Tender advantage with the CO2 Performance Ladder
The award advantage is the main reason companies pursue the CO2 Performance Ladder. It works through a notional discount on your bid price: your bid counts in the assessment as a lower amount than the price you actually quote. The CO2 Performance Ladder is therefore not a sustainability prize but a commercial instrument. A higher rung means a bigger discount and a better chance of winning the contract.
The basics are explained in the PIANOo guidance document on tendering under the CO2 Performance Ladder 4.0 . The contracting authority decides for itself how much advantage it awards per level or rung. SKAO sets the scheme, not the discount percentages.
What is a notional award advantage?
A contracting authority wants to reward sustainable suppliers, but it may not simply award the contract to the greenest bidder. The Dutch Public Procurement Act (Aanbestedingswet) requires award criteria to be objective and measurable. The notional discount is the solution: it fits within the rules on the price/quality ratio and can be applied proportionately. Whether the ladder is mandatory in a specific tender is explained on is the CO2 Performance Ladder mandatory?.
Here is how it works. Say you bid for a project worth €30 million and your level gives a notional advantage of 4%. The contracting authority then does not assess your bid as €30 million, but as €28.8 million. That is an advantage of €1.2 million over a competitor without a certificate who bids the same amount. With equal quality, you win.
This is a notional discount in the assessment, not a discount on the amount you actually receive. When you win the contract, you still receive your full bid price.
How big is the advantage per level?
The contracting authority decides for itself which percentage or number of points it awards per level or rung. No nationally set table exists. The percentages below illustrate how contracting authorities apply it in practice. Always check the specific tender document.
| Level (3.1) / Rung (4.0) | Notional discount (illustrative) | Example on €30 million |
|---|---|---|
| Level 3 / Rung 1 | ~4% | €1.2 million advantage |
| Level 4 / Rung 2 | ~6% | €1.8 million advantage |
| Level 5 / Rung 3 | ~8% | €2.4 million advantage |
These percentages are not binding. Some contracting authorities use points instead of percentages. Read the award document carefully.
You do not need a certificate yet when you bid
This is a common misunderstanding. When you bid, you state your ambition level. You only need to demonstrate the certificate afterwards. SKAO advises doing this within roughly one year of award.
This leaves room for companies that are only just starting the process. You can bid on a tender, win the contract, and then work on your certification in parallel.
If you do not reach the level you stated within the agreed period, you risk a contractual sanction. Check the conditions in the tender document before you state an ambition level you cannot achieve.
Why are governments allowed to do this?
EU procurement directives allow contracting authorities to include environmental and sustainability criteria in the award, provided they are objective, transparent and proportionate. The CO2 Performance Ladder meets this requirement: it is an accredited scheme, the levels are clearly defined, and assessment is carried out by independent parties under the supervision of the Dutch Accreditation Council (Raad voor Accreditatie, RvA) .
The Dutch Public Procurement Act follows those directives. PIANOo (the Dutch knowledge centre for public procurement) helped develop the guidance on the ladder. It helps municipalities, provinces and central government apply the ladder correctly.
Finding tenders that use the ladder
Most tenders where the ladder plays a role come from Rijkswaterstaat , ProRail, provinces and large municipalities. You can find them on TenderNed, the national publication site for government contracts.
Search for the ladder as an award criterion or as a selection requirement in the tender documents. Rijkswaterstaat applies handbook 4.0 in GWW (civil engineering and infrastructure) tenders published after 1 July 2026. For tenders in construction and infrastructure, the ladder is now the de facto standard.
The same tenders often also ask for social return: you spend part of the contract value on work for people with a distance to the labour market. Many municipalities and provinces reduce that obligation if you hold a rung on the PSO Performance Ladder, the ladder for socially responsible business. How that works is explained at PSO in tenders.
How do the costs compare to the advantage?
The costs of certification consist of the annual fee to SKAO (€65-€6,000), audit costs (indicatively €3,000-€4,000 initially) and internal hours. On a single tender of a few million, one won contract pays back those costs. See the costs and timeline page for the full overview.