TEDxGhent 2011: Cradle to Cradle by Ellis ten Dam

Ellis ten Dam is a senior consultant and works as a director for a team of Royal Haskoning consultants in Rotterdam. Her focus is on sustainable matches between organizations and their environment, working on beneficial real estate. She develops strategic real estate plans and programs in which theme's such as Sustainability, New Way of Working and Integral (Leasing) Contracts are incorporated. By thinking in chains of stakeholders over the whole life cycle to develop and add value, business cases are made positive.

Ellis ten Dam also teaches at the Amsterdam School of Real Estate. The presentation will focus on a vision on sustainability, inspired by the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept. The C2C concept brings the traditional 'sustainability-subject' to a higher level, urging a move from eco-efficiency, towards eco-effectiveness. It aspires to make industry and development 'good' for the environment and society, without losing sight of the ambition to make money. However, this will require a paradigm shift towards effectiveness, to develop beneficial solutions for the near future.

The key message is that developing beyond sustainable solutions, inspired by C2C, is not only about technical solutions. To make sustainable solutions possible and to create beneficial solutions, innovation is necessary. The way forward to achieve this, is to innovate on technical, legal and financial concepts.