Can you give us an overview of Ramboll’s history and its core areas of focus?

Ramboll is a global architecture, engineering and consulting company, established in Denmark in 1945. Our growth led us to become the global company that we are today, employing around 17,500 people across approximately 35 countries. Singapore is Ramboll’s regional headquarters for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, where we also have offices in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, and most recently in Japan and Korea.

Our Scandinavian heritage has strongly influenced our focus on sustainability, which we have now formally integrated into our strategy, reflected in our four unifying themes: decarbonization for net zero, resilient societies and livability, resource management, and circular economy.

Ramboll is known for pushing the boundaries of what is expected from infrastructure. Can you expand on this?

In our design approach, we always aim to enhance biodiversity and ecosystems. To achieve this, we bring together expertise from various service lines, including landscape architecture, urbanism, buildings, energy, transport and water. We also have a long history in renewable energy, having been involved in the world’s first wind farms in Scandinavia. We are now extending these services to the APAC region, including Singapore, helping countries to increase their energy production through renewable sources.

Could you provide an example of a recent project in the APAC region related to chemicals?

A recent example is a client who developed a new catalyst that uses atmospheric carbon to produce a commonly used polymeric substance. This project reduces carbon emissions by functioning as a carbon sink.

In addition to our design and engineering work, we help our clients meet their regulatory obligations. This involves creating safety data sheets, registering and understanding existing and forthcoming regulations in the region. In my view, this project is a clear indication that the direction in which the chemicals industry is moving leads to more sustainable products throughout their entire life cycle.

Can you share with us a bit more about the regulatory environment for registering new chemical and agrochemical products, and how this process compares to other regions in the world?

The regulatory landscape for product registration has greatly evolved over the past 15 years, becoming more comprehensive and covering all supply chain stages. These rules vary by region; the EU, for example, has a unified regulatory framework, REACH, across all 27 member states, which is not the case in other parts of the world.

Regulatory schemes differ not just in nature but in their sophistication and complexity. The USA and Europe lead, with Asia Pacific and India rapidly catching up. Changes are often driven by events and incidents that highlight the need for regulation. For instance, the humidifier incident in Korea led to significant regulatory changes due to a cleaning chemical not being properly regulated. On the other hand, Singapore, which does not have a chemical registration scheme, emphasizes site and transport regulations to ensure the safety of manufacturing sites. This is effective in Singapore due to its small size and identifiable risks.

While regulations continue to become similar to those in Europe and the US in many Asia Pacific countries, each country maintains its own regulatory nuances. Japan, for example, has a long-standing regulation since 1972 with only minor amendments, while China actively updates its regulations, as seen in its recent enhancement of environmental protection focus in its China REACH (Order number 12).

Singapore plays a pivotal role in trying to align the varied regulatory requirements through initiatives like the Asian Regulatory Cooperation Project (ARCP) and does a tremendous job bringing regulators and industry together. This is not about reducing regulations but harmonizing them for the protection of people and the environment while allowing industry to manage day-to-day requirements. One successful outcome from ARCP is the move towards implementing the same GHS version across 10 Asian countries, streamlining safety data sheet requirements, labeling, and classification.

Could you comment on your recent wins at the Environment Analyst Sustainability Consulting Awards?

Environment Analyst is generally seen as the benchmark for sustainability consulting, so it was great for “SURE”, our free-to-use sustainability tool for site remediation options appraisal, to win the ESG Innovation Award. Our experts in biodiversity and ecosystems were also highly commended for their submission to the Nature Positive Award.