ARCADIS and UN-HABITAT Team up to Improve Urban Quality of Life

ARNHEM, Netherlands, March 24, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ARCADIS (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the international design, consulting, engineering and management services company, and UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements, launch today a three-year collaboration aimed at a common goal: to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. By becoming a main partner of UN-HABITAT, ARCADIS will commit its staff members, expertise and skills to help bring the UN-HABITAT mission forward. ARCADIS already supports UN-HABITAT with setting up a program for the sustainable rebuilding of the cities of Haiti, which were destroyed during the earthquake last January.

One of the biggest challenges of this century is the improvement of the quality of life in the rapidly growing cities all over the world. The world has entered the urban millennium as for the first time in human history more than half of the world's population lives in cities. Almost one billion of them live in slums and substandard housing. If nothing is done, this number will double in the next thirty years. As one of the leading companies in the world providing professional services to improve the quality of life of people, ARCADIS is well positioned to support UN-HABITAT to address this urgent challenge. ARCADIS' talents span the fields of infrastructure, water, environment, buildings and urban planning at the highest levels.

There is a close fit between UN-HABITAT and ARCADIS as both organizations focus on the improvement of the urban environment. Harrie Noy, CEO of ARCADIS says: "Our skill set matches with the needs of UN-HABITAT, allowing us to offer exactly the type of expertise and experience it needs. These can be put to excellent use in helping UN-HABITAT meet the needs of the fast-growing cities in the world. The fit between our two organizations is made even better by the fact that UN-HABITAT is a global, accessible and above all flexible and efficient organization that has a good reputation."

Drawing on the expertise of ARCADIS in the field of building, urban planning, water management, infrastructure and environment the partnership between UN-HABITAT and ARCADIS will focus on two activities. The first activity is participation of ARCADIS employees in UN-HABITAT projects such as the recovery program for Haiti where they bring in their expertise. A second will be transferring expertise in urban planning and development by organizing seminars for city officials from around the world, for example in the field of climate change adaptation.

ARCADIS will also become a main sponsor of the World Urban Campaign, an initiative from UN-HABITAT designed to raise public awareness and to address the social, economic and environmental challenges of urbanization.

Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT explains the importance of the partnership with ARCADIS: "UN-HABITAT operates all over the world and there is an increasing demand for our services. The more we can share innovation and expertise, the more effective we can be. ARCADIS is a very important partner which is open to sharing its knowledge and spirit of innovation with the rest of the world and we'd like to facilitate this sharing process."

The cooperation of employees with different skills from different countries in project teams, will also have a positive impact on ARCADIS. By combining different efforts and resources throughout the company, this will be the single largest commitment in the field of social responsibility of ARCADIS. This shows the commitment of the company to improve the human habitat.

About ARCADIS:

ARCADIS is an international company providing consultancy, design, engineering and management services in infrastructure, environment and buildings. We aim to enhance mobility, sustainability and quality of life by creating balance in the built and natural environment. ARCADIS develops, designs, implements, maintains and operates projects for companies and governments. With 15,000 employees and EUR 1.8 billion in revenues, the company has an extensive international network that is supported by strong local market positions. Visit us at: http://www.arcadis.com

About UN-Habitat:

UN-Habitat is the lead UN agency for housing and urban development. Its mandate is to promote public policy and public and private investment to make our cities and towns socially more inclusive, economically dynamic and environmentally sound. It is headquartered in Nairobi Kenya and has 400 core staff and up to 2,000 project staff at any given time. Visit us at: http://www.unhabitat.org

SOURCE ARCADIS NV