Future in times of Corona – sustainably after the crisis

We are seeing a revival of the Coronavirus and Amsterdam even has code orange. Many parties in the region have been forced to shift their priorities due to the corona crisis. At the same time, this period of reflection offers room to opt for sustainable choices in decisions that still have to be made to restore the economy and to work together on a climate-neutral and circular region. How can we use this disruption for structural change? How can the investments that are now being made quickly contribute to an inclusive and smart, green and healthy region?

Sustainable purchasing

For every euro you spend on, for example, furniture, ICT, catering or toilet paper, you have the choice for the more sustainable, fairer or more innovative alternative. If you as an organization are now working on the adaptation to 1.5 meter offices and home workplaces, this can also be done in a sustainable way. Procurement is therefore an important driver for a smart, green and healthy future for the region. Systems and habits are thus broken. Any organization can participate with High Impact Procurement. Here you can read how that works.

Green Deal

How can we, at this very time, deploy Green Deals to get out of this crisis sustainably? The Board is working on concrete themes for concluding a Green Deal to restore the economy, to go for sustainable choices and to work together on a climate-neutral and circular region. This is important, for example, to create sustainable jobs and to accelerate or intensify investments. Read more .

How can we invest in a structurally better future?

You can already see that green investments are high on the agenda of leaders as Kristalina Georgieva (head of the International Monetary Fund) and Christine Lagarde (president of the European Central Bank), and the European Investment Bank has already stopped investing in coal. In the meantime, the Invest NL fund has been started in the Netherlands. And in the plans for the new investment fund in the MRA and Noord-Holland-Noord, the financing is purely aimed at investments in the energy transition and in the transition to the circular economy with social relevance.

What flaws are there in the current economy of our region, and what alternatives do we have?

Now that we are slowing down for a while, it is good to explore this. The global CO2 emissions are declining these days and the air quality is improving enormously, because we do not travel and now mostly work from home according to plan B, but we do not have a planet B. How can we ensure that by 2040 we are within the social and economic limits of the stay planet? Also read the Insights article on the Donut economy.

Meet each other

In recent months, we have been able to offer online events on a wide range of subjects, so that we can continue our role as a connector of parties that work together to create a smart, green and healthy Metropolitan Region. Do you also want to participate? Then click here . We realize that a live meeting is not always necessary, but that you can also consult via Zoom, Skype, Teams and other means. Hopefully that will also save many car and airplane kilometers in the future. It is often also easier to bring a diverse group together in the short term and functions well for knowledge transfer. For example, we organize the series in collaboration with the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area MRA University on Tuesday afternoon. Here you can read the entire range of events , some of which will also take place hybrid again in small groups.

Click here if you want to know how you can contribute to the initiatives of the Board.

20 August 2020

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