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Can accountants save the world?
Meet Wim Bartels, Global Head of Sustainability Reporting and Assurance at KPMG. “Accountants will save the world”, said Peter Bakker, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). If all accountants were as knowledgeable and passionate as Wim, that could really happen. Here’s what he told me about sustainability and change. Recognizing…
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The shots are overshouting the overshoot
August 19, 2014 was Earth Overshoot Day, the date when all people living on planet Earth exhausted nature’s budget for the year. In less than eight months, we have depleted the natural resources that our planet is able to renew in twelve months. For the rest of the year, we are running on red, stealing from the…
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Bursting bubbles to drive human understanding
Meet Marjella Alma, CEO of the inspiring tech startup eRevalue, which offers a tailored process for integrating Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) factors into business strategy. What is your vision of a sustainable future? A world without so much emphasis on the material, on beauty and on individuals. I’d like to see society de-materialize, de-beautify and…
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Patents to protect or drive innovation?
What are patents all about? According to Wikipedia, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from commercially…
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Able to reduce plastic in my life – but not completely…
ZeroPlasticWeek 2014 is over, so it’s time to look back at my results and learnings. Overall, it was an effective way to make me aware how much plastic is used in our daily lives – and how much of that only is used for a few days or even hours. Plastic Recycling A few years ago, my…
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My drinking challenge during ZeroPlasticWeek
The first couple of days of Zero Plastic Week went well – but I was unprepared for a quick day trip to London. Lots of drinks available in glass and cartons, but water was hard to come by without plastic. Fortunately, the place where I bought water as part of my on-the-go lunch had a recycling…
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We are all astronauts of Space Ship Earth
On May 18, 2014, the Netherlands lost its first astronaut, Wubbo Ockels. All Dutch news networks reported extensively on his life – as an astronaut and as a sustainability pioneer. He does not seem to be well-known outside of the Netherlands, as most posts in English are about his 7 days in space. Looking upon Planet…
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Activating Corporate Idealists – or Idealizing Corporate Activists?
As various people from my network tweeted about it, I got intrigued and pre-ordered a copy of Christine Bader’s book The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down! I generally read non-fiction at my desk, but this book I read on the couch, in bed, on holidays and…
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Incremental behavior change – does it add up?
I have been so (happily) buried in two projects for Unilever, that I have not written a single blog post in weeks! One of the projects has behavior change at its core – a fascinating topic – so that’s the topic for this post as well. The beauty of being involved in such a project…
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To buy or not to buy? The fashionable question …
The other day, a gorgeous Hugo Boss dress caught my attention. I wasn’t really intending to buy anything, but it was so beautiful, I just had to try it on. The shop assistant and I agreed that the dress looked great on me. But that’s where my doubts started – even if it looked just…
