The Construction Industry is largely contributing to the CO2 emissions, and so is the Deep Foundation Industry. With sustainability becoming every day more relevant, foundation design has to be viewed differently. Decarbonization is the first option: more efficient design reducing volumes of concrete or steel, the use of different materials with lower carbon footprint. This should not be viewed as the only option available: the reuse of existing foundations must be considered as well, and even preferred as the most sustainable option.

In Amsterdam foundations using timber piles (one of the more sustainable construction material) have been used for long, and given the age of many structures the issue of the foundation reuse is a recurring topic of endless debate. This can be because the loads have increased since the structure was first designed, as is the case with the bridges in Amsterdam, or because a new building is constructed to replace a structure that no longer meets the current requirements.