Circular Economy
The transition to a circular economy is taking shape, people are discovering the opportunities offered by the circular economy in more and more places in the Netherlands.
I see Circular Economy as a puzzle of which every stakeholder holds a piece. You cannot go circular on your own, you have to look for cooperation with value chain partners, and sometimes go beyond the boundaries of sectors. It is a joint learning process that starts with formulating your personal ambition and accepting that you are embarking on an exciting journey, where you do not always know where you will end up. Foxgloves offers help through training and coaching.
I am interested in helping to drive this transition and support stakeholders. Entrepreneurs often benefit from knowledge transfer, support in their search for innovative, circular solutions, and coaching when starting to take practical steps. On the other side of the value chain, governmental and other organisations that procure on a large scale or give out contracts, can create demand for the innovative entrepreneur. Foxgloves offers help through training and coaching.
LEADER / Rural development
More and more people live in cities, not just in the Netherlands but worldwide. Much attention is given to smart cities, climate-neutral cities, etc. However, transitions are also taking place in the countryside. A stronger connection between city and country is now more important than ever!
As a LEADER manager in the region of Noord-Holland, I connect rural stakeholders, entrepreneurs, municipalities, citizens in networks. We develop bottom-up projects and invest in sustainable solitions, enhance the quality of life in villages and encourage visitors to come and enjoy the countryside.
The programme is co-financed by municipalities, the province of Noord-Holland, and the European Union.
Circular economy projects are also feasible in rural areas. As a knowledge broker, coach and adviser, I have helped realise several projects in the region of Zuid-Holland. I participated for 4 years in LEADER Holland-Rijnland, which supports a number of projects on the theme of circular economy. The cofinanced programme is still open for proposals.
Policy and governance
Having previously worked for two decades at the Ministry of Environment in the Netherlands, I have a solid background in environmental policy and governance. I worked on topics like waste management, agri-environmental issues, resource efficiency and on horizontal issues like reporting, EU accession, at national, EU, OECD and UN level.
More recently, in my work as an independent consultant, I have delivered policy analysis and advice for a number of projects. I have also supported several projects through the programming and organisation of working sessions. Several national ministries and governmental institutions (in the Netherlands, UK and Sweden), as well as the European Commission and the World Bank, have used Foxgloves’ services.
Make it Work - better implementation of environmental rules (2015-2019)
Policy makers and regulators from different European countries worked together in this country-led initiative. The last topic we worked on was circular economy. We developed a guidance for regulators that shows the opportunities and challenges in the relevant European directives and regulations, describes good implementation practices and makes suggestions to promote cooperation between regulators, business stakeholders and policy makers. The result is the Guidance ‘Making the Circular Economy work’.
Promote pollinators (2018-2019)
The Coalition Promote Pollinators is a group of front-running countries who are working to protect pollinators and strengthen attention for the important role of pollination, for example for food supply. I was part of the team building up the secretariat of the Coalition Promote Pollinators. The secretariat facilitates, mediates in knowledge demand and supply and brings the members together in inspiring active sessions.