Stef van Dongen: "Sustainability means an economy that creates value for humans and nature"

Bringing wow! ideas to life

Stef van Dongen (1976) comes from a family of entrepreneurs. After graduating with a degree in small business studies, he went on to specialise in global business and society management. It was there that Van Dongen saw the light. In 2004, after a career in the financial service sector, he started Enviu, an international network organisation that operates at the crossroads of innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship. The company’s first big project was the sustainable dance club, a concept that is now being implemented worldwide. Currently, Enviu is working on a Hybrid Tuktuk project in India, improving the socio-economic situation of auto-rickshaw drivers while reducing CO2 emissions and improving air quality in large cities. Van Dongen: ‘We need to work towards an economy that serves us, to survive instead of destroying the planet.’

Interview

What exactly is Enviu?

‘Enviu is an international network organisation for and by young entrepreneurial people. Enviu actually stands for the environment and you. It’s a platform for realising dreams. We scout and generate what we call “wow! ideas” for innovative sustainable entrepreneurship, and then we make them happen. We do this by setting up innovative sustainable businesses and organisations.’

Wow! ideas?

‘Yes, the kind of ideas that give you butterflies in your stomach, ideas that can change the world. Wow! ideas are innovative, sustainable solutions for environmental or social issues; they have a business case, are scalable, and challenge young people to get involved. We are based in the Netherlands but we have an international network of young entrepreneurs, creatives, young professionals and students: the decision-makers of the near future. Currently, we have about 3,000 people who share their networks, knowledge, experience, time and money to generate and develop those ideas. I see young people as the driving force towards sustainable economy, since they have serious commitment, passion and a great sense of urgency.’

Can you describe some of these wow! ideas?

‘The first big wow! project we did was the sustainable dance club (SDC). The heart of the concept is a dance floor that generates energy, energy which can be used to power a club. Four years on, SDC is making it possible for clubs, festivals and events all over the world to become more sustainable and inventive. These engaging platforms are how we showcase pioneering and green solutions; this is how SDC wants to inspire a generation of young people to lead a more sustainable and fulfilling lifestyle. It proved that sustainability isn’t always about reducing: the fun of dancing and powering your own environment is now being demonstrated around the world every day. One of the projects that we are working on now is the Open Source House. Open Source House wants to make worldwide knowledge and creativity in the field of architecture and sustainability accessible to a large group of people. It offers an unconventional solution to provide housing for the lower middle class in developing countries. We are working on Open Source House projects in Ghana at the moment. By providing people with a sustainable and reusable housing construction, we want to make a contribution towards enhancing the living conditions while at the same time reducing the negative impact from the building process.’

Are you a non-profit organisation?

‘We like to say we are a hybrid organisation: part of the innovation in Enviu is the way it is organised. We have a foundation, under which are the companies we set up. After the initial start-up phase of a company, Enviu stays involved as a shareholder. All profits made by Enviu go back to the foundation to start up new companies. The companies themselves are commercial. We aim for a non-loss strategy: we focus primarily on maximising the impact of our projects, instead of maximising profits, while letting the project generate its own income as much as possible.’

How do you see sustainability?

‘I come from the financial service sector, where making money is a real goal. Working in that sector, I started to realise that our economic system is wrong; the system is fundamentally flawed. In the current situation, our point of departure is the concept that we have infinite energy, infinite raw materials and infinite access to cheap labour. If you look at it objectively, we installed a linear process to produce the biggest amount of waste for the best possible price. From an economic point of view, I think that sustainability means an economy that creates value for humans and nature. An economy that serves us, instead of destroying the planet. Secondly, a sustainable world is a world where you are rewarded for spreading solutions to big social or environmental problems as fast as possible, instead of what happens now, where ideas are patented and stored on a shelf until some big company pays enough money for it.’

How do we get there?

‘A sustainable economy is all about working together. There are so many issues we face, it is impossible to solve them alone. Not as a person, not as a country, not as a company. We focus on young people, because they have grown up with the idea of networking, Wikipedia, YouTube... They are used to working together in worldwide communities, to sharing. The real obstacle to change is that the stakes in the current economy are so high. Billions have been invested in the current business format and people want to see a return on their investment, which I think is normal. We want to prove that our way of thinking and doing business is profitable as well as sustainable. Once these initiatives achieve critical mass, the establishment will have to go along with it.’

Are there any other organisations like Enviu?

‘What you see is that people do different parts of it. Online communities for ideas. Online communities and organisations for investors to finance young entrepreneurs. But the link between the two is seldom seen. It’s very easy to generate lots of ideas, and it is relatively easy to find an investor with a good idea when you have a customer, but the part in between is often seen as too risky. This is exactly where we come in. We provide the necessary funds and know-how to bring ideas to life and make them investor ready, and then we look for angel investors to take it to the next level. It is not the easiest road to take, but to me it is definitely the most fun approach.’

How Dutch is Enviu?

‘The heart of Enviu lies in Holland. When I started the company, Holland was ready for it. People were done with the fuzzy, feel-good, treehugger ideas; something had to change. The funny thing was that we didn’t fit any para- meters. Not with the government and NGOs, who thought we were too commercial, nor the business world, who thought we were too soft. However, we found a few believers who thought it was clever to subsidise highly innovative projects that would ultimately be self-sustaining. We’ve come a long way since, and now we enjoy broad support.’

How do you think Holland compares to the rest of the world when it comes to sustainability?

‘To be honest, I think the Netherlands are lagging behind. There’s huge potential in this country, and I think we need to be careful not to waste it. We at Enviu are just a speck on the world map; if we are already seen as one of the front-runners, I think there’s something wrong. Much more investments should be made. As a country, we need to make decisions, take action, invest money! We need to be willing to take risks, dare to go for it. All of us together, we can’t do it alone. We are a true knowledge-based economy, but the part in between the idea and the actual business model I described before seems like a no-go area. But this is where it happens, where you can create jobs.’

But you do see opportunities?

‘As an entrepreneur, I see so many opportunities in the Netherlands. The mindset is there in the young generation, the sense of urgency and the drive to take on these issues. At the same time, I see that pensioned-off directors of big companies are now also joining us. They bring with them powerful networks, access to decision-making and – not unimportant – a lot of money. Combining the strength of young innovators and senior business leaders to take all those business opportunities that are out there and design the sustainable economy, that is where the real opportunity lies.’

www.enviu.org