Building capacity in the municipal government of Eindhoven
The Natural Step four-day train the trainer program for change processes in Eindhoven.
Our partners
In 1994 Interface Chairman Ray Anderson recognized that the way industry worked was fundamentally unsustainable. Ray could see how much of the Earth's valuable natural resources industry used up and threw away, with too little regard for the future.
He saw that waste from industrial processes polluted the environment and emissions from energy use were causing global warming. His conclusion: this culture cannot continue without serious environmental and social repercussions.
Ray's epiphany revolutionised Interface's business strategy from that day forward, and has characterised the company's development ever since.
Our mission is to become the first company to be fully sustainable - with zero negative impact. We call this Mission Zero and we will achieve this by 2020.
We want to work in equilibrium, with no negative effects from our people, process or products. And we want to go a step further - to be restorative, putting back more than we take out from the environment and the community.
This is a huge challenge demanding the full application and talent of our people to provide the innovative thinking we need. Everyone at InterfaceFLOR is expected to challenge the way we relate to the environment and think how it can be improved. Our people effectively have two managers - the person they report to and the planet.
We train our employees to do this and provide incentives to achieve progress towards Mission Zero. The personal performance objectives of our management and executives are also linked to Mission Zero.
Interface Chairman Ray Anderson has likened the challenge of achieving Mission Zero to climbing a mountain higher than Everest. With this in mind, we have set out our path to scale ‘Mount Sustainability' on seven ambitious fronts.
At Radboud University Nijmegen the Centre for Sustainable Management of Resources is an education and research department with a difference. It is a department for innovative academic research that bridges the gap between the traditional disciplines. Its offices and facilities are at the Faculty of Science. The department is part of the faculty’s Institute for Science, Innovation and Society.
The high standards of Radboud University Nijmegen postgraduate schools and research institutes are acknowledged nationally and internationally, especially in the fields of cognition research and information technology, chemistry, physics, and research into language behaviour. Our department adds to this list education and research in the fields of:
- trans-national river and water management
- sustainable development and gender issues
- environmental studies linking different disciplines
At Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) education and research are of a very high international standard and learning is the focal point for student, teacher, and researcher alike. We are the most distinctly profiled higher education institution in Sweden, with a clear focus on applied IT and innovation for sustainable growth.
The BTH Faculty Team focus on core learning competencies related to sustainability, the framework for strategic sustainable development (known commonly in the business community as The Natural Step framework) and its application. In addition, external instructors will provide specialised expertise that is integral to the overall programme.
Enviu develops sustainable and social innovations and brings them to the market. We work together with a large group of young entrepreneurial people, senior executives, corporate partners and universities to co-create these innovative businesses.
Enviu scouts and generates WOW! ideas and makes them happen. WOW! ideas are: innovative, sustainable solutions for environmental or social issues, have a business case, are scalable, and are challenging for young people to get involved.
Enviu is based in the Netherlands but has an international network of young entrepreneurs, creatives, young professionals, and students; the decision makers of the near future who share their networks, expertise and time in order to work towards an economy that creates value for people and planet.
