Willemijn receives ‘Sustainable Accolade’

The first Tuesday of September is ‘Sustainable Tuesday’ in the Netherlands: the day policymakers, founders and activists gather in The Hague to push sustainability forward. Every year, a jury hands a ‘Sustainable Accolade’ aka ‘Duurzaam Lintje’ to three people driving that change. This year our co-founder, Willemijn Verloop was among them. 

Receiving the accolade is a huge compliment, but for Willemijn, it’s most importantly a mandate to keep going. As she put it in her speech: “𝘐 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺”. 

She also used her moment on stage to speak directly to the policymakers in the room. Stop treating sustainability as a line item in a budget, she said, and start treating it as security policy. And protect the space where citizens, journalists and entrepreneurs can organize a counterweight, because without it, the rest won’t matter. 

That’s Willemijn in a nutshell, and it’s exactly why this recognition fits her so well. ❤️ 

Congratulations also to this year’s other honorees: Tom Middendorp, former Chief of Defence, who has spent the years since turning firsthand experience of climate-driven conflict into advocacy, and Jos Kloppenborg and Jan Korff de Gidts, who spent more than fifty years fighting, and ultimately succeeding, in protecting the Amelisweerd forest.