Impact through
collective entrepreneurship

In the wake of the Paris Agreement, APG and others asked how pension funds could contribute to this globally supported ambition and how we could make it concrete. Ruud Koornstra and Cas van Arendonk were asked to take this up. The result: the Smart Climate Opportunities Foundation. Cas van Arendonk: ‘At the start you mainly ask yourself where the initiative can really stand out. The core group believes in entrepreneurship and innovation, and is mainly positive in outlook. So we also focus on breakthroughs that really have a major impact on CO₂reduction and knowledge sharing through our academy. The next step was to recruit partners. Partners who believe in this idea, but can also contribute to the solutions. It’s now an eclectic mix of companies and several successful projects. Take the Dienst Landelijke Energietransitie (DLE), for example, which shows that making a house energy-neutral doesn’t have to cost all that much, and we’re now applying this on a huge scale. Tangible results, that’s what appeals to me the most. But it’s also fantastic to facilitate breakthrough technologies such as the hydrogen granule with an energy density three times higher than liquid hydrogen.’

When the Netherlands held the EU Presidency in 2016, it had to find a home base for the many international guests arriving for the incoming trade mission. Hoeve de Vogel, a 126-year-old farm in the middle of the drained Haarlemmermeer polder, was standing empty and served as a unique venue to show what the Dutch business community already has to offer in the field of the Circular Economy. The farm had to be extensively renovated. Thijs Tauw: ‘It was quite a challenge of course. The skill was to make the building suitable for multiple events at the same time. We also wanted to create workplaces. The main challenge during the renovation was to restore the building in a circular way. Fortunately, we were able to barter a lot of deals with Philips, Ecor, Interface, Moonen Packaging and WEPA among others. Fantastic circular solutions, every last one of them. The challenge lay mainly in the logistics: how to get everything together on time. Just try to find a second-hand façade that’s available for the opening in May. C-Bèta will be constantly in development; it’s there in the name. It’s cool to see so many circular businesses developing here, and so many people already set on the circular track thanks to our events. That’s why we do it.’