What the CO2-Prestatieladder is
The CO2-Prestatieladder, in English the CO2 Performance Ladder, is a Dutch CO2 management certification scheme. It is owned and maintained by SKAO (Stichting Klimaatvriendelijk Aanbesteden en Ondernemen), a Dutch foundation that governs the scheme’s rules and handbooks. SKAO itself does not audit or certify companies; that role sits with independent, accredited certifying bodies.
The scheme is used by more than 300 contracting authorities in the Netherlands and, increasingly, in Belgium, mostly for public tenders in construction, infrastructure, transport, installation and related services and consultancy. Over two-thirds of certified organisations are small and mid-sized companies, so it is not a scheme built only for large contractors.
Why it earns a tender advantage
The certification’s commercial pull is direct rather than reputational. In tenders that apply the CO2-Prestatieladder as an award criterion, a certified bidder receives a notional discount on its bid price during evaluation: the bid is scored as if it were cheaper than it actually is, and the size of that discount increases with the bidder’s certification level. In practice, this means that if a competitor is certified at a given level and your company is not, you are structurally at a price disadvantage in every tender that applies the scheme, even before any other factor is compared.
The certification levels
The ladder runs across five levels, from an entry level up to the highest level, with the size of the tender discount and the depth of what a company must demonstrate increasing at each step. Entry-level certification centres on getting the organisation’s own emissions properly measured and managed: a correct Scope 1 and 2 emission inventory, documented reduction targets and measures, and evidence of communication and stakeholder participation on climate action. Higher levels add requirements around chain analysis, sector initiatives and more ambitious reduction commitments.
What a company needs to enter
Entry into the scheme starts with the organisation’s own emissions picture rather than with the audit itself. In practice this means pulling together a full year of data: gas and electricity invoices or meter data across all locations, fuel data for company and lease vehicles, a fleet list, refrigerant service logs for any cooling or air-conditioning equipment, and business travel records covering flights and business kilometres driven. Under the current handbook, business travel is counted even at the entry levels, which surprises some first-time applicants who expect it to only matter for larger, higher-level certifications.
Alongside the emissions data, the scheme expects a defined organisational boundary (which entities and sites count as “the organisation” for the inventory), documented reduction targets and measures, and evidence that the company communicates its climate action internally and takes part in a relevant sector initiative. None of this is typically ready off the shelf; most companies entering the ladder for the first time have never produced an emission inventory report or a targets document before, so this stage is where the bulk of the preparation work sits.
Certification by an accredited body, and the handbook transition
Once the inventory and documents are ready, certification itself is carried out by an independent body accredited to audit against the CO2-Prestatieladder scheme. SKAO sets and owns the rules but does not perform audits itself, so the certifying body is a separate, contracted party from any preparation work a company does beforehand.
The scheme is currently mid-transition between two handbook versions. Handbook 4.0 launched on 14 January 2025 and audits have been able to run on it since July 2025, but the older Handbook 3.1 remains valid alongside it. From 14 January 2027, every audit must run on Handbook 4.0. Companies certifying or recertifying in 2026 need to know explicitly which handbook version their preparation and audit are built on, since the two are not identical in scope and detail.
For a company that already holds certification, the same logic applies to yearly maintenance: the emission inventory has to be refreshed each year with a full year of data, targets reviewed against progress made, and communication evidence kept current, all on whichever handbook version the certifying body expects for that audit cycle.
Where Humboldt fits
Humboldt calculates the Scope 1 and 2 emission inventory and prepares the entry-level document set from your own invoices, meter data and fleet records, on whichever handbook version fits your timing. An accredited certifying body performs the actual audit and certification. Details on the CO2-Prestatieladder entry pack.