Jan Luijten works as strategist Smart Sustainability at The Economic Board. He combines this work with positions at the Municipality of Nijmegen and the Green Metropolitan Region Arnhem-Nijmegen (GMR). This broad commitment makes him a true spider in the sustainability web in Lifeport. With triple helix cooperation you get more done, is his credo. How exactly does he do that and what does he see for the future when it comes to sustainability?
Luijten works a few days a week for the municipality of Nijmegen, as strategic climate adaptation advisor. That work revolves around finding new ways to adapt the city to increasingly extreme weather. He divides the rest of the working week between the GMR and The Economic Board.
"Climate adaptation is done in residential areas, in the living environment, in public spaces, in business parks. In doing so, you also come across The Economic Board, of course, because there we are working on making business parks more sustainable and constructing a green corridor right here through Nijmegen. So sometimes that intersects. Then I make use of the cross-network. Here it is also important to use the organisational power of the GMR. For instance with Tom Lamers, who does public affairs there. And then, with my Economic Board cap on, I can challenge regional organisations to implement this.
And so I try to combine that. So I'm increasingly trying to make that one function. That not only makes it more efficient and easier for me, but then you also have a linking pin, a liaison on sustainability between the different organisations."
Triple-helix group Smart Sustainability
In 2020, The Economic Board established the Smart Sustainability helix group, a triple-helix group comprising representatives from the three sectors: education/research, government and business (organisations).
The participants are the Arnhem-Nijmegen Green Metropolitan Region, Radboud University, Wageningen University & Research, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Arnhem Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences, KIEMT, Lifeport@, the municipality of Arnhem and the municipality of Nijmegen.
They meet monthly to discuss potential collaborations that could accelerate the transition to circularity and climate resilience.
"In my role as strategist, I am not executive. I can, however, advise strategically; for example, I can use my ambassadors. I can ask members of The Economic Board Jan van Ierssel and Daniel Wigboldus to support a particular project. So I can create movement, help bring parties together and get them to work together on a project."
Regio Deal projects
“I’ve been constantly applying that approach to the Healthy Green Growth Regional Deal as well.
For example, we looked at who from HAN or HVHL could work on this project together with the local council and businesses. I then work out the details and bring those people together. It’s through this kind of collaboration that we get Regional Deal projects off the ground. Examples include Soil Valley, Lifeport Cool Lab and Circular Top Region.”
If you don't do it this way, that success rate is much lower. I was involved in four Regio Deal proposals with this approach: Lifeport Cool Lab, Soil Valley, VIA-T, and Circular Top Region. In all four, I put a lot of energy into it in the last two or three years, I went everywhere. The aim was to make a good proposal, which will have a place in the Healthy Green Growth Regio Deal. So that metres can be made.
And for that, I can make good use of the contacts and network I have. Had I not done that, certain parties would not have been at the table at all and I would not even have found certain good parties who are now participating.
For the Lifeport Cool Lab project, I had good contacts the Centre for Multiple Value Creation within HAN and so a programme director became available for the project and we were able to work out the Lifeport Cool Lab project. With the GMR cap on, I was able to find five municipalities that had five living labs and a learning programme and all that together became this Regio Deal project.
