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Inspiring change in the investment world
Meet Els Ankum-Griffioen, Senior Manager Business Development & Investor Relations at Triodos Investment Management, the investment arm of Triodos Bank, one of the front-runners in sustainable finance. I visited Els at Triodos to hear her thoughts on the vital roles of education, investors and good governance to create a more sustainable future. A state of mind…
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Creating local connections for positive change
Meet Nick Davies, the founder of Neighbourly, an online platform that connects community projects with businesses that want to help. I recently met Nick at the launch of the platform in the Netherlands – and followed up with an interview. Here’s what he said about corporate responsibility, opportunities for brands and the leadership to drive…
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Winning by Giving as the new formula for success
The world of brands is changing: people are actively looking for brands that support their own values, brands that create shared value instead of one-sided profit for the company only. On September 3, 2015, I had the honor to facilitate the Winning by Giving event in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This blog-post shares the key outcomes…
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A human narrative on sustainability
Meet Christophe Fauconnier, the CEO and co-founder of Innate Motion, a unique marketing agency that helps companies craft purpose brands and shared value strategies. In 2014, Christophe and I wrote a book together, Activists Dare to Care. To celebrate the second edition which was released as a hard copy in 2015, I interviewed him. Here’s…
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It all starts with the (wo)man in the mirror
Meet Marleen Janssen Groesbeek, Professor Sustainable Finance and Accounting at Avans University of Applied Sciences. She also is a member of the Sustainable Finance Lab and writes columns for CSR magazine P+. I really enjoyed her inaugural lecture at Avans University and followed up with an interview. On both occasions, she shared her views on…
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Sustainable food tastes like more!
On June 18, I had the pleasure to moderate an evening for alumni and students at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, about creating a sustainable food value chain. Here’s what the event was all about. Creating a sustainable food chain is a continuous process. Whether you are a small local chocolate brand like Tony’s Chocolonely…
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Shining bright: doing well by doing good
Meet Camille van Gestel, the co-founder and co-CEO of WakaWaka, a highly successful social enterprise with the mission to provide sustainable energy and light solutions for over a billion people who lack access to electricity. During the interview, he convinced me that he’s got plenty of energy himself to activate many to make this ambitious…
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Royal recycling
Usually I cringe when journalists comment on what women wear, but this time I cheered when the news broadcast that Queen Maxima of the Netherlands chose to wear her coronation dress a second time. Of course for fashion magazines that is the topic to talk about, but in most other media, it is completely irrelevant information…
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Brands as activists for a better world
The book I co-authored is out! Thanks to all the people who sent in great cases – and supported me otherwise to see this project through. So what is it all about? An invitation: Dare to Care Do you think of activism as something that can attack and weaken a brand? It doesn’t have to…
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No one wakes up to destroy the world
Meet Adrie Heinsbroek, Senior Sustainability Advisor at ING. He is a true believer in the power of people. “No one wakes up to make the world a worse place”, he says, “but we can all get stuck in systems that don’t help to make the world any better.” Here he shares his belief in the…