Theme: The Green Wave

As the importance of our environment gets increasing recognition, innovative ideas on how to harmonize humanity's existence with the earth's ecosystems keep appearing and being improved. These initiatives showcase a widespread movement towards a green and sustainable society. Right now we find ourselves at a crossroad. Will this movement remain alternative? Or will it assume a dominant societal role, and thereby enter: "The Green Wave"

tedxwageningenuniversity
Droevendaalse steeg
Wageningen, Gelderland, 6708 PB
Netherlands

Alexander van Tuyll

Student, Ecosystems thinking

Alexander van Tuyll is a student of bio-systems engineering at Wageningen University. He is fervent about the potential of using ecosystems-thinking in transforming waste into high-quality food. At 16, he became interested in indoor hydroponic farming through homemade projects, wreaking havoc with his attic-grown chilli peppers. Since then, he has worked with the Association for Vertical Farming on a white paper, as well as participating in Wageningen University’s Urban Greenhouse Challenge with the team Green Spark.

Alexander van Tuyll

Alexander van Tuyll is a student of bio-systems engineering at Wageningen University. He is fervent about the potential of using ecosystems-thinking in transforming waste into high-quality food. At 16, he became interested in indoor hydroponic farming through homemade projects, wreaking havoc with his attic-grown chilli peppers. Since then, he has worked with the Association for Vertical Farming on a white paper, as well as participating in Wageningen University’s Urban Greenhouse Challenge with the team Green Spark.

Aniela Hoitink

Sustainable production technology-fashion,Entrepreneur

After she completed a degree in Fashion Design at the Utrecht School of Arts in 1999, Aniela worked for various fashion companies (such as Tommy Hilfiger and Gaastra). She launched NEFFA in 2004 to creatively bring sustainability into the garment industry, looking more at adopting technology in material and production techniques rather than directly changing human behaviour. Aniela believes that distinctiveness and individuality in people and materials are the core elements that make the world an interesting place. By looking at natural processes, Aniela searches for solutions to the many social and environmental problems emblematic of the 21st century’s “disposable clothing” epidemic. These solutions often bridge ancient savoir-faire with modern technology and are bound by biological processes. She is revolutionising the future of fashion by developing personalised fashion and textile projects based on newly developed material and production techniques.

Charlie Williams

Artist, Designer

Charlie Williams is a new media artist and composer working with electronics, sound, software and video. He is also a guest artist working with scientists from synthetic biology, plant science and agro-food science groups at Wageningen University. His practice combines the physical (welding, soldering and woodworking) with the intangible (coding, composing, mixing). His software has been featured in Apple's App of the Day and in WIRED magazine's Top 100 Apps. He is currently creating an electronic artwork installation made up of a colony of ‘electronic plants’ which communicate via infrared signals.

Deagan Miller

Natural Historian, Book Writer, Essayist, Critic

Daegan is a passionate, up and coming writer who focuses on how the past affects the present. Though he received a PhD in history from Cornell University, his passions have always been literary. In particular, he muses of how people can live in a world of justice, greenery, and freedom for everyone, and has written several essays and articles covering a variety of topics from cancer, radical environmentalism and natural history. His most notable work, the book This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent was published just earlier this year. Daegan has also contributed to the first international museum exhibit on the Anthropocene, hosted by Germany's Deutsches Museum.

Donatella Gasparro

Poet

Donatella is MSc Organic Agriculture student at Wageningen University, interested in vegetable production in a funky environmentally friendly way, trying to combine flowing shapes and species associations in order to let plants help each other. Outside the university walls, Donatella is an artist, being a fanatic piano player as well as performing poetry. Like her studies, her poems are about nature, the environment, love and other complex processes in daily life. Within this pasison, she also co-founded the (monthly) Poetry Slam in Wageningen.

Hidde Boersma

Scientist (biologist), Journalist, (documentary- ‘Well fed’), Policymaker

Hidde Boersma is a freelance science journalist, essayist and documentarian, with a particular focus on agriculture, biotechnology, ecomodernism and bio-ethics. His 2017 documentary ‘Well Fed’ sought to tackle the controversy surrounding GMOs. Presently, he works with Volkskrant, Correspondent, VICE, Quest and BNN-VARA. On the political sphere, he was formerly a board member of Amsterdam’s City Council and the Dutch D66 political party. He was also a key contributor on the ‘Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Crops’ for the RIVM (Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment).

John D. Liu

Documentary maker, researcher at NIOO and Ecosystem Ambassador for Commonland Foundation

After 15 years as a Television Producer and Cameraman for CBS News, RAI and ZDF, John began to study ecology. In the mid-1990’s he led to the creation of the Environmental Education Media Project for China (EEMPC), and has since distributed over 1,000 environmental films in China. The EEMPC also helped found the “China Environment and Sustainable Development Reference and Research Center (CESDRRC) and the China HIV/AIDS Information Center (CHAIN). Between 2003-2006, John was a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West of England. In 2013 he received the Communications Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)

Joris Lohman

Director and founder of the Food Hub

As political scientist, Joris is fascinated by 'wicked problems' in our worldwide food system. Joris co-founded the Food Hub to speed up the food transition to a healthy, circular foodsystem in micro-and macro settings.

Joris Wabeke

Sing and song-writer

Joris Wabeke is a young talented singer-songwriter from the Hague, Netherlands, who performs under the stage name of ‘Jori Wabiki’. He only very recently began his solo career in 2018. Jori ‘s music is inspired by both indie pop and folk. He draws his inspiration from nature and this can be found as a reoccurring theme in many of his compositions. His repertoire are original songs that are played acoustically with a guitar, voice, piano and harmonica. He has recently partnered with a studio to start recording the songs and wants to make these available coming year 2019.

Lars Hein

Economist, Professor in ecological economy

Lars Hein is a professor of Ecosystem Services and Environmental Change and the deputy chair of the Environmental Systems Analysis Group at Wageningen University. Lars was previously employed as an environmental expert at the FAO/World Bank Collaborative Program between 1997-2002. He is a member of several advisory boards for both industry and international organisations, and has received a number of awards for his research including the prestigious Personal Grant from the European Research Council in 2010. He is one of the main contributing authors of the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting Framework (SEEA EEA, 2012) as well as of the SEEA EEA’s Technical Recommendations (2017)

Marieke Eyskoot

Sustainable Fashionist, Writer and Public Speaker

Marieke Eyskoot is sustainable fashion and lifestyle expert, putting contemporary and eco-conscious living firmly on the map. Marieke is the author of the popular handbook filled with positive and practical tips on fashion, beauty, food, home, work and travel: 'This is a Good Guide - for a sustainable lifestyle'. She is also a highly sought-after speaker, presenter and consultant, and is the co-founder of the international fair fashion trade show MINT. With over 15 years of experience of working with organisations such as the Clean Clothes Campaign and clients including ASN Bank, Amsterdam Fashion Week, PwC and Fairtrade International, Marieke has an extensive global ethical network. She’s featured in newspaper Trouw’s Sustainable Top 100, numerous top-women lists and was nominated as Amsterdam Citizen of the Year. Marieke is the go-to person for all things sustainable

Max Riche

Climate education, Climate change, Blog, Inspirer

Max Riché, a former engineer, is an environmentalist and award-winning portrait and documentary photographer and director based in Paris, and is alos the Creative Director of Triptych content studio. In 2009, he founded the global photography movement Climate Heroes, culminating with a major exhibition in December 2015 during COP21 in Paris. His projects have taken him to the Indonesian jungle in the company of Mentawai medicine men, and bathing among the throngs of pilgrims in India during Maha Kumbh Mela festival. As the Creative Director of Triptych, he now strives to tell important human, social and environmental stories in support of organisations voicing themselves on the front lines of a rapidly changing digital and global world

Roanne van Voorst

Anthropologist, Writer

Roanne van Voorst (Ph.D) is a social scientist and writer. She has conducted research all over the world, from the Inuit communities of Greenland to slums in Indonesia. Her work has been awarded and internationally published. She is currently working on a new non-fiction book that explores the future of our world, in which she calls the post-cruelty era. Find more information on www.roannevanvoorst.com

Sophie Hellyer

Surfer, Feminist, Environmentalist

Sophie is - among many things - a surfer, writer, environmentalist, feminist and public speaker. She was previously an English and British Champion surfer and loves the water and ocean. Thanks to her athleticism and profound connection with the ocean, Sophie’s passion to create positive social change has led her to take a proactive approach in both protecting our oceans and fostering diversity in sports.