As a highlight of the Dutch Green Building Week, the Dutch Green Building Congress took place on 1 October. Professionals from the construction and real estate sectors gathered in the vibrant Titaan in The Hague. From economist Paul Schenderling to DGBC board members and VNO-NCW chair Ingrid Thijssen, they shared new perspectives and practical tools. After the plenary programme, it was time for the sub-sessions. CFP organised a workshop with Marit Bouwmeester on the best practices for succeeding in Olympic sailing and how to translate this into the complex CSRD. In this article, we will update you on this inspiring afternoon.
This year, the Dutch Green Building Week revolved around the theme of navigating together towards a sustainable built environment (‘Samen op koers’ in Dutch). The DGBW Congress turned out to be an inspiring afternoon where frontrunners took the stage. The audience was presented with unique insights, along with concrete tools to take the next sustainable steps.
The mentality of top athletes added a special touch to the day. Former top hockey player Kim Lammers was the moderator, and Olympic sailing champion Marit Bouwmeester shared how she reached the top with a growth mindset.
“Olympic Sailing and CSRD: The Best Practice to Solve Complex ESG Challenges Once and for All” was the title of the knowledge session hosted by CFP. A mouthful indeed.
In the audience were professionals who, one way or another, are dealing with the CSRD and challenges surrounding ESG. Marit Bouwmeester kicked off, emphasising the importance of mindset when it comes to achieving results. Talent or what you can already do is great, but effort makes the difference.
What are the best practices from sailing that are incredibly useful for tackling complex challenges like the CSRD?
Setbacks can be viewed as a challenge or a threat. And that difference is significant. Marit states: “People sometimes think that top athletes have it easy. They perform well, so they must have few setbacks. But the opposite is true. Setbacks happen all the time. What matters is how you handle them. If you see it as a challenge, you will work step by step and make progress.”
Marit draws on the growth mindset of psychologist Carol Dweck, who suggests that believing in development and potential leads to better performance. You will tackle challenges because you believe that it will make you better. In other words, you connect your effort to progress.
A fixed mindset stands in stark contrast. It focuses on the current situation and avoids making mistakes. The result? You view difficulties as threats and avoid them. The difference in outcome is enormous.
“An optimistic attitude doesn’t mean you expect there won’t be setbacks. It’s about grabbing them with both hands.”
In the context of potential, Marit emphasises the importance of training your character. You don’t want to give up when you’re at the back of the race. To ensure that you can persevere and have enough determination, you need to train yourself when you feel good.
“For example, consciously stand in the longest queue at the supermarket or in the slowest traffic. This is how you train your character. If you can’t put in the effort when you feel good, you certainly won’t be able to do it when you don’t.”
Marit talks about the ‘P-flag’ that her coach used. The P stood for ‘princess’, and the flag was raised when she wanted to take the easy way out.
That P-flag prevented Marit from getting too comfortable and leaning back. Maximum effort makes all the difference. “Because I had to work much harder in music class than my brother and sister, I learned from a young age that effort and hard work are linked to improvement and achieving results. My brother and sister had much more musical talent and received compliments from the music teacher while practising much less. Talent can actually become a handicap.”
Marit makes the connection to the business world: “As a coach or manager, you have a significant influence on the mindset of people. Do you compliment them on results or on their effort and hard work? The latter encourages much more and prevents people from becoming complacent, as long as the results are good.”
Hard work and giving your best are the keys to success, according to Marit. Besides the P-flag, her coach had a saying that perfectly summarises it: “There’s no substitute for hard work.”
The last best practice Marit addresses is about taking responsibility. If you want to get the best out of yourself and deliver top performance, you need to think for yourself and look ahead.
“When my coach stopped in 2012 and said goodbye, I realised that I hardly thought for myself. I just followed what he said. My big learning point was to start taking responsibility.” This meant for Marit reading up on different life philosophies.
You want to be prepared. Marit compared it to a backpack full of tools. “Make sure your backpack is full and that you can take out what you need. This is something you need to work on yourself. Ensure you can rely on your resources.”
CFP’s sustainability consultant Inge Westerink took over from Marit and translated these insights into practical examples related to ESG, CSRD, and CRREM. How do you chart the course to sustainable success?
The CSRD requires not only a financial investment but also time. Inge states: “Before you can actually start reporting, you need 12 to 18 months to map everything out and gather data.”
In the context of taking responsibility and being prepared, Inge highlighted Vesteda and Vastint. They are dealing with the CSRD, recognising its complexity, and have already started. For instance, Vastint finds that sustainability is becoming increasingly important for their investors, prompting them to begin investing. They see the CSRD as a way to differentiate their buildings.
It’s not easy. Even Vesteda and Vastint, who are ahead of the game, conclude that the CSRD is indeed a whole new ball game, especially due to the diverse KPIs and reporting areas. Are they disheartened or pessimistic? Not at all. After the initial step of understanding, Vastint has gradually started working on it.
Through collaborations with parties in construction, government, real estate, and the financial sector in countries around the world, CFP Green Buildings has amassed substantial knowledge. In all these countries, sustainability can be made profitable. The key to understanding CSRD is the double materiality analysis, as Inge explains: “You not only look at the impact that is relevant for both stakeholders and the company, but also at the impact that is only relevant for the brand or for the stakeholders. Long-term healthy profit falls within the scope of the CSRD, but it was probably not part of your CSR reporting.”
While Marit ensures that her backpack is filled with tools, it is equally important for everyone dealing with the CSRD to utilise the right tools. One of the best practices is to use standards. Standards such as PCAF, CRREM, BREEAM, WELL, B Corp, and NPS provide guidance for data collection. CFP’s Managing Director Bram Adema states: “Standards are essentially cheap and easy ways to gather the data you will need for your CSRD datapoints. You can think of it as a shopping list. The standards ensure that your data is ready to go. As a next step, you might even apply for certifications like BREEAM or Well, and have those sorted out too.”
To illustrate, Inge provided the example of Base Investments. They used CRREM as a tool to develop the reduction pathways for their assets, focusing on CO2 reduction. Read more about how Base Investments approached this.
More Examples? a.s.r. real estate used BREEAM as a tool to report sustainability for the CSRD while achieving value enhancement. By certifying no less than 146 retail properties and centres, a.s.r. demonstrated that it is feasible to collect data on a large scale.
Where the BREEAM standard enables data collection on sustainable themes of the CSRD, WELL does the same for health. The World Port Center in Rotterdam is one of the best examples. They focused on the S in ESG – and thus also on the social aspects of the CSRD – using Well to map their social impact. Curious how that went? Read more about the World Port Center and its WELL certification.
Inge and Bram demonstrated that the CSRD doesn’t have to be complicated. It absolutely requires an investment, but sustainability is not expensive. Greening creates value and pays for itself. And when you know that the CSRD is coming for your company or organisation, take responsibility, challenge each other, and embrace the challenge wholeheartedly. Then, it will become something beautiful. Success is – even in terms of the CSRD – achievable!
For Marit Bouwmeester, it was crystal clear: she wanted to be the best sailor and would only be satisfied with gold. “Must that be the case?”, “Isn’t being number 2 or 3 good enough?” were questions posed by the audience.
Marit explained that it’s about your mindset: you want to get the most out of it. In her case, this resulted in a realistic goal to be the very best.
The frontrunners in the room were also encouraged to stay ahead. Don’t lean back; continue to be the driving force behind the movement shaping the future of the construction and real estate sector.