Case Study

Construction  ·  110 employees  ·  Rotterdam  ·  5-day deadline

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The request

A 110-person construction company in Rotterdam received a sustainability questionnaire from one of its largest commercial clients. ESG criteria had been added to the supplier review, with a five-day deadline to remain on the approved supplier list.

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The questionnaire covered emissions, waste handling, labour policies, and procurement. The company had no sustainability lead, so it landed on the office manager’s desk. Most of the answers existed somewhere, across invoices, policies, and internal records, but had never been structured in one place.

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What we did

We started with a two-hour working session, reviewing the questionnaire line by line and sorting each question into three groups: what already existed, what could be gathered quickly, and what was not yet tracked.

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“As soon as we broke it down like that, it stopped feeling overwhelming. It was clear what we could actually answer.”

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We then gathered the existing evidence, energy invoices, waste collection records, HR documents, and supplier information, and structured everything into a single folder aligned with VSME logic, so the responses matched what procurement teams expect.

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We drafted the responses with them, not for them, so everything reflected how the business actually operates. Where data was missing, we stated it clearly instead of estimating or filling gaps with assumptions.

 

How the week ran

Day 1 - Two-hour working session, in person. We went through the questionnaire together and agreed who owned what. Their job was to point us to where things lived. Ours was everything after.

Days 1–2 - We worked off-site: gathering evidence, building the folder, drafting answers. No demand on their team during this stretch.

Day 2 - First structured response back to them for review, inside the 48-hour mark.

Days 3–4 - One review round. They checked it against how the business operates and flagged any needed corrections.

Day 5 - Final submission, sent to the client on deadline.

 

Two scheduled touchpoints from them across the week. The rest was on us.

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What they got

A structured first response within 48 hours, followed by a complete and validated submission within five working days.

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They also retained the evidence folder, so the next request, whether from a client, bank, or partner, starts mostly complete rather than from scratch.

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The outcome

The client accepted the submission with no follow-up questions, and the company remained on the approved supplier list.

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Client perspective

“We were close to the deadline and didn’t want to risk losing the client over something we didn’t fully understand. What made the difference was how quickly everything was structured and turned into a response we could stand behind. Now we actually have it organised for next time.”

— Office manager, Rotterdam construction firm

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What we didn’t do

Two areas, Scope 3 emissions and supplier-level impact data, were not yet measured. We said exactly that, with a short explanation and a practical outline of how tracking could begin.

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No proxy data, no estimated figures, nothing we couldn’t back up. When responses may be reviewed or audited, accuracy holds up better than sounding impressive.

 

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