Building a green future together at Pearl in the Polder

Parel in de Polder is the epitome of a sustainable building project. Not surprisingly, De Vries en Verburg therefore went in search of the most sustainable building partners for the expansion of its office. One of these loyal partners is Bouwcenter Esselink. Commercial director Geerd Simons talks about the sustainable vision of the family business.

Esselink Bouwmaterialen B.V. is a family business, started in 1913 in Middelharnis. The company now has six branches throughout the Southwest Netherlands. "De Vries en Verburg has long been one of our biggest customers and really a loyal relationship," Simons says. The Middelharnis-based company supplies - as the name suggests - building materials. "From foundation to roof. In recent years we have started to focus more and more on prefab construction," Simons explains. Sustainability is incredibly important to Bouwcenter Esselink. "That is also why we are such a good match with De Vries en Verburg. For Parel in de Polder, we supplied materials such as insulation for the underwater part of the building and foundation boxes. We did all that with electric transport: an electric truck and an electric take-home truck."

95% CO2 reduction 

For Bouwcenter Esselink, the project coincided with two important sustainability developments. "Two weeks ago, we signed our cooperation alliance ReBrick. With four Bouwcenters in the Netherlands, we harvest facing bricks from buildings that are being demolished," Simons said. "We chip those bricks clean and sell them again." The four Bouwcenters all have about 300,000 used facing bricks in stock. And that results in a substantial CO2 reduction, up to 95%. "We then combine that with electric transport. It doesn't get much greener than that." 

Bouwcenter Esselink, however, goes a step further. With sustainability label Bouwgroen, the Bouwcenter is leading the way in the range of bio-based building materials. Simons: "Think of wood fiber and flax insulation or loam products and for example CLT constructions. All high-quality products with which we can all build a sustainable future."  

Sustainable cooperation partners 

As a sustainable construction partner, Simons notices that Bouwcenter Esselink is increasingly being asked to the table to think about how the construction industry can become more sustainable. "We have a lot of know-how in the field of materials and logistics. I am pleased that parties such as municipalities and housing corporations are increasingly making use of that." In January, the company will pitch its Rebrick and Bouwgroen initiatives to plan developers at partner De Vries en Verburg. "In this way, our joint sustainable vision will hopefully lead to even more greening in construction."