Bruynzeel receives €18 million order in Canada, the largest in history
Bruynzeel Storage Systems has received the largest order in its corporate history with the collection storage of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada. The new Collections and Research Building (CRB) will open in 2026 and will store an impressive collection of more than 7 million artefacts and British Columbia’s archives. It is one of the most important history museums in Canada. The current museum building dates back to 1886 and attracts millions of visitors annually. The value of the new building project is over €180 million. Of the total area of 15,000m², Bruynzeel furnishes almost half with its storage systems. It is also one of the first projects to be built with low carbon steel. Bruynzeel is the global market leader in storage systems for libraries, archives and museums.
Sustainability important criteria in procurement
Located on Vancouver Island, in a suburb of capital Victoria, the museum offers a rich overview of the history of the province of British Columbia. The new building not only gives the museum more space, but it also contributes to the museum's greater sustainability goals. By choosing a solution with partially movable aisles, the building's space is used as efficiently as possible. This saves money, time and CO2 emissions. Mobile solutions can reduce space requirements by as much as 50%.
Cooperation with US subsidiary Delta
Bruynzeel is carrying out a significant part of the project with its U.S. subsidiary Delta Designs Ltd, which was acquired in March '23. Delta Designs is known for its top-of-the-line hermetically sealed museum grade cabinets designed to preserve fragile objects.
The Kansas-based company has worked with leading institutions like the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MIT Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard and many other notable Ivy League Universities.
Together, Bruynzeel and Delta offer the best total solutions for museums, institutions and precious collections. Bruynzeel works with respected clients such as Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Centre Pompidou, CC-NL (CollectieCentrum Nederland), the Louvre, Rijksmuseum, Science Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Van Gogh Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, the Vatican and the University of St Andrews.
Low Carbon steel
The systems supplied by Bruynzeel for the Royal British Columbia Museum (art racks, static and mobile shelving, cabinets) are fitted with Bruynzeel GreenSteel® wherever possible. This steel provides a CO2 saving of more than 90% compared to the common standard in the market. This makes it currently the most sustainable steel option. For this, Bruynzeel is working with Arcelor Mittal and accredited XCarb® certificates. The next goal is to be able to use hydrogen-produced steel from 2030, Bruynzeel GreenSteel® 2.0. This represents the next important step towards climate neutral steel. Bruynzeel's ambition is to significantly increase production with GreenSteel® in the coming years.
Bruynzeel also recently implemented Bruynzeel GreenSteel® in the new sustainable library of the famous Scottish ´University of St Andrews´. This is one of the largest and oldest research libraries in the UK. The university was founded in 1413 and the impressive library has a collection of more than one million books, some of which dates back to the early 15th century.
Alexander Collot d'Escury, CEO of Bruynzeel Storage Systems: "We are extremely proud that the management of Royal British Columbia Museum has chosen Bruynzeel for the storage of its impressive collections. Important in acquiring the contract was sustainability. Not only do we apply Bruynzeel GreenSteel® wherever possible, but we are also the most sustainable supplier in the industry. In this way, organizations can contribute to significant changes throughout the supply chain and a future with minimal CO2 impact. We deliver the highest quality storage systems from Bruynzeel and our new subsidiary Delta Designs to ensure long-term preservation of precious collections"
Climate neutral
Bruynzeel has been climate neutral in its own operations (Scope 1 and 2, GHG protocol¹) since 2021. A renewed audit was conducted by Deloitte for 2022. Bruynzeel has committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi²) to achieve 'Net Zero' for Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2045. As part of the focus on continuous improvements, energy consumption per product produced has been reduced by more than 10% by 2022.
Bruynzeel storage systems has the lowest CO2 footprint in the industry, and as "The Footprint Reduction Company," Bruynzeel aims to further strengthen its position as the most sustainable manufacturer in the coming years.
About Bruynzeel Storage Systems
Bruynzeel Storage Systems was founded in 1953 as part of the Bruynzeel Group and became independent in the 1980s. The company operates in the museum, archive, library and office markets with customers including the Louvre Paris and Abu Dhabi, the Boijmans van Beuningen Depot, the British government's National Archives and Schiphol Airport. The Netherlands-based company is also growing rapidly in mobile storage solutions for healthcare, retail, industrial and vertical farming.
Bruynzeel Storage Systems is the European market leader for innovative and space-saving mobile storage systems. Bruynzeel supplies mobile storage systems worldwide with the most innovative functionality and safety for users and objects. Bruynzeel helps these organizations use their space as efficiently and effectively as possible. Less space required means lower costs and has a huge positive impact on the carbon footprint. Bruynzeel itself is climate neutral in its own operations (Scope 1 and Scope 2). Its solutions have the lowest carbon footprint in the industry. As "The Footprint Reduction Company," Bruynzeel's mission is to support organizations in reducing their carbon footprint.
Early 2023, Delta Designs Ltd became part of the Bruynzeel Storage Group. Delta Designs is a leader in North America for the storage of museum, university and research institution collections and is known for its custom-made, high-quality museum cabinets. Delta has worked with leading institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MIT Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard and many other notable Ivy League Universities.
In addition to its own 11 offices in Europe and the United States, Bruynzeel operates through an extensive network of long-term partners & distributors in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, Australia and Asia. All systems are produced in its factories in the Netherlands and America. The company has more than 250 employees and with its best-in-class manufacturing process, Bruynzeel is able to deliver mobile storage systems with high quality and design with very short production and delivery times.
