About Go for Good in 2021

Year-review 2021

Dear all,

What a year it was. I hope you started the year 2022 in good health. If we learned one thing these past 2 years it is the importance of a healthy and harmonious life. For me the year 2021 was a year of prototyping, inspiration and creation. It was a year of reconnections and building trust. And it was a year of making and meeting new colleagues and friends. Strangers developed into trusted co-worker. I am grateful for the joy of co-creation. And I highly valued finding, with so many, a shared purpose to increase sustainability in business, develop insights into the future to anticipate present actions and collectively make this world a better place. To all my co-worker thank you so much. You all inspired me and made 2021 incredibly rich. I look forward to continue the journey in 2022.?

The Undercover Activist

The year 2021 started and ended with the?Undercover Activist.?www.undercoveractivist.com ?. In jan ’21 Tessa Wernink and I were given the opportunity to prototype a workshop on Positive Workplace Activism during THNK-fstvl. And we are still very grateful for this moment where we experienced how our fellow THNK-ers www.thnk.org reconnected with their inner-activist. We enjoyed??how insightful the exercises and dialogues were on the subject of activism in the workplace.?

At the end of december ’21 we launched our project the Undercover Activist; your guide to positive workplace activism. We are ready to start our online course for young professionals. In 5 modules we will train them to be more effective in managing projects on sustainability, inclusion and justice in their workplaces and become more effective change-agents. I want to thank everybody who inspired us along the way. I look forward to everybody we will meet and everything we will discover in 2022. We are moving forward from prototype to project and who knows where we it will end.??

Lab Future Generations

The year ’21 also started with the birth of a new organization;?Lab Future Generations?(Lab Toekomstige Generaties). www.labtoekomstigegeneraties.nl

I was very honored to become the first chairperson. Lab Future Generation was started in 2019 by a group of very dedicated people (a working group of Worldconnectors) who want to put the rights of Future Generations in all policies made by the Dutch government. Forming an official foundation was needed for the next phase of this initiative. Thank you for your trust; Ignaz, Ties, Marga, Tineke, Miranda, Alide, Jan and many others. Now 12 months later Lab Future Generations has tackled many topics ranging from the future of the Waddenzee and the future of water, to the future of education and, latest, the future of farming. The year ended with a very interesting conference on how to secure the rights of future generations in Castle Loevestein; let the future generations escape. 2022 looks very promising with serious funding already secured and hopefully more to come.???

Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin

The future is also the subject of Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB). This anticipation and trend letter is part of the activities of LEAP (Laboratoire Europeen d’Anticipation Politique). Thank you Marie-Helene Cailol, Marie-Anne Ranke, Christel, Jordi and many others for the weekly inspiration during the editorial meetings and for all the very interesting anticipation that saw the light in 2021 in over 10 GEAB’s. Apart from the GEAB we developed two new products; the online LEAP-Academy and the video-podcast Digging-into-the- Future.?geab.eu/en/lookup/podcast-ditf-no-8-retour-vers-le-futur/

And we had our first Summer-university in beautiful Arcachon.??I look forward to our co-operation in 2022 where we will develop more online course-material.?

SDG Spotlight Netherlands

In March ’21 an important project saw the light, that started in the minds of Alide Roerink, Ellen van Reesch and myself, 5 years ago in NY at the UN High Level Panel for Sustainable Development. In 2021 we founded?SDG-Spotlight Netherlands?and started looking for funding to do the research for an SDG-Spotlight Report in the Netherlands. In 2021, together with the help of Rosa van Driel and Wim Oolbekkink and many others, we were able to present SDG-Spotlight-Netherlands Report on SDG-10 (reduced inequalities)??and SDG15 (Live on Land). This report is very critical of how the Dutch government is taking action on these SDGs. Policies are too little, too late and without real conviction. The result is that in The Netherlands we are moving away from the goals in this international sustainability agenda 2030. In ’22 we will continue to put this important report in front of our new government and we will be part of the dialogue on the role of municipalities and local governments on these issues.??www.sdgspotlight.nl/rapportage-2020/

YPO Earth Impact Summit

In 2021 I was part of the Impact Officers group of the entrepreneur’s organization YPO (YPO.org). And with a next-generation team of YNG-ers we created the Clean-the-Air Accelerator. In June we presented Next Gens on a Mission, during the YPO Earth Impact Summit Series and organized our own Impact Academy. Thank you Emma, Reyhan, Dinesh, Jasper, Julia, Diana, Oleq and many others for the fun we had and you inspired me enormously for the Undercover Activist. Let’s see what 2022 has in store.?

Investments

BBK/Door Vriendschap Sterker has, since I left, acquired interesting new clients, renewed their B Corp certification and changed their logo from a Rhino into a Bee. I am proud of Mark and Liset, on how they are sailing the waves of Covid. For them 2022 looks good.??

Through my membership of Arches Capital I am part of an investment collectives that participated in Eco-movement, Enpicom, Code Sandbox, EclecticIQ and Thinkwise. Thank you for letting me present my ideas on impact investing and starting the discussion on how to add ESG to the selection and due-diligence process.?arches.capital

Some years ago, I invested in a small start-up that aimed to increase financial inclusion in Africa. I am very proud of David and Cynthia of Kwara for their successes in 2021. Very curious what this year will bring you. www.kwara.com

Worldconnectors and Earth Charter Netherlands

Worldconnectors and Earth Charter Netherlands?are two organizations close to my heart. Through dialogue and through connecting community- and business leaders our members become more effective to define concrete action for our worldwide challenges. We aim to come-up with solutions to reduce our negative impact worldwide, increase solidarity and inclusion, and raise our voices where possible. We had a great team in 2021 consisting of back-office and board-members. Thank you Ilyes, Alide, Wim, Sander, Rachida, Jan-Bouke and many others. We continued with our dialogues and Roundtable sessions and supported all sorts of activities to increase sustainable, inclusive and fair government policies in the new Dutch-government plans. We really hope they start taking the SDGs serious, stop treating it as a foreign affairs issue and take serious steps to reduce the enormous Dutch foot-print worldwide.?www.worldconnectors.nl/duurzaam-regeerakkoord/

As a board-member of Worldconnectors I have been part of the team that has been working towards further integration with Earth Charter Netherlands. Thank you! to all involved. We are finding strength in co-operation and our shared mission; a deeply felt responsibility, both at home and abroad, to care for all living beings on our planet and protect the quality of life of our future generations. 2022 will start full of inspiration with the Earth Charter Course Community Leadership. www.earthcharter.nl/nieuws/

More inspiration

I had very inspiring encounters at the Berlin Change Days and ongoing events. Thank you Esther and Annette for introducing me to this tribe of incredible people. See you again in ’22. There were many more moments of inspiration. To name a few more; I enjoyed Springtij, my regular walks discussing the development of Child Press International, a sound-retreat with Awake-Origins?www.awakeorigins.com ?and A Colorful Revolution with Droog/ Studio Zeitgeist.?

Yoga creativity

In June 2021 I received my certificate for my 200-hours Yoga-teacher training. Thank you to the teachers and peers at?My Vinyasa Practice?for making this possible. In 2022 I will continue my training towards the 500-hours certificate. I use Yoga more and more in my work to increase creativity and personal audacity in a professional setting.?

Masterpeace Nepal-Walk

In nov 2019 I participated in the Masterpeace Nepal Walk. And in nov ’21 my fellow Nepal-traveler Celine Lustig contacted me with the question if I wanted to co-organize the Nepal Walk 2022. And off-course I said yes! what a good idea. So I am really looking forward to working together with Team Masterpeace here in The Netherlands and Team Peace-for-People in Nepal. Hopefully you will read all about it in my letter 2022. And I am sure some of you will Join me!! www.masterpeace.org/masterpeace-walk-nepal-2022/

People make Amsterdam

To end on a more local note. After the summer, Mensen Maken Amsterdam (People Make Amsterdam) was ready to set up Fonds voor Centrum (Fund for the City Center). The last of MMA's 7 neighborhood funds. As a committee member, among 10-15 other neighbors, we collectively decide which small-scale neighborhood projects receive a budget from the fund. A really fun way to get to know citizens’ needs and the dynamic people in my neighborhood. We will meet soon in 2022. www.fondsvoorcentrum.nl

Collective Intelligence

And closest to home I want to tell my family how grateful I am to be part of their past, present and future. Our oldest daughter is part of the great-resignation, she quit her job and is now traveling with her boy-friend through South America, our oldest son just started his first serious job at a consultancy firm, our second son moved to Nairobi and is setting up the company eBee, an Africa-based e-mobility business, together with Jaap my loving partner. And my youngest is improving the world and having as much fun as possible in Delft.?And last but not least my parents are doing great. I helped my father publish a book with his drawings.

So what a year it was. We stumbled from lock-down to lock-down. I know how privileged I am to be able to work on projects I really care about and empowering others where possible. I love to be part of the collective intelligence of all these networks. It helps me to connect the dots. I am looking forward to continue co-working and meeting again with all you marvelous people. Happy new-year! Let’s make 2022 a really positive year for as many people and living beings as possible. Stay well.