Green Talks

What is the role of businesses in a sustainable transition? What can you do to embrace that role?In this episode, we talk to Barbara Kump, an associate professor of Business & Sustainability at UT. The topic of conversation was insider activism: How can individuals change their organisations to a more sustainable one, from any position in the organisation they might hold. We also talk about what sparked her to pursue sustainability in her research, how that impacted her role, and about her upcoming book!

Today we are tackling the topic of biking... how to make it more safe and appealing in order to support sustainability? Our guests, Mario Boot and Annemarie Jutte, will explain how they are working on this with their project "Human-Bike Integration". Mario works at UT and  has a background in user experience research and design of wearable technology, and Annemarie works in Saxion and has a background in human media interaction and data science. UT and Saxion are collaborating together on smart connected bikes, with the vision of creating, one day, a car-free city.Link:https://app.simplymeet.me/smartbikes

In this episode, we are glad to present Florence Metz. She has a background in political science and public policy. Florence conducts her research in various policy domains and teaches about public policies for sustainability transitions here at UT. During this episode, she will explain how policies are implemented to understand why sometimes they may fail or be contradictory, but mostly how we can create an impact on this project. Later in the interview, she also explains her research on the Positive SDG interaction, explaining which SDG we should target to have optimal results. If you want to know more about how governmental policies can help us tackle sustainability listen to this episode!

We have had the pleasure of hosting two guests in this episode: Elisah Pals, the initiatior of Zero Waste Netherlands, and Dirk Groot, also known as "The Zwerfinator" for his work in picking up litter and analysing data collected in the process.Both have taken their sphere of influence beyond personal lifestyle changes and turned their efforts into movements. Their inspiring stories teach us how to go beyond individual choices and grow them into movements sharing ideas, turn others to the cause, and use the momentum to create  impact on corporations and governance.

This month we had the pleasure of talking to Ernst-Jan Kuiper, a climate scientist who didn't feel like passively producing research is his best way of making an impact, and so shifted to climate activism instead.Stories like Ernst's are becoming increasingly more common: scientists feeling like they are not being heard, and turning to more persuasive forms of public outreach, such as protests, acts of civil disobedience, and lawsuits.We talked about his personal story, how exactly the shift from science to activism happened, his career, and current effort in helping Milieudefensie, a group taking on big oil companies in courts.

We are starting the new year with a brand new episode. We had the pleasure of interviewing Shun Yang, an Assistant Professor specializing in Manufacturing Systems at the UT. With a global career spanning KIT China Branch, MIT, and more, Shun brings a wealth of experience and expertise in Sino-German collaboration, global production strategy, smart automation, and sustainable manufacturing. We explored his project, "NWA Smart Industry Route", that aims to make the product production process sustainable and circular. Join us in this interesting interview, if you want to know more about this topics!

We're kicking off the second season of GreenTalks with an exciting special episode: Sustainability in Healthcare.The impending climate crisis, and other environmental damages, have serious implications for our collective health. However, the very industry that is there to protect our health is big contributor to carbon emissions and pollution. How can we make sure that this impact is minimised, while not compromising the effectiveness of healthcare?Maarten van Aalst, the Climate director of the Royal Dutch Meteorological institute, and ex-director of Red Cross Red Crescent climate centre, will tell us about the impacts of the climate crisis on health, both physical and mental. How can data help tackle the invisibility of heatwave deaths? What is the role of Loss & Damage funds? How do we talk about the climate crisis in a way that sounds the alarm, but controls anxiety?Marianne Kooistra-Jonker is an alumni of University of Twente working in the medical sector, currently working on improving the sustainability of the field. She is the coordinator of a sustainability programme in the MST hospital in Enschede. How can hospitals lower their CO2 emissions, become more circular? How do we reduce the impact of medication on ground water and waste water? How do we make hospitals more diverse and inclusive?02:05 - Maarten van Aalst34:05 - Marianne Kooistra-JonkerThis special episode of GreenTalks was recorded at the TechMed event at the University of Twente. The final audio clip was provided by Merlijn Twaalfhoven and his website www.tegentijd.nl, which features creative ways (in Dutch) to get in touch with future generations.

Hi! Welcome to the new season of GreenTalks, a podcast run by GreenHub, the green office at the University of Twente.We are excited to invite you into the our show, where we interview experts on sustainability, climate change, climate action, sustainable development, and more!Stay tuned and subscribe for exciting episodes!This is a trailer episode for Season 2.Clizia Mochi & Fran Karlović

In this episode, we are introducing the GreenHub coordinator: Dan Hartenberg. Dan will tell us about his background in circular construction menagement, and his personal journey to sustainability. He will also tell us about why it is important to work with students. 

We are back to discuss research on membrane separation as a force for driving sustainability in the water. Mr Wiebe is a professor in Membrane Science and Technology with his key research being in the fundamentals of surface science with physical chemistry and the applied field of membranes. Do not worry, he will give us a 101 basics crash course on all these environmentally relevant research fields.

Welcome everyone to this episode of Green Talks. We are back to talk about research on sustainable and smart separation process engineering in the chemical industry. Today we can welcome Prof.Dr.IR Boelo Schuur. Who will talk about his specific research and much more related to SDGs. Mr. Boelo is a professor of separation technology in Process & Catalyst engineering with key research in development and sustainability of separation processes in chemical operations. Some applications include biorefinery and circular economy as key topics. 

Welcome everyone to this episode of Green Talks. Today we have a topic on the table that you all have been waiting for a long time now. The urgency of the climate crisis couldn’t be more relevant, so scientists and researchers are pushing policymakers to translate promises into action. Its time to discuss some core environmental values, such as climate justice, deliberative democracy, and biodiversity conservation. Who else to talk to about this than assistant professor Dr. Dominic Lenzi. This episode of Green talks will be related to SDG 14 up to 16 – climate and environmental justice.

Welcome everyone to the third episode of Green Talks. This podcast is an initiative of Green Hub Twente aimed at sharing the perspectives of researchers from the University of Twente and their sustainable research progress with a wider audience. Today we are honored by the presence of Associate Professor Devrim Yazan. He has a background in industrial engineering with a specialization in innovation and product development management.His current research is focusing on sustainable supply chains and circular economic business models, with particular attention on industrial symbiosis networks. His goal is to support the circular economy and energy transition under the umbrella of industrial, rural, and urban symbiosis.

We are back to talk about research on renewable feedstock and waste streams in the chemical industry. Today we can welcome the long-awaited Dr. Pilar Ruiz. Who will talk about her related to the SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure and SDG 17 partnerships for goals. Strong efforts have been made in the last decades to develop chemical processes dealing with these more sustainable feedstocks (e.g., lignocellulosic biomass or plastic waste). While these streams have the potential to reduce the C- footprint of the chemical industry, their complex composition makes it difficult to implement them in existing processes. For this reason, joint efforts from academia and industry, as well as the whole society, are key to accelerating the widespread implementation of these streams in the chemical industry and allowing a more circular economy. This is the core of my career as a researcher and teacher in the field of Sustainable Chemical Processes.

Welcome everyone to this episode of Green Talks. We are back to talk about sustainable policy-making locally and continue discussing the potential of challenge-based education at our university.In this episode recent graduate Luuk Buunk will join us. Luuk currently fills the role of educational advisor for challenge-based learning or CBL at the UT and is a candidate for the Provincial States of Overijssel. 

Although we have already introduced her topic in our very first episode with Jurriaan Schmitz, now it’s time to explore the photovoltaic cells more in-depth, as a topic related to the 7th SDG goal. We will discuss her personal motivation on sustainability, clean energy and solar panels, innovation and entrepreneurship and teaching the future generation of innovators. Enjoy! See you soon again!

Welcome everyone to this episode of Green Talks. This podcast is aimed at sharing the perspectives of researchers from the University of Twente and their sustainable research progress with a wider audience. We believe that more attention should be given to the sustainable impact they make and will make with many of their projects in development.I am Tamas Szecsei, a Green Hub Officer from the University of Twente, and your host for today’s episode. I am joined by Nando Tolboom, who has been part of the UT community for over a decade. He completed his bachelor's and master's in applied physics and is currently finalizing his PhD.

We believe that more attention should be given to the sustainable impact UT researchers and professors make and will make with many of their projects running and in development.