Van den Pol uses the Green Buildings Tool to make thousands of buildings more sustainable
Family business Van den Pol Elektrotechniek has been around for over 85 years. In that time, this sustainable electrical contractor has been involved in thousands of buildings and projects. They are constantly looking for ways to work better and more efficiently, with sustainability as a top priority. How does Van den Pol help their customers to become more sustainable, and what role does the Green Buildings Tool play in this? Paul van der Maas, Sales Engineer at Van den Pol, shares his experiences.
Driver of sustainability
As a true family business, Van den Pol looks further ahead than other companies. Sustainability plays an important role here, because increasing sustainability means future-proofing. That is why Van den Pol promotes sustainability, including towards its own clients. Van den Pol is proactive in giving advice, and uses figures and data to convince the client.
“It helps enormously if you can show customers in concrete terms what increasing sustainability gets you,” says Paul van der Maas. “With the help of the Green Buildings Tool, we can provide clients with the right insights, so that the majority of them will actually start working on sustainability.”
Sustainable insights with the Green Buildings Tool
The Van den Pol technicians have been using the Green Buildings Tool for years now. Paul uses the tool for specific customer questions about the EPC, but it also helps him be proactive and prepared when entering into discussions with clients about sustainability. “We use the Green Buildings Tool to see how a particular building is doing in terms of sustainability,” says Paul. “The tool also shows which buttons we can push to improve the energy label. It gives us all the necessary insights to serve our clients with solutions tailored to them. But I also use the tool proactively. I like to show clients who are not yet working on sustainability where they stand and the simple things they can do for some quick gains. People actually always react positively to this, because of how prepared we are.”
“Some 60% of our clients actually implement the sustainable measures. But now with energy prices as high as they are, that number is going up. Sustainability is something we are going to be needing more and more.”
– Paul van der Maas, Sales Engineer at Van den Pol
Practical examples
Before starting a project, Van der Maas first uses the tool to zero in on where the opportunities lie. Often, the client can achieve big results with just a few adjustments. An example of this is one major player in the retail sector, which wants to make its shops sustainable one step at a time. “After loading all the data into the Green Buildings Tool, it turned out that there were a lot of savings to be made just by making some changes in the lighting,” says Paul. “The next step was to start adjusting the lighting and the switches. These were things like motion sensors and LED lighting. With changes like these, we’ve saved around 5 million kWh per year.”
A complete picture for all clients
Paul gives the Green Buildings Tool a score of 8. “With the Green Buildings Tool, we can show and discuss each client’s situation in a targeted way. We have also benefited greatly from the government’s introduction of certain transparency obligations, and have been able to advise many clients on that as well. In addition, the link with the land registry is very nice, as a result of which a lot of the data we need is retrieved automatically. However, you should always take a good look at what the situation is now and possibly refine it yourself with the knowledge that you have as a supplier for the building. In this way, you will complete the picture and be able to provide your clients with the best possible advice. I give the tool an 8 out of 10 because it is nice and clear and just works well for us,” Paul van der Maas says, explaining his rating.
