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Driving connections, balance and the circular economy on Amsterdam’s sustainability journey
Meet Eveline Jonkhoff, Strategic Advisor Sustainable Development at the City of Amsterdam. She connects many sustainability projects and staff across the city’s departments, and engages with many citizens, entrepreneurs, companies and others. What is your vision of a sustainable future? My key point of reference for a sustainable future is all about cities. My vision…
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Dare to care: the way to a virtuous economic model
Meet Benoit Beaufils, Co-Founder and Business Humanizer at In8motion, a company that helps integrate human sense and sustainability into brands and businesses. What is your vision of a sustainable future? I am much happier when my life is simpler, closer to nature and well-balanced. For me, sustainability is all about creating a world where…
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Leveraging the power of people, technology and information for better decisions
Meet Michel Scholte, Co-Founder and Director of External Affairs at True Price, driving change by helping organizations uncover and calculate social and environmental costs, in order to improve their decision-making. What is your vision of a sustainable world? Sustainability is all about balance. Balance between your own needs as a consumer or company and the…
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So many books; so little time!
There are so many books about sustainability and embedding it into business. A quick search on Amazon with the combination of sustainability and business yields close to 8000 entries! Instead of sifting through them all, I decided to just venture into the local library – which has an excellent management collection – and see what…
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The experiment with women in management
Flashback to 1993: I left immediately after a (French) general manager answered my question about women in management positions. It was a cold day in Chicago as I rode the train back to campus to file a complaint at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management career office against this man and his company. This company invited…
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If we all share a little, we can change a lot!
The power of positive change is so inspiring. Last week I had the pleasure to join 100+ young consultants from Accenture Netherlands during their team building day. They were not spending the day away from the office building boats or playing a survival game in rainy weather. Instead, they came to a central location to…
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Sustainable Investment in the Netherlands
“The fish rots from the head down” was the closing remark by a panelist at one of the events I joined on sustainable investment this week. He was referring to the crucial role of corporate leaders in creating culture that is both good for the company and the world. Perhaps it is time to change…
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Does sustainability build brand value?
Every year, Interbrand releases the results of their Best Global Brands research, based on their brand evaluation model. This year, two brands broke the 13 year reign of Coca Cola as the most valuable brand in the world: Apple and Google. If I consider how these two brands have become part of my life, this…
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What’s really fueling your pension fund?
The Financial Times ran an article about the call by the Swedish Centre party for all of the country’s national pension funds to sell off their holdings in fossil fuel corporations in order to “climate proof” and protect the value of their investments. It is important to see this position come up from within a…
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Netherlands’ Sustainability Queen calls for visionary leadership and guts
On the third Tuesday in September, the Dutch government traditionally presents the new plans for the year ahead. The (new) King will read the “troonrede”, a speech from the throne written by the ministers to present the plans to the parliament (the senate and the house of representatives). After this speech, the Minister of Finance…
