The materials wasted during construction, operation, and decommissioning constitutes a negative impact. In general, we see two complementary pathways to address waste generation that we must work on simultaneously. Firstly, we must consider if our waste generation can be avoided in the first place, by addressing the challenges at their root cause. This is done as we work to design our assets with minimal reliance on the use of a specific material, for example by switching non-recyclable content with more recyclable content to allow for proper waste treatment. At the same time, we need to ensure that waste is diverted from disposal by enhancing sorting and collection processes as well as supporting the maturation of reuse and recycling markets for our components and materials.

As part of our DMA, we frequently screen our assets and activities to understand their impacts, risks, and opportunities across our value chain. However, as also noted in the DMA methodology and due to the nature of our assets, we have not undertaken direct consultations with affected communities as part of the screening performed to understand our IROs related to resource use and circularity. Going forward, we will increasingly apply our methodology for life cycle assessments (LCAs), providing enhanced insights into our impacts related to the use and depletion of virgin materials when constructing our assets. Furthermore, we have calculated the recyclability rate of materials embedded in a representative sample of our offshore wind farms, to understand which materials and components we can process for recycling upon retirement of the wind farms. The underlying calculations, prepared in collaboration with the digital ReWind tool facilitated by DNV, are important for our further understanding of the negative impact of materials wasted during construction, operation, and decommissioning. Additionally, the information gathered helps us identify how we can turn used materials, such as steel and copper, into reusable components, improving our wider resource efficiency.