing its climate footprint, for example by working towards a DGNB or BREEAM® certification.

If you have questions regarding our work with environment, climate and sustainability, or would like to know more about our certifications, you can contact our Head of Sustainability Svanborg Guðjónsdóttir.

Yes. At DS Flexhal, we have specialists in both DGNB and BREEAM® certifications and therefore extensive insight into and experience with, for example, energy-efficient solutions and other alternative solutions for your building project. In addition, as suppliers of steel profiles, concrete elements and steel structures, we can contribute documentation.

An environmental certification is a way of documenting that your product, your building or your company meets a certain environmental standard – and it can serve as a mark of quality for your construction project. At our subsidiary DS Flexhal, we work with the environmental standards DGNB and BREEAM®, and we can help you achieve the certification for your building project that you require.

DGNB is a certification scheme in which a building is evaluated according to how it performs in relation to social, economic and environmental sustainability.

At DS Flexhal, several of our projects are DGNB-certified. One example is one of our large logistics centres for DSV – Global Transport & Logistics in Hedehusene on Zealand, DSV Hedeland 2. DSV Hedeland 2 covers 95,000 square metres and is the first logistics building in Denmark to have achieved DGNB Silver.

BREEAM® is an international certification scheme in which a building is evaluated according to how it affects the environment. In this certification system, a building is assessed on, among other things, the building’s energy efficiency, indoor climate and impact on the local area in relation to biodiversity.

At DS Flexhal, we are working on several projects that are to be BREEAM®-certified. One example is our building project for Taulov Dry Port in Fredericia, which in 2025 achieved BREEAM® Excellent certification as the first logistics building in Denmark. You can read more about which measures have been implemented to achieve the BREEAM® certification on DS Flexhal’s website.

DS Stålkonstruktion is certified to ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety). DS Stålprofil is certified to ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment). DS Elcobyg is certified to ISO 9001 (quality). The ISO systems help structure and organise our quality assurance and development efforts within the environmental area. Therefore, DS Elcobyg also aims to achieve ISO 14001 and 45001 certification within the next three years.

DS Stålprofil is Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze. Cradle to Cradle is a certification that measures what materials a product consists of, its recyclability, emissions and social fairness.

Our subsidiary DS Elcobyg is a member of the steering group in the Sustainable Concrete Initiative under Dansk Beton. In this way, we keep our finger on the pulse in relation to new knowledge and experience in the industry.

At DS Elcobyg, we place emphasis on ensuring that our concrete is calculated and used in the right way. Through our membership of the steering group in Dansk Beton, we collaborate with Dansk Beton and other members on a so-called “roadmap” to reduce CO2 emissions from concrete construction.

Our sponsorship strategy is based on “Young people’s mental health and wellbeing”, and in this connection we sponsor and collaborate with a number of organisations that support precisely this cause.

DS Stålkonstruktion and DS Stålprofil are both ISO 14001-certified and use the management system to structure, define and organise their environmental work. With this certification, we demonstrate that we continuously develop and improve our processes in relation to our environmental efforts.

Biodiversity carries significant weight if you want your building project to be DGNB- or BREEAM®-certified. The environmental standards set high requirements for the impact of the building project on its surroundings, and whether efforts are made to support and improve biodiversity around the development. In connection with DS Flexhal’s logistics construction project for Taulov Dry Port in Prinsessens Kvarter in Fredericia, the project team worked with a biologist who recommended various measures to improve biodiversity around the development.

At DS Flexhal we work with a range of measures that you can choose for your building project, and among these we work with renewable energy sources such as solar panels. Many of our building projects have large roof areas, where we take the opportunity to install solar panel systems as often as possible. This can reduce the building’s need for purchased energy and therefore often also the building’s operating costs. One example is our 300,000-square-metre construction project for DSV – Global Transport & Logistics in Horsens, where solar panels will be installed on the roof.

At DS Flexhal, we work to select solutions for our buildings so that they remain good and healthy for the people who will use them in the future as well. At the same time, we focus on energy-efficient operation and documented environmental standards. That is why we offer a wide range of solutions that can help reduce the building’s energy consumption in relation to heating and cooling, ventilation and water usage.

We always focus on the safety and health of our employees. This applies at our production facilities and in our offices, as well as on our building sites across the country. We work purposefully to prevent work-related injuries, including by ensuring that newly hired employees receive thorough instruction and training in our safety rules and procedures.

Across our subsidiaries, we work with energy savings. At DS Flexhal, we work with a range of measures such as solar panels, ATES systems, ground-source heating systems, heat pumps, as well as lighting and ventilation. Read more about the individual measures in DS Flexhal’s sustainability brochure. In addition, both DS Stålkonstruktion and DS Stålprofil are ISO 14001 certified and focus on reducing energy consumption in both production and administration.

At DS Gruppen, we are always curious to explore new technologies that can improve the quality of our work. Especially in our design offices, new digital solutions and technologies can be valuable tools both for saving time and for minimising resource waste and errors.

One of the exciting technologies we are testing at DS Stålkonstruktion is Microsoft HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that can help reduce errors during installation.

In addition, DS Flexhal works with 3D printing made from maize and rice husks as a tool for visualisation and likewise to minimise errors and thereby the waste of resources.

In our turnkey projects at DS Flexhal, we incorporate water savings and SuDS solutions right from the start. The large roof surfaces of our buildings can collect substantial amounts of rainwater, and this can be used as a water supply for the rest of the building.

Across our subsidiaries, we work with principles from the circular economy. When DS Flexhal works on construction projects aimed at environmental certifications such as DGNB and BREEAM®, the reuse of building materials on the construction site is just one of the important measures. DS Flexhal sorts and recycles the excavated building materials and reuses crushed concrete, among other things, as a stable base layer.

All of our companies also work with waste management, so on construction sites, in production and at our offices, we ensure that we dispose of our waste correctly.

Download our EPDs

We are always looking for new talent who would like to work with us, and in all our companies there are opportunities to work with tasks related to the environment, climate and sustainability to varying degrees.

You may also get to work with environment- and sustainability-related topics if you are doing an internship or an apprenticeship with us.

You can find the life cycle analyses (LCA analyses) of our products’ environmental impact in the respective EPDs for the products.

You can find EPDs for our products on the respective websites of our companies.