About us
Climate Innovators
Climate Innovators
Together we stand for a serious climate ambition in 2030 and ultimately in 2050. There is a lot of focus on physical measures here. Unfortunately, thinking, stimulating and motivating people often happens with a raised finger.
We believe more in intrinsically motivating people to change their behavior in a sustainable way. We do this by stimulating and challenging in a positive way. Starting small creates a breeding ground for behavior that contributes to the 2030 goals and beyond. This requires investing in and inspiring young critical thinkers.
Where the current generation has arrived at today’s innovations, the new one begins. A generation with enormous potential to really change things with solutions that we cannot yet think of. We call them: CLIMATE INNOVATORS. Our ambition is to work with you to inspire 1,000,000 young people to make a difference by 2030. In an EU context even 5,000,000.
Inspiring 1,000,000 young climate innovators is only possible if schools, the province and sustainable initiatives can reinforce each other. The key here is ‘seek and be found’. Climateinnovators.nl is the counter where all climate and SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) related initiatives come together, both digitally and physically. Suitable for every stage of the curriculum.
Climateinnovators.nl is an initiative of the Sustainable@ Foundation. This foundation is committed to consciously dealing with our planet and integrating it into daily life.
Together you go further. The Sustainable@ Foundation works together within the EU program CIEP. In this way we inspire 5,000,000 young Europeans to really make a difference in their daily lives, but above all to play a role in solutions that make the world a better place.
We offer sustainable initiatives a place to be found by primary schools, secondary schools, vocational education, higher schools and universities. These initiatives are aimed at making a sustainable impact.
Not only the initiatives continue to develop, also the climate innovators.nl platform. The foundation board challenges everyone who is involved in education to think about improvements. If you are interested, sign up
In addition to a digital platform to bring supply and demand together, work is underway with the Province of North Brabant on a physical platform called Creative Connectors. In addition, the platform is working on a quality and reliability label.
The foundation board is convinced that we must build a better world together. This is how we all win with a future-proof planet.
Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.
It has an estimated budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared to its predecessor programme (2014-2020).
The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.
It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also supports the European Pillar of Social Rights. It implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 and the programme develops the European dimension in sport.
The Energy Challenges Foundation has been active for about 10 years in challenging young people in primary and secondary schools to take part in a sustainability campaign aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. Teams of pupils set out on their own to reduce the school’s energy bill. They do this by using their experiences to change their behaviour.
By now, more than 235 schools have participated (often schools participate for several years) and we have reached more than 51,000 pupils, saving more than 9 tonnes of euros and 2,820 tonnes of CO2.
By connecting the smart meters in the schools to our monitoring system, we can read the results of the savings directly and they are an extra incentive for the students.
We will inspect schools for energy leaks and possible sustainability measures that will be discussed with the pupils and form the starting point for becoming more aware of their behaviour with regard to energy consumption. This is the basis for achieving a sustainable change in behaviour. Because pupils are responsible for their own campaign, they become enormously enthusiastic and motivated, and after participating in the campaign they start to use energy more wisely.
Meanwhile, through the North Sea Region project “2IMPREZS” the Energy Challenges are also organised in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Belgium and from 2022 also in Sweden and Spain. Here too, students will be challenged to make a difference!
The Energy Challenges Foundation is located in Cuijk and employs people in different regions who carry out the challenges at schools in those regions. Since 2019 the foundation has an ANBI-status.
The Sustainable@ foundation is a registered non-profit organisation and is founded at November 2020. Their ambition is to inspire 1.000.000 young Dutch Climateinnovators to make the difference in 2030. By bringing together demand and supply and adding innovation and technology Sustainable@ delivers acceleration in the energy transition. The foundation’s platform, both digital as physical, brings demand and supply together. For schools (demand) it provides a much needed overview and ‘one door principle’. It also helps selecting the appropriated (climate) education program.
For climate initiatives (supply) it provides an ambassadors network and a channel to the schools so they can focus on inspiring Climateinnovators. The sustainable@ team executes their ambition by building physical networks, connect people and initiatives, creating overview and selection tools, build appropriate tooling and to enthuse schools, governments, climate initiatives and ambassadors.
Since 2020 the Sustainable@ foundation have successfully worked on building a platform, connect initiatives and schools and executed a pilot together with the province of North-Brabant. The thematic areas of expertise within the foundation are as follows.
The Sustainable2 foundation has 2 members, who execute their board activities unpaid.
GoodPlanet Belgium inspires young and old to realize a sustainable society. A healthy planet, where everyone can live well, today and tomorrow. A GoodPlanet. Through our projects, campaigns and workshops we spread knowledge and plant seeds for change. We make the ideas behind sustainable development concrete, achievable and attractive. Always with a positive and hopeful outlook. GoodPlanet is convinced that education plays an important role in the transition to a sustainable society. That is why the organization focuses on children and youth. Because we believe that everyone can make a world of difference with a small or large gesture, we set up campaigns for a broad audience. GoodPlanet also partners with companies that actively take up their social role. Every year our 85 employees and dozens of volunteers inspire and activate more than 500,000 children, young people and adults throughout Belgium.
The European Institute for Innovation – Technology is a registered non-profit organisation. EIfI-Tech works on a variety of projects, merging technical innovation with economic deployment. Thus, the EIfI-Tech is known for its work with innovation & entrepreneurs; it shortens the connection with industry & academia partners. Furthermore, the Institute is active in applied research, feasibility, testing, development, demonstration with the purpose of ultimately supporting economic deployment.
Through its broad networks EifI-Tech is currently used to build up regional connections to early stage business proposals in RIS3 sectors. The EIfI-Tech operational team manages the delivery of project work programmes working in partnership with national/EU agencies, learning institutions, the private sector and people – the so called “Quadruple Helix”. EIfI-Tech works on numerous European funded projects, as well as with national projects, our experienced staff includes researchers, educationalists, industrialists and IT specialists.
Since 2008 the EIfI Umbrella have successfully worked on numerous European funded projects, as well as with national projects. The thematic areas of expertise within the Institution are as follows.
EIfI-Tech has 10 staff
DECROLY is a private Vocational Education and Training institution which develops – Basic – Medium and Higher Vocational training grade in different professional families authorized by the Ministry of Education.
37 teachers develop courses to different levels in the field of Information Technology, Business Management & Administration, Tourism, Commerce and Marketing. DECROLY is a member of The Spanish Confederation of Educational Centres and of the European Net of centres EFVET.
Decroly have nearly 300 students in VET and 2000 in Continuous Education.
Main tasks: to blend academic and technical instruction to prepare graduates for direct entry into the workforce, providing the necessary training to become qualified professionals in a variety of trades.
These programs generally focus on providing students with hands-on instruction, and can lead to certification, a diploma or certificate DECROLY has been participating in different Erasmus programmes since 2008, giving us the challenge to make our institution known in other European countries. By participating in the Erasmus Programme, DECROLY will achieve the key challenges of the internationalisation and modernisation of the institution to contribute to the goals of a European Education Area; to enhance the attractiveness of higher education in Europe; to offer our students/staff opportunities to undertake a learning and/or professional experience in another country; to promote language learning and linguistic diversity (we develop subjects in English); to develop initiatives addressing one or more fields of education training and promote innovation, exchange of experience and know-how in cooperation with Partner Countries involved in education/training or other relevant fields.
Since 2008, DECROLY has been successfully promoting Key Action 1 – Learning mobility and Key Action 2 –
Cooperation among organisations and institutions, in different European countries within the Erasmus+ Programme. We were awarded with the ECHE (2021-2027) to keep on offering our students the opportunity to: Improve the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market and their contribution to a cohesive society, in particular through increased opportunities for training mobility and strengthened cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work Increase a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, self-empowerment and self-esteem. Improve foreign language competences and intercultural awareness having a more active participation in society and better awareness of the European project and the EU values. We also promote an innovative, modern, international, and well-qualified staff that provides our students more attractive programmes, with new teaching and training methods and more effective activities for the benefit of local communities to actively involve young people and/or to address disadvantaged groups.
Minke van Boekel: Brabant Geeft Energie
As program manager of the Brabant Geeft Energie Foundation, from the province of North Bra-bant, in 2018 I started building a network of enthusiasts who help young people develop sus-tainable and future-proof skills: the Creative Connectors. Sustainable@ (the predecessor of CIEP) was born from this wonderful network: an online platform with a one-stop shop for over-view, execution and doing.
Young people have their view of the world. By creatively connecting with businesses, organiza-tions and education, CIEP ensures that young people become more knowledgeable about sus-tainability. With a few simple clicks, offers are easy to find and apply. Thus, energy transition pro-jects are accelerated and young people make a concrete contribution to their future. And these climate innovators also get the rest of the family and neighborhood excited!
Toine Manders: Europees Parlement
Toine Manders (b. 1959) studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Tilburg in 1982 and then be-came an independent industrial designer and visual arts teacher.
After a serious motorcycle accident in 1988, he became paralyzed in his left arm and changed course. He studied law in Maastricht and became a lawyer. From 1994 to 1999 he was a member of the city council in Asten and from 1995 simultaneously a member of the Provincial States of North Brabant. Political efforts eventually led him to the European Parliament in 1999, where he served until 2014. During this period, he established a reputation as a defender of the European internal market. After working in Brussels, he practiced his expertise as a consultant in several companies and became co-owner of Golf Course Het Woold in Asten.
Since June 2, 2019, Toine has again been elected to the European Parliament and since Septem-ber 2020 he has been representing the interests of the elderly within the European group of the CDA. The party has asked him as a Special Elderly Envoy to deal mainly with elderly policy and pensions in the European Parliament. Besides elder policy in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, he deals with the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. A former lawyer, he is also an alternate member of the Legal Affairs Committee.
Paula Alonso: Nakama STEAM College
Paula Alonso has been the manager of Nakama STEAM College since 2020. Nakama STEAM College is an educational center founded in 2016 specialized in the world of science and technology that uses STEAM methodology from an integrative perspective of different disciplines. It is the reference school in Cantabria in the field of educational robotics and the development of video games for children and teenagers. It has trained more than 3,000 people over the years, in collaboration with the government of Cantabria and various municipal councils in the region.
Jo Van Cauwenberge: GoodPlanet
Jo Van Cauwenberge is 51 and worked for WWF early in his career. In 1997, he co-founded GREEN, the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network in Europe. After 3 years of intense collaboration between GREEN and the GoodPlanet Foundation, founded by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, GoodPlanet Belgium was founded in 2013 where he became general director. Now GoodPlanet Belgium works with 120 people on 100 climate and sustainability-related projects. GoodPlanet works with 4,000 schools, 200 companies and reaches 500,000 people every year.
