GFA GROUP: CUTTING THROUGH COMPLEXITY TO CREATE LASTING IMPACT
Editorial
Anja Desai (Managing Director)
The world around us is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Scientific breakthroughs, technological shifts, escalating conflicts, and sudden events with far-reaching ripple effects are reshaping how we live and work. These geopolitical and societal changes are challenging our routines and require constant adaptation. We are navigating a complex, often confusing, and rapidly changing environment.
In our sector of international cooperation, we need actors who can cut through this complexity: who can respond to a wide range of challenges with a variety of skills, who are flexible, and who can pool their strengths and quickly mobilise synergies.
GFA GROUP is exactly such an actor. Ten companies have joined forces under our umbrella to form a globally active coalition. Together, we deliver tailor-made solutions to the pressing issues of our time – helping to improve lives around the world.
The expertise of our member companies and their professional networks of experts ranges from social infrastructure to energy transition and financing, climate adaptation and digital innovation, responsible mineral resources, and sustainability certification. A strong mix in turbulent times!
In this newsletter, you’ll find several examples of our work in action:
Responsible gold mining – Our colleagues at Projekt-Consult have transitioned a major initiative to the private sector.
Wastewater for cooling – GKW Consult experts are using wastewater to cool data centres.
Pooling expertise – GROUP companies are collaborating on tools to estimate building emissions and to build a vendor database for Nigeria’s Ministry of Health.
This is a glimpse of the work that we at GFA GROUP are implementing worldwide. In recent months, we have reorganised the group of companies and strengthened our cohesion - externally through a new, unified brand design and joint website, and internally by reinforcing the role of GFA Holding. As the parent company, GFA Holding will steer the strategic development of the group and provide centralised services to all members.
We will continue to keep you regularly informed about important activities within GFA GROUP in future newsletters. I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and invite you to stay up to date via our new and additional LinkedIn channel, where you will find further good examples of how we can forge a path through an increasingly complex world for the benefit of people and in the interests of sustainability.
A cooperation with tangible climate benefits: GFA GROUP’s HEAT GmbH has developed a new web-based platform to quantify and reduce both embodied and operational carbon emissions throughout a building's life cycle. HEAT was supported in this task by the Digital Innovation Unit (DIU) of GFA Consulting Group GmbH. The new tool, called the “Building Emission Assessment Tool” (BEAT), was officially launched at regional level in late June by HEAT and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) under the IKI Asia Low Carbon Buildings Transition (ALCBT) Project, in cooperation with the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA).
The tool represents a significant advancement in bringing sophisticated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies to building practitioners in rapidly urbanising Asian countries. It is specifically designed for implementation in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam – regions experiencing unprecedented construction growth.
BEAT functions as an open-source, web-based platform that eliminates barriers to adoption such as specialised software requirements. It includes a localised building material database with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and offers comprehensive carbon benchmarking for different building types in ALCBT countries via a user-friendly interface. It is designed with a modular structure that allows for ongoing updates and future expansion. Phase II will focus on further enhancing the platform’s functionality, including features that will allow users to export their assessments.
The construction sector is currently responsible for approximately 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions, making it a critical focus for climate action. BEAT addresses this challenge by providing a comprehensive solution for quantifying whole-life carbon emissions across the entire building life cycle, with particular emphasis on embodied carbon – an area that has traditionally lacked sufficient data and standardised methodologies in many Asian countries.
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“BEAT serves as a crucial instrument for capturing whole-life carbon assessment, particularly embodied carbon, with a unique feature of integrating labelling for key materials such as cement and concrete. This empowers architects and building developers to select low and, eventually, net-zero carbon materials in their designs.”
Dietram Oppelt, Managing Director of HEAT GmbH
Moreover, government procurers can incorporate these standards into their Green Public Procurement frameworks, while financial institutions can align their taxonomies with these metrics. “The tool represents a significant step towards decarbonising the building sector in Asia and beyond,” Oppelt concludes. “It has been a true pleasure working with DIU on this project. Despite the tight timeline, with work starting only in October last year, we successfully developed a user-friendly tool for assessing whole-life carbon through smooth inter-company collaboration,” adds Rohit Nepali, Project Manager at HEAT. “DIU’s contribution was crucial in building the EPD database library from scratch, developing the building data entry tabs, and designing the dashboard – ensuring we achieved our goals efficiently.”
Wood, paper, oil or biomass – GFA Certification GmbH inspects and assesses management systems for plant-based products and forestry worldwide to ensure they are eligible for certifications and seals.
Jörn Ackermann has been Managing Director since 2016, having previously worked as a professional carpenter, on reforestation and tropical forest management projects, and as a freelance auditor. In this interview, he talks about market challenges and opportunities, and his role within GFA GROUP.
Jörn, GFA Certification was initially established as a department of GFA Consulting Group and then founded as an independent company in 2013. You took over as Managing Director three years later. How much have the market and your work changed since then? What do you consider to be key milestones?
The area of sustainability certification, in particular, has developed very positively. Since 2016, we have achieved steady growth in our customer base and have more than tripled the number of certificates issued. We are especially successful in our core areas of forest certification and related supply chains, but diversification into other certification systems is now also making a significant contribution.
One of the main highlights that comes to mind is the innovation and collaborative spirit demonstrated by all organisations involved during the coronavirus pandemic. It was remarkable how certification bodies, accreditation bodies and certificate holders worked together to find solutions for navigating this challenging period through virtual audit techniques. Many of these virtual tools remain in use even today.
Overall, it is clear that the world of certification has become more complex due to a variety of changes in the legal framework, accreditation requirements, and continuous adaptation to new circumstances.
Your company is now the market leader for the FSC label in Germany and certifies according to other systems worldwide. You manage thousands of certifications simultaneously. How do you maintain an overview and keep so many processes under control, especially with a relatively small team?
That is indeed a particular challenge and requires a great deal of experience as well as many clearly defined and coordinated processes. We currently conduct around 3,500 audits in 45 countries each year, as the certification systems we offer require every certificate holder to be audited at least once annually. This is followed by report reviews, certification decisions and a number of associated administrative processes.
In addition, our customer base is quite dynamic – we handle a high number of new customer applications, as well as suspensions and cancellations, each year. Our Hamburg location, with its experienced and dedicated team, is the hub of all our activities. This is where accreditations are managed, and where the coordination and planning of annual audit programmes, as well as administrative and technical support, take place.
The audits themselves are carried out almost entirely by a large network of experienced and qualified partner companies and freelance auditors. Our central customer relationship management system allows us to coordinate and monitor all individual audit processes from our Hamburg office. This enables us to manage this impressive annual programme with a team of 30 employees in Hamburg and a network of approximately 150 auditors and technical experts. Our office in Vietnam and other local representatives in key regions provide additional support.
Auditing in Colombia (on top) and Vietnam
As a certifier, you not only work differently from the consulting, project-oriented member companies within GFA GROUP, but also have to pay particular attention to your independence. So, does GFA Certification play a special role within the group?
Fundamentally, the overarching goals of our work are no different from those of the other group companies. The certification systems we offer all aim to verify the responsible use of natural resources. Ecological, social and economic sustainability are at the heart of the standard requirements, which in turn align with many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our special role compared to other companies within GFA GROUP stems from the nature of our work and the associated accreditation requirements: as a certification body, we independently assess the conformity of specified standard criteria with their actual implementation, but we are not permitted to provide consultancy, as this would compromise our impartiality. We are audited annually by our accreditation and auditing organisations and must demonstrate during these audits that neither we at GFA Certification nor any affiliated companies are active in an advisory capacity within our business areas.
A clear ‘Chinese wall principle’ requires us to strictly separate our certification activities from the consulting services of other companies within GFA GROUP. This effectively grants us a special position.
GFA GROUP is now strategically repositioning itself. What are your expectations for the new group dynamics?
We fully support the new strategy and very much welcome the design of the shared group identity. It successfully represents the common ground between the member companies while simultaneously emphasising the individuality of each entity within GFA GROUP. The centralisation of support processes via GFA Holding better reflects the growing importance of the subsidiaries and sister companies within the group – and has the potential to make processes even more efficient than before.
GFA Certification licence codes: FSC® A 000 511 | PEFC/04-04-0099
Launching the Common Vendor Database for Nigeria’s Ministry of Health
As part of a Global Fund Country Team initiative, the Common Vendor Database (CVD) for Nigeria's Ministry of Health has been successfully implemented and is now operational. The initiative was supported by GFA Consulting Group GmbH in its capacity as Fiscal Agent, working closely with GFA B.I.S. GmbH to deliver this collaborative project.
The CVD is a centralised, web-based repository of pre-qualified vendors, designed to facilitate more efficient and reliable procurement by multiple implementing partners. “The challenge was evident: several implementing partners operated without established vendor databases, while those with existing databases frequently pre-qualified overlapping vendors. This resulted in redundant processes for soliciting expressions of interest and conducting due diligence assessments,” says Dick Kampamba, who worked on the project on behalf of GFA Consulting Group’s Public Finance Management (PFM) department.
The CVD addresses these challenges by offering shared access to validated vendor data, performance histories, and pricing information – thus reducing duplication, enabling bulk purchasing, and enhancing vendor accountability. The initiative was a collaborative effort led by GFA Consulting Group that brought together diverse stakeholders. A cross-functional project team was established, comprising the Central Repository Organisation (CRO) and representatives from participating entities, to ensure that user needs were continuously integrated throughout the development process.
GFA B.I.S. GmbH managed the platform development using a hybrid project management approach, combining predictive (so-called ‘waterfall’) and agile methodologies across different project phases. “This approach enabled timely delivery while maintaining responsiveness to evolving user requirements,” says Lukas Kratochvil, who managed the project at GFA B.I.S. GmbH.
This implementation establishes the foundation for full integration into future e-procurement systems, supporting better-informed, transparent, and cost-effective procurement across Nigeria's health programmes.
"Our GFA GROUP membership offered many advantages right from the start"
As part of GFA GROUP, GKW Consult GmbH is one of the leading international consulting firms for environmental technology, specialising in water supply, wastewater treatment and disposal, waste management, regional development, management consulting and industrial water management. Dr Thomas Jäger, Head of Industrial Water Management at GKW, provides insight into the work undertaken under the umbrella of GFA GROUP, with a particular focus on large industrial clients.
Your work often focuses on municipal water supply or wastewater projects – but you also work for large industrial clients?
In the Industrial Water Management department, we work exclusively for industrial clients from a variety of sectors. Current projects include work with data centres and clients in the cement, automotive, and food & beverage industries.
What trends and requirements are you seeing among your clients? For example, are topics such as sustainability or more resilient systems in the context of climate change, security, or other external factors becoming increasingly important?
For years, there has been a clear trend towards water reuse and a growing demand for sustainable technologies in industrial wastewater and water treatment. In addition to water reuse, heat recovery and energy efficiency, our clients are increasingly recognising their responsibility in the fight against climate change. Particularly in the cement industry (e.g. Holcim Lafarge, Cemex), significant investments are currently being made in carbon capture and storage (CCS). Our experts are well-versed in identifying which technologies are appropriate and cost-effective for different industries, and it is precisely this expertise that has made us a reliable partner to many industrial companies.
GKW has been part of GFA GROUP since 2023. How has this manifested in concrete project work – for example, through cooperation with other member companies?
We have experienced numerous advantages from the outset. In addition to collaborating with the Water, Sanitation and Waste Management department at our sister company, GFA Consulting Group, we have also worked very successfully with our colleagues at HEAT in the field of cooling water treatment for data centres. Furthermore, we have been able to initiate new topics together, such as studies on future trends in the use of coolants. Potential PFAS regulations have also been examined in this context. Our team is committed to developing sustainable solutions to these pressing environmental challenges, to remain a close partner to industry, and to do so in cooperation with other partners within GFA GROUP.
Successful implementation and handover of the Swiss Better Gold Initiative to the private sector
Beginning in 2013, Projekt-Consult GmbH developed and implemented a successful and pioneering project within a public-private partnership between the Swiss government (SECO) and the Swiss Better Gold Association: the so-called “Swiss Better Gold Initiative” generates transparency, responsibility, and profitability in the gold value chain for artisanal and small-scale gold mining through a mine-to-market approach.
Artisanal and small-scale (ASM) gold mining plays a pivotal role in the livelihoods of over 44 million people worldwide in low- and middle-income countries. The sector faces significant challenges related to governance, occupational health and safety, clean production, and market access. The Swiss Better Gold Initiative offers technical assistance and organisational support to miners and facilitates the linkage between small-scale producers and the premium Swiss gold market, creating responsible and traceable gold value chains from mine to market.
“Swiss Better Gold criteria include compliance with in-country mining regulations and relevant mining-related ESG aspects. It ensures the origin and traceability of production,” says Thomas Hentschel, Managing Director at Projekt-Consult GmbH and former Global Programme Manager of Swiss Better Gold. Swiss Better Gold producers have access to the Swiss market, ensuring favourable conditions for responsibly produced ASM gold. The project was implemented in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, with potential expansion to other countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Ghana.
The Swiss Better Gold Initiative supported ASM mining operations by improving their technical, organisational, social, and environmental practices. It also provided general management support related to formalisation and market accreditation as responsible artisanal and small-scale producers. Members of the Swiss Better Gold Association from the private sector are committed to purchasing responsibly produced, Swiss Better Gold-accredited output and pay an additional premium, which is reinvested through the Swiss Better Gold Fund into social and environmental projects. Additionally, the initiative supported governmental stakeholders in the implementing countries in improving the legal framework for the ASM sector and disseminated ASM-related success stories at local, regional, and global levels.
As a result, the project achieved the export of 24,800 kilograms of responsible ASM gold to Switzerland between 2013 and 2024. This represents a cumulative total of 1.48 billion USD in responsible gold exports. The project supported 181 mining operations, with more than 50 successfully exporting Swiss Better Gold and 30 active value chains currently supplying the Swiss market. Capacity-building measures were implemented, providing training on technical, environmental, and safety-related topics to more than 11,000 miners. The project also benefited nearly 145,000 people directly and indirectly in mining communities.
The project concluded in its original structure as a public-private partnership in June 2025. “After 13 years, we were able to hand over this extremely successful project, which we developed together, to the private sector. It is now continuing as an established initiative,” Thomas Hentschel concludes. During the final year, Projekt-Consult GmbH focused on this transition from a development project to a private sector initiative, enabling the Swiss Better Gold Association to assume responsibility for its future implementation after July 2025, thereby ensuring long-term institutional sustainability.
A new case study by GFA GROUP’s TolaData GmbH shows how global non-profit organisation Fairtrade International is aligning its global monitoring and evaluation efforts across a vast and diverse network of projects.
Fairtrade International aims to promote ethical trade and sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers and workers. With a complex international structure and decentralised monitoring systems, Fairtrade faced challenges in aggregating impact data and aligning local Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) practices with global standards.
To address these issues, Fairtrade partnered with GFA GROUP member company TolaData to introduce a digital MEL platform that centralises data management, enhances reporting efficiency, and standardises indicator use across projects. As part of this collaboration, a key feature — the Global Indicator Library — was developed within TolaData to support consistent data collection and better alignment between project-level indicators and global Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
It’s an honest and inspiring look at how large organisations can move towards more unified, digital monitoring and evaluation.
Dr Linda Kleemann, Managing Director TolaData
TolaData’s user-friendly interface, multilingual training support, and co-development of the Global Indicator Library enabled Fairtrade teams across Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean to adopt more standardised MEL practices without losing local flexibility. “Each year, as reports are prepared and data is updated, the work becomes progressively easier and more efficient,” says Dr Baba Adam, Impact Portfolio Manager at Fairtrade International.
Andreas Hentzien (left) celebrates GFA SysCom´s anniversary together with colleagues from GFA GROUP
GFA SysCom GmbH is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. Its founding Managing Director, Andreas Hentzien, has held the position for just as long.
Founded on 27 June 2000, GFA SysCom GmbH is part of GFA GROUP and provides its members and projects with modern, secure, and state-of-the-art IT tools.
“We started with a small team of three employees in the midst of the dot-com boom at the turn of the millennium,” recalls Andreas Hentzien. The reason for creating an independent IT unit was the merger of GFA Holding AG with LUSO CONSULT at that time.
Twenty-five years later, 25 people now work for GFA SysCom – and Andreas Hentzien looks back on eventful years. He cites the development of GFA’s internal SharePoint system, the constant adaptation of IT systems and IT security architecture to the dynamically growing needs of GFA companies, the complex migration of large datasets, and the rapid implementation of remote working for hundreds of employees during the coronavirus crisis as milestones.
“But the most important thing for me has always been the personal well-being of our employees, and the wonderful affirmation when colleagues turn down better-paid jobs to continue working with us instead,” says Andreas Hentzien. He joined GFA as a student in 1990 and has remained loyal to the GFA world ever since, with a brief interlude as a freelance software trainer.
Since 2004, Hentzien has managed GFA SysCom together with Daniela Heipel. “As a management team, we are a perfect match because we complement each other well with our different strengths and approaches,” said Hentzien at the internal celebration marking the company’s 25th anniversary.
The Hamburg-based H2Global Advisory GmbH will be wound up this August after having successfully fulfilled its objective.
The H2Global Advisory GmbH was founded in May 2021 by Hamburg-based GFA Holding AG together with the five developers of the H2Global mechanism, including Markus Exenberger and Timo Bollerhey as initial Managing Directors. H2Global Advisory has been an essential enabler for the swift implementation of the H2Global mechanism, facilitating the immediate set-up of the H2Global Foundation and its wholly owned subsidiary Hintco GmbH (Hydrogen Intermediary Trading Company).
During the Foundation's and Hintco’s initial phase, H2Global Advisory acted as trustee, management and administrative office, and provided advice to the public and private stakeholders supporting the H2Global mechanism.
Our company has fulfilled its mission as a launch pad for the H2Global Instrument, which has become an indispensable player in the development of a functioning hydrogen economy.
Dr Daniel Wahby, Managing Director of H2Global Advisory
Started in Germany with initial support from the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and a consortium of industry donors, H2Global has become a truly international endeavour. Today, the H2Global Foundation serves as an international non-profit organisation attracting industry and philanthropic donations from across the globe to conduct research on clean hydrogen markets and other low-emission fuels while also advocating for the uptake and use of the innovative H2Global mechanism. Hintco has been earmarked or granted public funds totalling EUR 5.8 billion from multiple governments within and outside of the EU to empower the public and private sector to actively shape and support the ramp-up of international clean hydrogen markets.
The H2Global “double auction” mechanism compensates for current price differences between high global market prices and economically viable regional prices for renewable hydrogen consumers.
"At a time when the vision of a market-based mechanism for clean hydrogen was still just an idea, GFA provided us with the institutional scaffolding to move fast and act decisively,” Markus Exenberger, today Executive Director of H2Global Foundation, states. “We are deeply grateful for this partnership, which helped transform a concept into a functioning institution with global reach.”
The Foundation is sharing knowledge about the innovative H2Global mechanism, carried out by Hintco, globally. The auctions are tailored to meet specific objectives, such as promoting clean energy technology or decarbonising specific hard-to-abate sectors.
Hintco’s ability to deliver on the ambitious goals of the H2Global mechanism would not have been possible without the early support and trust of GFA Holding. Their backing gave us the operational foundation and confidence to build a new kind of trading entity – one capable of pioneering global clean hydrogen markets.
Timo Bollerhey, CEO of Hintco
The result of Hintco’s pilot auction includes price transparency, securing production and delivery of clean fuels, and creating legal certainty for projects to take the all-important final investment decision (FID). The impact and lessons learned from H2Global pilot auctions and research into clean fuels is shared with industry, governments, and other stakeholders across the globe.
“What conditions does green hydrogen need to establish itself on the market? The Foundation successfully provided answers to this question,” says Anja Desai, one of the Managing Directors of GFA Holding. “We are proud to have helped to effectively implement this concept and will continue to promote the development of green hydrogen markets and the decarbonisation of economies in Germany and abroad through our global coalition of GFA companies.”
H2Global Advisory already transferred its responsibilities to the Foundation in 2023. For technical and legal reasons, the company will now officially shut in August 2025.
On the photo from left to right: Dr Heiko Weißleder, Managing Director GFA Holding Joachim Schnurr, founder of H2Global Advisory Dr Ilona Schadl, Managing Director GFA Holding Ulrich Theuerkauf, Head of GFA's Energy & Finance Department Markus Exenberger, founder and Managing Director of H2Global Advisory Wolfram Klein, Founder of H2Global Advisory Timo Bollerhey, founder and Managing Director of H2Global Advisory Nikolaus H. Schües, CEO Reederei F. Laeisz Anja Desai, Managing Director GFA Holding Dr Daniel Wahby, Head of Shareholding Management GFA Holding
