In the spotlight: Gerhard Hospers, ESG Champion at BMN
News release 20 March 2026
To help translate BME’s strategy into practice, each operating company has its own ESG Champion. At BMN in the Netherlands, that’s Gerhard Hospers, ESG/Greenworks Manager. He talks about how BMN is transforming sustainability from an exercise in compliance to a strategic advantage for its customers.
What does it mean to be an ESG Champion?
Being an ESG Champion is an exciting role in a dynamic market where the core business revolves around the sale of building materials. The real challenge – and the greatest potential for success – lies in bringing the organization along in understanding the value, relevance, and necessity of ESG themes and objectives.
How do you work together with the ESG Champions team?
Within the ESG Champions team, we focus on European regulations, collecting the ESG data that’s required for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and steering the business in the direction of responsible building materials and solutions. For me personally, it’s very rewarding to approach this from the perspectives of different operating companies and colleagues – there’s always a lot to learn from one another.
How do you translate ESG policies from BME into concrete action at BMN?
It all boils down to one principle: “ESG is not a one-man show.” We all need to work together to put policy into action. Every month, I hold an ESG alignment meeting with all operationally responsible roles, including Procurement, HR, Facilities, Health & Safety, and Supply Chain. Together, we discuss how we can make progress on ESG themes and achieve our targets. And we regularly communicate about ESG topics to our colleagues via our intranet, Samen Bouwen (Building Together).
We also aim to translate ESG into tangible value for our customers, particularly nationally and regionally operating contractors. For example, we collaborate with contractors on how to make their procurement more sustainable, and we provide project recommendations to help them win tenders, including smart logistics and (almost) waste-free construction sites.
How do you engage employees on sustainability, and why is this so important?
Employee engagement works best when driven by customer demand for circular and sustainable construction. Through Greenworks, we translate this demand into concrete support for selections and tenders, enabling us to win projects together with our customers, but also with our colleagues. For many customers and colleagues, ESG initially represents a compliance exercise. But with Greenworks, we turn compliance into strategic advantage. Not just a trading partner, but a strategic partner and co-creator.
What achievements are you most proud of?
I’m really proud of the steps we’ve taken in reducing carbon emissions – not just in the past year, but since BMN really started focusing on ESG in 2021. In 2025, we significantly exceeded our 8% reduction target – we managed to cut down on carbon emissions by no less than 13.4% compared with 2024.
Greenworks has continued to grow strongly, with the share of building-related revenue increasing to over 44% of BMN’s turnover. We also introduced the VANG concept: it stands for Van Afval Naar Grondstof in Dutch, translating to “From Waste to Raw Material”. We currently have 30 projects underway, in which we collect residual materials like packaging, pallets, insulation offcuts, and tile waste, and reintroduce them into a circular loop as potential raw materials.
We launched Greenworks in 2011, at a time when demand for sustainable solutions was still only occasional. In 2026, we’ll celebrate Greenworks’ 15th anniversary – a major milestone for BMN in the Netherlands.
And that commitment to green transformation was recently rewarded by ABN AMRO: BMN was honored to win the Public Award at the bank’s “Sustainable 50”, which recognizes sustainability leadership in the construction and real estate sectors. For me, winning this award is proof that ESG isn’t just a box-ticking exercise – it’s central to how BMN creates long-‑term value for customers, the industry, and society.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal is to elevate ESG from compliance to strategic advantage for BMN and our customers. We’re aiming to evolve our sustainable Greenworks strategy even further into a brand experience and a winning business model. In a nutshell, moving from the message of: “Customer, you must do this,” to a more inspiring message: “We help you win!”