Dutch leaders to present lectures on regional sustainability

The Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, a program of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, is hosting a pair of lectures as part of the institute’s Sustainability Series focusing on the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the Netherlands.

ASU established a partnership with the municipality in February when the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives established a Global Sustainability Solutions Center in the region that borders Amsterdam. Haarlemermeer is regarded as a European leader in regional sustainability development.

Fonz Dekkers, site manager for the Center in Haarlemermeer, will present a case study in monitoring sustainable urban development on Tuesday, April 16 at 9 a.m. The following week on April 23, two of the municipality’s aldermen, John Nederstigt and Arthur van Dijk, will describe how their municipality is becoming the Dutch front-runner in sustainable innovation and economic development. Both lectures will be held in Wrigley Hall on ASU’s Tempe campus.

“These two lectures that feature representatives from our center and the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer will provide a unique opportunity to learn about experiences and challenges from practitioners in sustainable urban development in the Netherlands,” said Marta Hulley Friedman, program manager for the Global Sustainability Solutions Centers. “These are unique opportunities to learn more about their policies and challenges directly from the leaders who are implementing the practices.”

Dekkers will elaborate on the first Dutch local government to have a certified sustainability monitor and how he reduced a complex system to a set of 19 critical performance indicators and how these can be used for policymaking.

Aldermen Nederstigt and van Dijk, ambassadors for a sustainable economy and society in the greater Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, will discuss the municipality’s unique approach to sustainability that includes the Netherlands’ first cradle-to-cradle business development designed by William McDonough

For more information and to RSVP to attend each of these lectures, visit GIOS Sustainability Series.