Quality assurance and certification

Qualifications and experience of staff

Bureau Waardenburg’s staff are qualified through both their qualifications and experience. Our staff includes specialists in the fields of ecology (aquatic and marine ecology, botany, ornithology and animal ecology), physical geography, landscape design and GIS.

What distinguishes us from other consultancies is that our staff are not only qualified academically but have extensive practical experience. This combination of both theoretical and practical knowledge guarantees robust ideas and realistic outcomes.

Continuity

A vast amount of knowledge has been gained within the organisation and this is shared with new staff. As well as sharing knowledge within the organisation, such as through internal training, our staff are involved within their field at a larger scale and regularly attend conferences and workshops as well as external training courses.

Materials and equipment

We have necessary equipment for our research; this ranges from sweep nets, binoculars and field computers to boats, diving equipment, radars and infrared cameras.

We also have the facilaties for thorough analyses including laboratory facilaties and a specialist GIS department. Furthermore, we aim to use the best tool for the task at hand and use specialist software such as ‘batsound’ and custom written programmes.

Certification 

The organisation has a system of quality control and since is certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard. This ensures the quality of our business processes. Our fieldworkers hold certificates in Safety, Health and Environment (SHECC) VCA (VOL-VCA). We are currently working towards an accreditation for our hydrobiological labs so that they conform to ISO 17025.

We also have a member of staff trained in tree climbing and who is certified to work in trees without a ladder.

Amongst our ornithologists and marine ecologists we have a team trained and certified for offshore work including on platforms and surveying from ships. This includes NOGEPA 0.5 (including HUET) and an offshore medical examination as well as various operator specific certification, MMO (JNCC) etc.. See also our pages on offshore ecological research.

Marine ecologists that work underwater are fully qualified professional divers, SCUBA, SSE. Since 2012 we are also qualified to dive at offshore installations following IMCA standards.

Cooperation and exchange of knowledge

We maintain close links with other experts and consultancies. Bureau Waardenburg is a member of NLIngenieurs (formerly ONRI) and the Netwerk Groene Bureaus (Network of Green Organisations).