Freek Langeraap

EU legislation alone won't revive the Netherlands' lost art of repair. So, what else do we need? I really enjoyed writing this article based on fantastic inputs from Joppe van Driel (AMS Institute), Mary Greene (Wageningen University & Research), and Ruth Mugge (TU Delft). Based on input collected by Fieke Knuppe, we wanted to address what the impact of the recent Right to Repair legislation may be in the Netherlands. Does it go far enough? What impacts could we, as consumers, expect to see? And what about businesses? What came to the fore was the clear need for bottom-up approaches in 'mainstreaming' #repair (and, most probably, other circular approaches). 'Many every day days goods are black boxes of confusion, built in a far-away factory—rendering the idea of repair impossible for many." - sound familiar? Joppe, a colleague of mine at AMS Institute, paints a detailed picture of how the Netherlands went from being a repair-first society to a full-blown consumerist. And based on collaborative projects between Delft University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research and AMS Institute, they illustrate the type of citizen and business engagement needed, grounded in Amsterdam Living Lab and project examples. Interested? Dive into here: https://lnkd.in/e6WAJ-g9 #circulareconomy #repair #righttorepair #circularamsterdam #sustainability #circularelectronics #repaircafe

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Amsterdam's circular potential is huge! ...and within reach: multiple research projects and pilots in the City, led by AMS Institute, can deliver massive material and emissions savings, as well as benefits for the citizens themselves. In fact, according to the latest research from AMS Institute, scaling four circular economy strategies in Amsterdam would lead to emissions savings equal to 30,000 homes adopting 100% green energy, equivalent to the entire Oud-Zuid neighbourhood! The four circular strategies are: 💥 Extend product life of solar panels: Using solar panels for their entire 25-year lifespan, 💥 Reduce excess material and energy use in data centers: Using data centers more efficiently and reducing the number of servers needed for digitalization, 💥 Use circular materials in roads: Paving roads with circular asphalt and concrete and, 💥 Use biobased materials in buildings: Constructing new builds with timber and biobased insulation. 👉🏼 The carbon savings reported are not only hypothetical. The circular approaches are already happening in the City—now they need to be scaled. Pilots are conducted in public space, in close collaboration with the City of Amsterdam, partner universities such as Delft University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as businesses and local stakeholders. 👉🏼 In calculating this overall figure of emissions reduction, we have combined the potential savings from different projects and hashtag #pilots that are active or have been conducted in the city with a range of partners. 👉🏼 Read more in our article here: https://lnkd.in/eHT8Y_FP 👏🏼 With special shout out to the researchers: Sietse de Vilder, Felix Fröhling, Elizabeth Migoni Alejandre, Jonas van der Ham and the Circularity in Urban Regions Program Developers, Joke Dufourmont and Joppe van Driel. Want to know more? Drop me a message. #presstip #circularamsterdam #circularpilots

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The OOST acquires funding to award competitive grants for ocean and coastal research and monitoring. OOST provided seven entities with funding in 2022 to complete important research projects to address ocean acidification and hypoxia. One of these funded projects focused on maximizing the abundance of wild and cultured shellfish, while nurturing submerged aquatic vegetation in Oregon's estuaries. (If you didn't know, an Estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Most of the fish and shellfish eaten in the United States—including salmon, herring, crabs, and oysters—spend some or all of their life in estuaries.) Curious about our work or keen to support marine conservation in Oregon? Check out https://lnkd.in/g82XnfPx for more info. Every bit of support helps us continue our research and protect these ecosystems. ❤️🦀 #OceanScience #MarineConservation #Oregon

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I am happy to share the launch of the Amazonia Nativa project, which I am very excited to be part of 😊. 1. The project pioneers the large-scale use of native species for sustainable land use, aiming to positively impact the Colombian Amazon—a region crucial for addressing climate change and enhancing biodiversity. 2. The invaluable support from two development banks, FMO and IFU, has made this launch possible. 3. There is a lack of investable projects like this, and as a society, we need to fund such initiatives more than ever. The use of native species is often limited to small-scale projects and is greatly underfunded, with most forestry investments going to pine and eucalyptus. 4. There is a dedicated and passionate team aiming to make a difference at ACT Group and Campo Capital. 5. It represents my commitment to scalable, science-based climate solutions that work with nature and deliver sustainable opportunities. I invite you to learn more about this project and reach out! We seek investors and corporations interested in high-quality carbon removals! #climateaction #naturebasedsolutions #naturepositive #carbonremovals #biodiversity #climatefinance Maria Naritsin, Ricardo Gomes César, Esmée Roukens, Paula Sanchez, Diego Lozano, Aura Maria Echeverri Ortiz

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You absolutely must have this book if you are interested in #buildingwithbamboo #bamboo #engineerbamboo #nextgenerationbamboo

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What a great evening debating with our clients about the challenges and opportunities of the energy transition ! Our panelists Michael Anseeuw (CEO BNP Paribas Fortis), Veronique Hoflack (CEO Unilin), Guy Janssens (CCAO Port of Antwerp-Bruges) and Luc Vandenbulcke (CEO DEME Group) insisted on the challenges they are facing (energy prices, level-playing field, ETS, stable policy framework, the critical role of technology and finance...). They also reacted to comments from the audience, e.g. about rebound effects of technology efficiency and the importance of regulation to incentivize climate friendly ways of producing and living. My main take-away from this debate is the transition (really) won't be easy, but companies have an undeniable role to play. Many thanks to the panelists for this events. Many thanks also to Valerie Thys and Julien Pestiaux for facilitating the debate and huge congrat's to my colleague Laurie Pazienza for organizing all this in our new offices. #Industry #Transitionplan #climateaction #ESG

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Our forests, in Europe as well as in tropical countries, need protection. In her recent op-ed, Stientje van Veldhoven, Vice President of the World Resources Institute, emphasises the critical need for the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Set to start on December 30, 2024, the EUDR aims to make the EU consumer market “deforestation-free” by decoupling widely traded commodities from deforestation.    Despite its promise, there is vocal opposition against EUDR from various sides, even from within the EU. Delaying the regulation undermines the EU’s credibility and weakens the fight against #deforestation globally. Let's act now to protect our forests and ensure a sustainable future. Read more to understand the importance of the #EUDR.    Link to op-ed @ Sustainable Views (behind paywall): https://bit.ly/3VPJeHe

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🐝 New Case Study: Embassy of Canada to the Netherlands’ Urban Beekeeping Project 🐝 Excited to share Alvéole’s latest case study on how the Embassy of Canada to the Netherlands intertwined environmental sustainability with employee engagement through urban beekeeping! Learn how they reconnected employees post-pandemic with a project rich in social and environmental significance, drawing inspiration from the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C. with rooftop honey bee hives. Solution: - Employee Engagement: Fostered curiosity and teamwork through regular hive care visits and educational sessions with a local beekeeper. - Networking & Education: Created annual workshops and honey harvesting events for educational and networking opportunities. - Sustainability Initiatives: Implemented pollinator gardens, shared progress on social media, and gifted honey jars to partners and contacts. Results: - Increased Engagement: High participation in beekeeping activities boosted team morale and sparked new ideas. - Visibility & Community Involvement: Educational signage and social media content highlighted the embassy’s sustainability efforts. - Positive Reception: Embraced by employees and a broader network of embassies and organizations. Discover more about how the Embassy of Canada in the Netherlands is generating a buzz around sustainability! 🐝🌿 Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gHc4P346 #UrbanBeekeeping #Sustainability #EmployeeEngagement #EmbassyOfCanada #Alvéole

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A key part of growing a new sustainability sector is to find ways to shift funds into that sector. There is a lot of money out there wanting to shift. There are high net individuals and families would prefer more of their money be used for more sustainable purposes. There are people managing different types of funds who are seeking to channel money to more regenerative areas. There are grants and foundations. There are innovative methods to use insurance methods, consumer surcharges, open source funding etc to guide money into different sustainability sectors I talk to Koen van Seijen, who is the host of the "Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food" podcast, and manager at Toniic, which is an organization for high net-worth impact investors. We discuss funding opportunities in the interview. We also discuss what lessons we can learn from how the solar movement grew over the last 30 years, and from how the regenerative soil movement grew over the last 15 years, to apply to grow the nascent regenerative water movement. Here is my interview with Koen

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When reshaping cities for climate adaptation one must also have an eye for biodiversity opportunities. Read below on the importance of including a cityecologist to your projectgroup. For our project LIFE CRITICAL our cityecologist Sjoerd-Dirk Fiaschi-van der Est helped reshaping the desiging of our climate adaptive Wielwijkpark to limit the impact on biodiversity loss and provided opportunities to enrich the park. #climatechange #climateadaptation #protectingwildlife #biodiversity #ecology #ecologist LIFE Programme

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The EU Parliament Elections 🗳️ are just around the corner, and it's no secret that nature 🌻 and sustainability 🌎 are on the top of many people's minds. If you're in and around Eindhoven, come join us for a lively debate with parties on May 30th evening. But don't worry if you live farther away and have burning questions 🙋🏻 on these topics, we've got you covered. Just post your questions in the comments, and we'll select some to pose to the parties. This offer is only valid for those living more than 50km away from Eindhoven 😜. Let's make our voices heard 📢 on nature and sustainability in these European Elections! #europeanelections #nature #sustainability

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Shell started a decade ago to investigate potential of carbon capture. I am glad that Aramis is among CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency projects of interests. Again Netherlands showed us how scientific approach to conventional economy like in their leadership in modern agriculture can make a difference. Hoping that EU great efforts in new energy facilities would go in reverse as political climate is not very focused on practical of Greendeal business. Thumbs up. One more reason that is better to invest in decarbonization portion of portfolio then funding communications of climate science trashing and lobbying.

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A free tool to assess biodiversity in America!

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RESEARCH ON THE RICH   Letter writer Tielke Engels in the daily Volkskrant June 7, complains about too little research attention for the lives of the rich. "But a minute of googling brings me to the book The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas and Sarah Stanley. They spent years researching wealthy people and found that they prefer to save and invest rather than buy things. And by googling you will find more similar studies. Or you can visit the magazine Quote 500 written by investigative journalists about the lives of wealthy Dutch people.   You can also start with a study of political economy to learn about labor exploitation, oppression, monopoly formation, kongsi formation, nepotism, co-optation, price fixing, insider knowledge, unequal exchange, neocolonialism, consumer deception and super-fast capital transfers, what the rich are doing to get richer.   You learn this from researchers such as Karl Marx, Upton Sinclair, Vance Packard, Eric Wolf, Andre Gunder Frank, Harry Magdoff, Noam Chomsky, Kishore Mahbubani, Arundhati Roy or Naomi Klein. And if you don't have the time or training for that, then at least read The Silent Takeover by Noreena Hertz, an excellent book."

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Ordering the wilderness: I suggest a new typology of biodiversity measurement. 2 main criteria help distinguish approaches quantifying the impacts of economic activities on biodiversity: 1) what is measured, 2) how the measurement is used.   This post deals with Focus on the state of biodiversity (ecosystems or species). Later posts will deal with Focuses on biodiversity significance and the value of biodiversity for human societies. ⚠ Many actually only seek to measure impacts and not remaining biodiversity.   1️⃣ Impact databases See https://lnkd.in/eZFVjXjC     2️⃣ Impact accounting tools Built to allow auditing of their data and outputs and include an audit trail.   According to claims from their developers (which I would take with cautions): AgroBiodiversity (ABD) Index (in development), Bioscope, Corporate Biodiversity Footprint (CBF) Detailed, and the #GlobalBiodiversityScore (GBS). All are designed primarily for the corporate Organisational Focus Area (OFA).     3️⃣ Impact hotspot screening tools Provide an audit trail and are mostly used to identify impact hotspots within a value chain. Other approaches can then take over to design avoidance & reduction actions and to refine measurement.   ➡ Sector level OFA: Include ENCORE & derived tools (e.g. INFORM module of WWF's Biodiversity Risk Filter). ENCORE also has a "Biodiversity module" which works more at the asset-level.   ➡ Supply chain OFA: Include the Biodiversity Impact Metric (BIM, not supported any more).     4️⃣ Impact performance management tools (without accounting) Focus on supporting the management of biodiversity at the corporate, product or site level by reducing negative impacts or increasing positive ones.   ➡ Corporate OFA LIFE Key, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools used for ecodesign (but their results can be aggregated at the corporate level).   ➡ Product OFA: LCA tools used for ecodesign (thus potentially avoiding or reducing products’ impacts), the Product Biodiversity Footprint (PBF) and the Biodiversity Footprint Calculator.   ➡ Site OFA: B-INTACT, Site Biodiversity Footprint (SBF), Biodiversity Footprint Calculator and Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) "tool". STAR is many things: a metric of species extinction, a global layer of STAR value across the globe and an approach to calculate "realised STAR" on specific sites: we refer here to this last use.   The Biodiversity Indicators for Site-based Impacts (BISI) tool could also be classified here     ⚠Categories can overlap, and some approaches may fit into multiple categories based on developer claims, which may sometimes be misleading. 💬 What are your thoughts on this classification? Does it help you better understand & differentiates the approaches?   PS: obviously direct measurement approaches (ecological surveys, eDNA, etc.) are the key missing part here, I’ll add them later.

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"𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐝𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬? We were honoured to have Line Algoed from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel to give a lecture in our Political Ecology and Spatial Development course. Her research examines two Caribbean communities’ post-disaster experiences in defending their collective land rights to resist the colonial histories of privatization and enclosure of land. ⬇ 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦: #CommunalLand #decoloniality #pluralityoftenure #postdisaster #disastercapitalism #actionresearch #resistance #climatecrisis

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Today, the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was approved in the EU council meeting after Austria and Slovakia eventually decided to support the Law! That’s great news for people, climate, and nature in Europe 🌱 🎉 What's in it? The NRL sets binding restoration targets for specific habitats & species, covering at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 (initially drafted were the GBF-aligned 30%), and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.  The EU also conducted a cost-benefit analysis in the impact assessment accompanying the original proposal, which showed that the economic benefits of implementing the NRL outweigh its costs by 12 times, while the risk of not acting, or not acting soon or sufficiently, comes at high costs: https://lnkd.in/eAyHfcKq What happened? As many of you know, the NRL has been through negotiations, approvals, and disapprovals, facing concerns about bureaucratic requirements it might impose, about consequences for farmers and agriculture, and misunderstandings and misinformation. Concerns were addressed in several open letters from scientists and nature and conservation organizations supporting the law: https://lnkd.in/etqnDgB4 https://lnkd.in/eFBaNj4S https://lnkd.in/es3M6WN2 Instead of repeating what others have contributed, I’d like to share some of my questions I had when looking at the debate surrounding the legislation: 1) The NRL moves restoration beyond voluntary concessions. But it is also legislation facilitating much needed investment into natural capital. Why is this not framed and communicated stronger as a major contribution to economic security and well-being? There are different ways to analyze the role of natural capital for economic output such as measured in GDP: Gross Ecosystem Product, Integration of natural capital with GDP through SEEA, Coupling of econ with environ models, scenarios.. 2) Why weren’t the benefits of a unified EU legislation assessed or emphasized over separate national strategies? Thinking of.. * Integration of the NRL with other EU policies & legislation (Birds, Water, Habitat Directive, CAP, Natura2000 etc.). NRL even addresses some targets already contained in the CAP. * Facilitation of cooperation through common legality, timelines, targets. Nature does not fit into country borders. * Aggregation and sharing of resources (knowledge, technology, funding..) * Common framework with local implementation. Restoration success eventually depends on the support of the locals living in and with it. 3) How can the role of natural capital be adequately integrated into economic accounting while improving stakeholder participation and addressing bureaucracy concerns upfront? I’m glad that the NRL was approved; it could be a great opportunity to better assess, integrate &communicate the role of natural capital for social, ecological and economic well-being 🌱 📈 Jens van 't Klooster Daniel Oberhauser heiner von luepke Reimund Schwarze Patrick Bogaart

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