West Papua is celebrated for its extraordinary biodiversity, including lush rainforests, coral reefs, and rare species such as the bird of paradise. Despite its natural wealth, the region faces challenges such as environmental degradation, economic inequality, and oppression from the Indonesian government. With her projects, the Society West Papua Foundation (SDSP) tries to balance development with the preservation of ecosystems and indigenous rights. We research how to sustainably integrate the Buah Merah plant into their already existing agroforestry coffee project, to benefit both the environment and the local communities. Moreover, this agroforestry system provides local farmers with multiple streams of income, increasing their financial stability.

The Royal Dutch Service Dog Fund (KNGF) is faced with a challenge. Their training facility produces approximately 20 to 35 kg of dog feces daily. To pursue a sustainable organization and a circular economy, we explore opportunities concerning dog waste, besides simple disposal. These opportunities include converting dog feces into biogas and turning it into fertilizer. Both options address greenhouse gas emissions, reduce KNGF's ecological footprint, and offer financial benefits by lowering operational costs and potentially generating revenue for the NGO. Social acceptance of these measures among employees, volunteers, and local residents is also a priority that we keep in mind.

Originally developed for water management, the 2,500-hectare nature reserve De Onlanden now holds immense potential as a biodiverse wetland ecosystem. While primarily recognized as a water storage zone, De Onlanden can play a larger role in fostering sustainable human-nature relationships. This project aims to encourage people to engage with and care for the area, promoting environmental stewardship, benefiting Stichting Natuurbelang De Onlanden by increasing community support, visibility, and funding. Drawing from case studies of similar nature reserves, we identify strategies to strengthen connections and overcome existing challenges.

The Stichting Groninger Voedseltuinen (Groninger Food Gardens) is tackling Groningen’s growing need for sustainable food systems. As climate change, urbanization, and industrial development put increasing pressure on the environment, this initiative provides a practical way to encourage ecological farming, protect biodiversity, and build stronger local communities. However, despite its promise, the project faces several challenges threatening its ability to grow and thrive long-term. 

Cups to serve drinks in various settings often lead to debate: which type of cup is most sustainable? The challenge of selecting sustainable cup options lies in balancing environmental impact, regulatory compliance, and cost-effectiveness. Organisations often struggle with unclear guidance, leading to choices which are either environmentally suboptimal or economically inefficient. We address this by considering lifecycle impact, durability, return rates, and cost-effectiveness. By combining sustainability with practicality and cost-effectiveness, we help organisations meet environmental objectives while building a stronger reputation among eco-conscious customers.

Influenced by the European Union's ambitious goal to cut CO2 emissions by 90% by 2040, there's a noticeable shift towards carbon-free mobility in transportation. Several paths lead to carbon-free emissions, including electric vehicles and hydrogen-fueled vehicles, both with their own infrastructural challenges. This study aims to help Hochtief in making well-informed decisions to shape their strategic role in this transition.

The European Union Green Deal and climate goals set by the Dutch national government drive the municipality of Coevorden to promote more sustainable behaviour among its inhabitants. However, the municipality does not have a good overview of the sustainability awareness of its inhabitants. This project focuses on creating a tangible and replicable guide to measure sustainability among the inhabitants of Coevorden, as well as providing tailored advice to increase sustainable awareness.

A sustainable food system is an essential part of a sustainable society, but it seems like there are not enough resources devoted to the transition to a more sustainable food system. The foundation “Groninger Voedseltuinen” plans to create 100 food gardens in the area around Groningen, to contribute to a more environmentally friendly food supply. However, challenges stemming from a lack of public comprehension and acknowledgment regarding the essence of a food garden span the realms of people, planet, and profit. Addressing these challenges is not only crucial for the foundation's growth but also holds the key to fostering a more resilient, sustainable, and interconnected community. This project aims to help the foundation normalize the concept of “food gardens”.

A substantial portion of our food finds its way into the waste bin. This food waste not only poses a moral imperative to address the inefficiencies in our food system, it also causes serious environmental concerns. The resources invested in the production of wasted food (e.g. water, energy and land) contribute to unnecessary environmental degradation and the decomposition of food waste generates greenhouse gasses. This is a complex issue that is rooted in various stages of the food supply chain, from production and distribution to consumption and disposal. This project aims to help the Municipality of Groningen to reduce food waste among its citizens.

In 2020, the construction of a large wind park in Eekerpolder led to the formation of the Eekerpolder Cooperative, granting local residents influence over the development of a solar park and its future profits. However, the cooperative lacks a clear plan for reinvesting profits, particularly in evaluating ideas for local impact. Their limited ability to effectively assess ideas and determine their value to specific stakeholders hampers the responsible and beneficial use of solar park profits in the community. This project aims to assist the Eekerpolder Cooperative in determining how to serve as a support for the surrounding area along people, planet and profit dimensions.

The Green Beach project aims to protect the natural environment of Dutch beaches and finding ecological solutions to clean the beaches and deal with waste and sea wrack. The project client is Stichting ANEMOON, a conservation group that encourages private companies and local governments to implement nature-based solutions to environmental issues.

Sea wrack is the organic material that washes up on beaches. When beaches are cleaned, the wrack and other litter is often cleared away with the use of mechanical methods such as tractors. This harms the natural beach ecosystem and rids the beach of the wrack which is used as a habitat by different species, including sandhoppers. Without the sandhoppers, the nutrients from the wrack are not properly absorbed into the sand, which can lead to erosion and a reduction of biodiversity, as well as negatively impacting dune development. This increased erosion and less developed dunes put coastal communities at risk of flooding and extreme weather events.

To help ANEMOON combat this issue and help them achieve their goals, we created a tool to help municipalities find an optimal cleaning strategy in the form of the decision tree. This tool is designed to determine the result on the basis of locational factors and taking into account people, planet and profit. This allows the output to be tailored to individual cases, reflecting the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. This was then supported by a multiple-criterial analysis. To determine some of these factors we researched “people” aspects through the creation of a 185-participant survey used to measure public opinion on their tourism preferences, environmental knowledge and awareness of the issue.

Through the results of our project we hope to streamline the process of implementing more sustainable tailor-made beach cleaning solutions and help the conservation efforts made to protect the natural coastal environment of the Netherlands. 

The highway connecting Almere, Schiphol, and Amsterdam was expanded by the SAAone consortium in 2017, and Hochtief PPP solutions is responsible for maintaining this 20 km junction until 2042. We were tasked with finding different ways to make the maintenance of this junction more sustainable, since the production and use of asphalt is a high emitter of carbon dioxide and non-carbon pollutants. While the way we design roads currently is accepted, the fossil based compounds required for asphalt production are not sustainable in the long run, and their future usage is uncertain. Fossil fuels might not have a place in society in 20 years, or could be heavily taxed by the government, which would deter companies from utilising them at all. Furthermore, while it is possible we will successfully mitigate climate change over the next couple decades, it is highly likely that countries in Europe and across the world will continue to experience unpredictable weather conditions, and it is important we design roads that are capable of withstanding these conditions. This is why it is of utmost importance that Hochtief and companies like it design roads with asphalt that reduces the dependency on fossil fuels, while taking into account the uncertainty climate change poses. Our project aims to tackle these issues through providing new insights into greener technologies and determining how they might hold up in multiple scenarios that climate change could pose.

As cities and consumerism continue to grow, so does the amount of waste produced; the limited space in cities makes sustainable waste separation difficult for both residents and waste-gathering companies. To tackle this problem at its roots, the municipality of Groningen has the ambition to be completely waste-free by 2030, transitioning from a linear economy to a circular one. This endeavour will require closing the loop of waste streams into a cycle and making the best use of raw materials. The municipality plans to design all newly built neighbourhoods in Groningen to be circular starting from conception, ensuring all construction, energy, water, and residential waste will be reduced, reused or recycled. However, not all neighbourhoods are built the same: they can differ vastly in size, space, and population. Thus, a vision for local circularity with guidelines and criteria the municipality can apply to all new neighbourhoods in Groningen must be formulated first.

The municipality of Groningen has planned a new neighbourhood in the City of Groningen, called De Suikerzijde. This neighbourhood has the goal of being a climate-adapted and socially cohesive urban neighbourhood located to the west of the city centre - the site of a former sugar factory. The first plans for the area are already made, but are those plans innovative and adjusted enough to fulfil the goals of being climate adaptive and socially cohesive?

Change is often hard to implement into an organisation since people and organisations are often reluctant to change. This reluctance can be because of the unawareness of the problem, but it can also be due to the fear of change. To overcome reluctance, it is crucial to involve and respect all stakeholders and norms and values within an organisation. To get a better understanding of the problem and gain insights from different perspectives the organisation United Kitchen is used as a case study to address the topic of sustainable change. United Kitchen is an organisation involved in the social integration process of migrants in the Netherlands. United Kitchen creates a bridge for social cooperation, and fulfils a need of migrants to establish social connections with local inhabitants. United Kitchen’s current policy mainly focuses on the integration success, well-being of the migrants and maximising profit, which is invested in the integration process. This leaves limited space for sustainability innovations, which makes United Kitchen so suitable as a case study for this report.

Companies transitioning to become more sustainable in both environmental and social aspects is an important factor for regions to become more future-proof. This shift in priorities towards sustainability over profitability, is associated with the theoretical concept of degrowth. SVBE implements degrowth: a company which has the primary aim to change the focus of financial growth towards a focus on social and environmental value, as opposed to economic value alone. To support companies in transitioning towards an SVBE, we aim to create guidelines tailored for companies with different starting points and goals. The companies we target are SMEs (small to medium enterprises), specifically within the sector of non-durable consumer goods. We have developed solutions for degrowth in four branches that most companies of all sizes have: human resources, design management, supply chain management and marketing.