“Speaking one common language is essential on the path toward a sustainable sector,” said Kelly Ruigrok, CEO and founder of GSES, earlier during the well-attended Sustainability Event where the collaboration was formalized.

Part of this collaboration is the establishment of the Sustainabuild Collective foundation. “In construction, we all know how long a meter is and how heavy a kilo is. But when you ask about the sustainability of materials, you get ten different answers. It’s time to join forces and create a uniform standard,” says Roel Laban, director of the new foundation. In this role, Laban is the primary point of contact and responsible for building and expanding the foundation.

The first board of Sustainabuild Collective has now been formed and consists of Lex Hemels (Veris), Olaf de Boer (Zevij-Necomij), Dries Bauwens (Asamco), and René van het Hof (TABS).

One common language

Sustainabuild Collective is a non-profit foundation without members. Its main objective is clear: together with the GSES platform, to ensure that sustainability claims made by organizations are supported by reliable and verified data.

Laban: “We are working on a standard that measures the sustainability of materials and products fairly and consistently across the entire construction sector. This ensures that manufacturers, distributors, clients, and contractors are no longer misaligned, but can work together to make the sector more sustainable.”

Level playing field

According to Laban, standardizing sustainability data is essential to create a level playing field.

“All stakeholders in the market benefit from this. With our standard, producers can simplify their sustainability claims. One platform containing all data for affiliated wholesalers in the Benelux means producers no longer have to report separately to multiple trade partners.”

For construction wholesalers, a major advantage is the ability to more easily select a more sustainable product range, without having to develop their own measurement methods. This makes supplier selection and collaboration much more efficient.

For contractors, the platform provides clear and uniform sustainability data. Laban: “No matter which affiliated wholesaler they purchase from, time-consuming research is no longer needed. They can rely on trustworthy, comparable information.”

House of Sustainability

Sustainabuild Collective uses the GSES platform to map both the sustainability performance of suppliers’ organizations and their products.

For this, GSES has developed the “House of Sustainability,” already applied across multiple sectors. This benchmark translates over 500 international ESG certifications into underlying KPIs and makes them comparable.

“In the benchmark, we distinguish six pillars at the organizational level and three at the product level,” explains Ruigrok. “Existing certifications from suppliers can therefore be used within the GSES platform to demonstrate sustainability performance.”

Validated product data

Products are assessed within GSES based on their ecological and circular footprint, as well as their impact on health.

“All data within these pillars is not only standardized, but also validated and therefore reliable. With GSES, we are working to make data points visible that are specifically relevant for construction and industry,” Laban emphasizes.

Sustainabuild Collective focuses particularly on the ecological footprint, based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data. This is crucial across the entire value chain, as it enables fair comparisons truly comparing like with like. It also aligns with construction-specific regulations in the Netherlands and the EU.

Ten pioneers

In the lead-up to the foundation of Sustainabuild Collective, ten construction wholesalers and purchasing organizations committed to the initiative. These pioneers include Zevij-Necomij, Veris, Bouwcenter, De Stiho Groep (DSG), Grafton (parent company of Isero and Polvo), Bouwmaat, 4Plus, TABS Holland (parent company of PontMeyer and Jongeneel), Asamco, Meno, and Copagro.

Laban: “We deliberately started with wholesalers, as they form the link between manufacturers and contractors.”

Now that the foundation has been established, efforts are focused on connecting more stakeholders across the construction value chain.

Making data accessible

“We are now also focused on onboarding manufacturers. Together with the broad representation of wholesalers who will upload their private label products into GSES we can take major steps.”

Manufacturers joining the initiative are asked to share their data through the GSES platform.

“This sustainability data can with supplier consent be distributed via APIs directly into ERP or PIM systems of purchasing organizations. GSES integrates with systems such as EZ-Base, IB, or 2BA to further unlock data. Importantly, manufacturers always control what data is shared and with whom,” Laban explains.

A benchmark in motion

Next, discussions are planned with the 25 largest construction companies in the country.

“We want to introduce the platform and understand their needs. This will help us continuously improve the benchmark,” says Laban.

He expects the benchmark to evolve continuously, partly due to changing regulations.

“We use the GSES standard as a foundation to develop a sector-specific sustainability standard together with the entire construction value chain. Through the foundation, we aim to continuously facilitate this dialogue.”

GSES

Kelly Ruigrok founded GSES in 2019.

“My ambition is to change the world — to make it better and leave it in a good state for future generations. I realized that the world runs on standards and validated frameworks. But in sustainability, there were so many standards that it became impossible to navigate. That led to the idea of creating one unified meta-standard for sustainability data across all levels.”

All sustainability data within the platform is independently verified through Audit Independer, which manages the certification bodies and auditors GSES works with. All audits and verifications are carried out by certification bodies under supervision of the Dutch Accreditation Council.

The next step was the launch of the GSES SaaS platform, demonstrating what sustainability truly means and how organizations can collaborate to create impact. Today, the platform is used across numerous sectors worldwide.

The GSES team operates from Rotterdam and serves clients globally, including Schiphol, the European Commission, Xenos, A.S. Watson, Transdev, and ABN AMRO.

“GSES supported the World Expo Dubai in 2020 — the first event measured on sustainability. In the events industry, we also work with venues like Johan Cruijff ArenA and measure concerts and matches such as Coldplay and KNVB, as well as major events like SAIL Amsterdam 2025.

Together with Xenos, we launched a product impact score providing verified product data across three sustainability footprints: Circular, Health, and Environmental. This data is also displayed in stores and online channels of participating retailers, including A.S. Watson brands like Trekpleister and Kruidvat.

With Sustainabuild partners, we are working towards the same impact in the construction sector — enabling wholesalers and DIY retailers to become the bridge between manufacturers and end customers, guiding them towards more sustainable choices,” says Ruigrok.

Sustainabuild Collective

[email protected]
www.sustainabuildcollective.nl

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