The Sustainabuild Collective (SBC) is a cross-sector foundation that aims to streamline information availability and sharing for all market players in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The goal: to promote uniform, reliable, and transparent sustainability data in the construction sector and establish a single standard to communicate with all parties in the value chain. All these parties, from suppliers to costumers, will be asked to join.

The costs your organization bears are dependent on which functionalities your organization uses. If you only want to be able to receive data you only need a membership. If you want to supply data each data entry (i.e. product registration and data validation), this will cost a fixed sum, in addition to the base membership fee. See the price chart below.

SBC sees the NMD (Stichting Nationale Milieudatabase) as a very valuable tool as a Dutch database of LCA data for construction materials, while the GSES Nature Impact Score is a cross-sector sustainability rating that translates product and supply chain impacts on nature into an accessible score. To support data entries in the NMD, SBC and GSES have come to the agreement that data available in the NMD can be uploaded to GSES free of charge for the coming three years.

A further collaboration between SBC and the NMD is being explored.

DPP data can be managed on the GSES platform and is shown on the product scorecard. By connecting your supply chain to the platform, GSES facilitates data entry from suppliers.

Materials included in the scope of EUDR are flagged on the GSES platform. For these materials, you can collect due diligence statements and certificates and gain an overview on your progress in an integrated EUDR dashboard.

Getting Started with GSES

You can start by registering yourself and your organization here.

When you have done so, a team member of GSES will contact you to verify your organization’s needs and provide a concept contract.

After signing the contract, we’ll schedule a workshop for you and your colleagues to help you get started quickly and efficiently.

You can also plan your own (refresher) workshop anytime via the landing page.

What GSES membership your organization needs is based on the functionality your organization will use.

To get a better understanding of the possible functionalities we advise you to book an online GSES-demo trough the SBC landingpage.

Your organization decides who has access to your organization’s data.

Important to note is that you can share product sustainability data without having to disclose the BoM (Bill of Materials) or BoI (Bill of Information) of the product.

Data can be provided on two levels.

Organization:

To gain insights in the sustainability performance of your company you can choose to start by uploading all the certificates your organizations already holds. These will subsequently be validated and give your organization an initial GSES-score. If your organization does not hold any certificates or you want to provide additional information not captured in the certificates you can choose to fill the six pillar-assessments. Each containing ca. 15 questions. Note that to fill these assessments you will have to provide evidence into a Virtual Safe. This evidence will be verified by an external independent auditor and result into a GSES score on the platform.

For more info please see: here

Products:

Product information can be supplied in two ways, either by supplying data from an LCA with the LCA as evidence for the data or by supplying a detailed BoM through the platform.

For more info please see: here

Yes, because ‘not all LCA’s are created equal’ the LCA has to be uploaded on the platform and independently validated.

Furthermore, the GSES Nature Impact Score considers indicators beyond an LCA, which must be declared separately.

The scope of the NIS is Cradle to Gate as standard. If you supply additional data and evidence for the gate to market transport, this scope can be increased and lead to a better score.

For building products, the GSES platform also allows you to add use phase and end-of-life data, which is visualised on the product score card, though not included in the score.

After you have finished uploading the data you can request a data validation through our partner Audit Independer. Audit Independer subsequently assigns the audit to an accredited conformity assessment body (i.e. Kiwa or Control Union) who performs the audit. When your audit is done you will receive a message from GSES.

The audit request process is automated; this means that both Audit Independer and GSES incur immediate costs when you request an audit. If you have made any mistakes in the information you have provided, we will not be able to adjust the audit or to reimburse you.

Data can be edited up until the point that you request an audit. The audit request process is automated; this means that both Audit Independer and GSES incur immediate costs when you request an audit. If you have made any mistakes in the information you have provided, we will not be able to adjust the audit or to reimburse you.

The verification results of the ABN AMRO Questionnaire are accessible to ABN AMRO.

The results of the EcoVadis validation based on the GSE-Metastandard and the GSES Co₂ assessment verification are accessible through your organization’s GSES ESG Scorcard, which is visible to full members.

Audit reports, contextual information, and supporting evidence related to validations and verifications are not shared with third parties, except with auditors from certification bodies.

The costs associated with the ABN AMRO request only cover the audits (validations/verifications). However, you can make use of the outcomes displayed on your GSES ESG Scorecard. Additional functionalities (modules) are available through separate GSES memberships

Click here for an overview of the GSES memberships and available modules.

In the context of compliance, it is highly likely that you are contractually obligated to comply with ABN AMRO’s request. GSES works with various clients, where both mandatory requirements and voluntary requests may apply.

For a first-line validation, the process typically takes 2 business days.

A second-line validation can take up to 10 business days, and a verification generally takes between 10 and 15 business days, provided all information is submitted clearly, timely, and completely.

The EcoVadis certificate relates to a second-line validation, for which additional supporting documents are required. These will be requested after receiving the certificate and report.

ABN AMRO’s CSRD questionnaire and the CO₂ assessment both involve a verification.

• Do you have an EcoVadis certificate?
  Registering and uploading the certificate and audit report typically takes no more than a few minutes.
• ABN AMRO’s CSRD Questionnaire and CO₂ Assessment:
  Filling in the questionnaire and uploading the required evidence usually takes no more than one hour per section, provided all necessary context and documentation are readily available.

If you upload and submit additional certificates for validation to potentially improve your GSES ESG Scorecard, a GSES Limited Membership will be required.

To complete additional assessments, a GSES Pro Membership is required. These assessments can also be submitted for verification to potentially enhance your GSES ESG Scorecard.

The same applies to other modules.

U kunt het aanmeldproces starten via onze registratiepagina. Eerst wordt er een persoonlijk account aangemaakt, waarna ook de organisatie geregistreerd kan worden.

Het doorlopen van de registratiestappen neemt enkele minuten in beslag. Als alles duidelijk en compleet is, ontvang je binnen enkele werkdagen de lidmaatschapsovereenkomst via Docusign van ons.

Binnen de organisatie is één collega aangewezen als hoofdgebruiker in het GSES-platform. De hoofdgebruiker kan via de Team-module in het platform collega-gebruikers beheren, verwijderen en toevoegen.

Het is ook mogelijk om zelf de registratie te starten en tijdens dit proces bij ‘Join Organization’ een verzoek in te dienen om aan te sluiten bij de organisatie. De hoofdgebruiker ontvangt vervolgens een e-mailbericht om dit verzoek te accepteren.