Peter Ndukwe
Ever Obi
TIAS School for Business and Society
Mirjam Minderman
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Founded in 1999 by Tom Bosschaert, Except Integrated Sustainability is a global consultancy focused on transforming urban development and businesses into sustainable, circular, and regenerative systems. Except is a Certified B Corp, and through its Symbiosis-in-Development (SiD) framework, has utilized systems thinking to constructively work towards the achievement of sustainable goals. Except has executed more than 700 sustainable projects and has worked with numerous clients, such as IKEA, Schiphol Airport and Heineken, to improve their circularity.
Walking into the Utrecht Community (UCo) building, where the Except office is situated, which also has become a hub for sustainable startups, it feels like another world. The building used to be an old train depot, and from 1916 was used for the construction and servicing of railway vehicles and locomotives. It had been abandoned and dilapidated until Bosschaert and his team came up with the initiative to renovate and make it sustainably productive again.
During the renovation of the building, several innovations were employed to ensure the building is both energy and carbon neutral and running with as minimal waste as possible. But Tom has always stressed that it is a misconception to treat sustainability from the eye of an object, meaning that having a sustainable building does not make you sustainable. What makes you sustainable is how you use that building to achieve something greater. The building has provided an enabling environment for sustainable entrepreneurs to plan and execute their ideas.
Another one of the many sustainable projects Except has embarked on is the design and implementation of an idea that helped IKEA significantly reduce the environmental footprint of its catalogue production. This was achieved by grading bidding companies, accepting, or disqualifying them based on their sustainability performance. Through this innovation, Except made it possible for the sales channel to force all participating companies to operate more responsibly.
Except also helped Miya’s Sushi, run by Chef Bun Lai, to become sustainable by turning the negative impact of their business into a positive one, replacing its menu with invasive fish species. This brought success to the company and has benefited the environment, as other restaurants have since adopted this.
Except’s new project is Orchid City which is expected to be the world’s first self-sustaining blueprint, which is scalable and replicable in various parts of the world. The plan for Orchid City is to be a sustainable living environment where all aspects of daily life are integrated, where humans and activities symbiotically support each other, without technology. Orchid City will be the first template that will be used as a model to be continuously improved and replicated in different locations, creating a scalable and replicable blueprint.
The world's first Blueprint for a fully self-sustainable city
Tom Bosschaert was born in The Netherlands and spent time in a foster home. He spent a significant part of his childhood starting small businesses and reading science books. Growing up in a foster home filled him with the desire to make the world a better place.
“I became attuned to that side of human tragedy and sadness.,” Bosschaert says. “I was never going to be a doctor or psychologist; I am not that good with people. I wanted to focus on inventing things that can help us do things better, meet our needs with less impact, benefitting communities as a whole.”
After his education, his plan was to use all the knowledge he has acquired to work on innovative projects that can help the society. When he could not find a company whose plans aligned with his dream, he decided to start Except, a sustainability company that began even before the word sustainability became mainstream.
Bosschaert is fueled by a sense of urgency, but was also inspired by the continuous learning that comes with his job:
“For me, the lifelong pursuit of knowledge, of true insight into the fascinating ways that our world works, is a reward in itself.”
Despite all Except has done, Bosschaert believes enough is not being done: “We have mastered the art of failing, but failure is the only way we can really gather knowledge… I find the people that I work with at Except inspiring, partners and clients, that really have the true intrinsic drive to make something larger than themselves, I find this inspiring. I cannot do anything else, despite the challenges we face.”
Tom Bosschaert believes that we are running out of time, and for us to catch up, we need to focus on initiatives that are resilient and can also positively affect other areas. The innovation for Miya’s Sushi did not only bring about success for the company, but also propelled others into action.
“It is great seeing projects that have a systemic effect, like a snowball. You do something that is a feasible little project, but it starts gaining momentum and changing things outside of itself. That is a grand feeling. Almost like watching an avalanche or seeing the Grand Canyon.”
The strategy Except developed for IKEA’s years ago encouraged hundreds of companies to become more sustainable, greatly reducing the environmental footprint of their production and monetizing billions of Euros through the companies that participated.
According to Bosschaert, “You cannot change the world by yourself; you should not have the illusion that you can, that is a recipe for failure. In executing a project that could have a ripple effect, you need to do a proper analysis, to be sure that it does not cause a negative effect behind you. The intention is to get a more holistic view and create snowball projects that will have a longer-lasting fundamental positive effect.”
Beyond the strong environmental impact of Except, making small changes with enormous ripple effects, one of the biggest impacts Except makes is in the lives of its employees, who are its first ambassadors. Building a culture of system thinking and enabling an environment that fosters practical adoption, except has created a strong internal culture that positively imprints on the professional and personal lives of its employees.
Except’s revenue streams are based on two models:
• Services Model: Clients hire them for analysis or research purposes, to build strategies, design concepts and circularity roadmap analysis.
• Developmental Model: Except initiates innovative, futuristic and investable projects, such as the UCo building and Orchid City.
With its expertise, Except has shown that it can address all the SDG goals by focusing on projects with ripple effects. The UCo building offers an enabling environment for sustainable entrepreneurs. The impact of this seems enormous. Below are some specific goals:
• SDG 11, 6 & 7 (Sustainable cities & communities, Clean water & sanitation, and Renewable energy): Except’s ongoing project, Orchid City, looks to address these. Orchid City is a self-sustaining city that integrates all necessary activities in a way that needs are met and people coexist with nature in a sustainable way.
• SDG 14 and 15 (Life below water & Life on land): Through some of its consultancy works, Except has championed the halt of the loss of biodiversity. The work it did with Miya’s, focusing the menu on invasive species has proven to be very significant.
• SDG 13 (Climate action): Through its projects, Except has gotten companies to reduce their carbon footprints. An example is the IKEA project where billions of euros was monetized through the companies that participated, significantly improving their sustainability and overall impact on the environment.
• SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure): Except has designed and implemented numerous infrastructures that are sustainable in their usage of resources. The UCo building is energy and carbon neutral.
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Except is a leading consultancy and design agency helping to build the foundations of a sustainable society and create a better future that is healthy, regenerative, and just.
Except utilizes the Symbiosis in Development (SiD) integrated systems thinking framework, helping to find the root causes of our most significant issues and design interventions and systemic levers for change.
