Few people I know act likea magnet in the way Laura does. If you hear her speak, see her move, enjoy her smile - you can't help but want to be a part of what makes her heart beat faster. She radiates passion for her dream topic biomimicry and before you know it you're caught in that dream. From the day I met her, I was captivated by her enthusiasm and knowledge about this topic. In fact, meeting Laura made me decide to join the university as I thought: if people like Laura work at THUAS, I want to be a part of this organization'. Over the years I have seen her finish the Msc in biomimicry at Arizona State University followed by a PhD at TUDelft. And all that next to her full time job as a teacher. It's only a miracle that she still found the time to go outdoors and be in Nature. But luckily, she did as this is what nourishes her - and that nourishment is brought into the classroom affecting generations of students. I am very proud of how she builds her tribe just like Nature does; grassroots from the bottom up, not supported but also not inhibited by formal structures. In that way she truly acts as a bridge helping others to tap into Nature's wisdom. This morning I harvested the remaining vegetables from my garden and turned them into lunch. It's the second year I grow vegetables and it feels like I am only at the beginning of learning to collaborate with Nature. In Spring and Summer, Ihave witnessed in awe how seeds become seedlings which then grow into mature plants carrying fruit. The sheer wonder of Nature never ceases to amaze me, and my garden is only an attempt to be more aware of seasonal rhythms. It's Autumn right now, a time of year that invites us to go inside, reflect and let go of old baggage that no longer serves us. We'll be approaching the stage of wintering soon in which our inner journey will benefit from the darkness of wintertime introspection, along with the space to process the old, integrate learnings, and then germinate the new. Over the course of her career, Laura has gone through these seasonal cycles - reinventing herself in the past decade as a teacher, researcher and regenerative leader. One of Laura's many qualities is that she embodies three leadership characteristics derived from Nature. First, she acknowledges the importance of interconnection. Many times, we think of Nature as being separate from us, but in reality we humans are Nature. Connection with Nature enables us to think within systems and understand that we can't direct the system, but instead we're all part of multiple systems. Second, sensing the system and our part in it builds resilience. Even if things don't go as we expected or imagined, rather than reacting, we can step back and engage with more insight. Laura's adaptability to a system's needs while spotting opportunities to crack it open, is admirable. As the system is always in evolution, so is she - remarkably receptive to change even in the final stages of her career. Third, Laura creates space for people to develop and thrive, acting as multipliers of her vision and love for the natural world. In her leadership she embodies the ideal elder while being able to perceive the world through the eyes of a child - with continuous wonder for how life unfolds. This book is a bricolage of Laura's post-doc research conducted the past two years. In it you will find an array of fascinating reads and tools that help you deepen your practice as a biomimicry professional. The book is a community effort integrating tools Laura has co-created with her ecosystem as well as more in-depth readings written by some of the talents she has nourished over time. I wish for you to enjoy this careful curation of both practical as well as more conceptual contributions. May it inspire your own thriving in bringing Nature based wisdom to the core of our daily lives.
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Ageing-in-place is the preferred way of living for older individuals in an ageing society. It can be facilitated through architectural and technological solutions in the home environment. Dementia poses additional challenges when designing, constructing, or retrofitting housing facilities that support ageing-in-place. Older adults with dementia and their partners ask for living environments that support independence, compensate for declining and vitality, and lower the burden of family care. This study reports the design process of a demonstration home for people with dementia through performing a literature review and focus group sessions. This design incorporates modifications in terms of architecture, interior design, the indoor environment, and technological solutions. Current design guidelines are frequently based on small-scale studies, and, therefore, more systematic field research should be performed to provide further evidence for the efficacy of solutions. The dwellings of people with dementia are used to investigate the many aspects of supportive living environments for older adults with dementia and as educational and training settings for professionals from the fields of nursing, construction, and building services engineering.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find determinants about risk resilience and develop a new risk resilience approach for (agricultural) enterprises. This approach creates the ability to respond resiliently to major environmental challenges and changes in the short term and adjust the management of the organization, and to learn and transform to adapt to the new environment in the long term while creating multiple value creation. Design/methodology: The authors present a new risk resilience approach for multiple value creation of (agricultural) enterprises, which consists of a main process starting with strategy design, followed by an environmental analysis, stakeholder collaboration, implement ESG goals, defining risk expose & response options, and report, learn & evaluate. In each step the organizational perspective, as well as the value chain/area perspective is considered and aligned. The authors have used focus groups and analysed literature from and outside the field of finance and accounting, to design this new approach. Findings: Researchers propose a new risk resilience approach for (agricultural) enterprises, based on a narrative about transforming to multiple value creation, founded determinants of risk resilience, competitive advantage and agricultural resilience. Originality and value: This study contributes by conceptualizing risk resilience for (agricultural) enterprises, by looking through a lens of multiple value creation in a dynamic context and based on insights from different fields, actual ESG knowledge, and determinants for risk resilience, competitive advantage and agricultural resilience.
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The methodology of biomimicry design thinking is based on and builds upon the overarching patterns that all life abides by. “Cultivating cooperative relationships” within an ecosystem is one such pattern we as humans can learn from to nurture our own mutualistic and symbiotic relationships. While form and process translations from biology to design have proven accessible by students learning biomimicry, the realm of translating biological functions in a systematic approach has proven to be more difficult. This study examines how higher education students can approach the gap that many companies in transition are struggling with today; that of thinking within the closed loops of their own ecosystem, to do good without damaging the system itself. Design students should be able to assess and advise on product design choices within such systems after graduation. We know when tackling a design challenge, teams have difficulties sifting through the mass of information they encounter, and many obstacles are encountered by students and their professional clients when trying to implement systems thinking into their design process. While biomimicry offers guidelines and methodology, there is insufficient research on complex, systems-level problem solving that systems thinking biomimicry requires. This study looks at factors found in course exercises, through student surveys and interviews that helped (novice) professionals initiate systems thinking methods as part of their strategy. The steps found in this research show characteristics from student responses and matching educational steps which enabled them to develop their own approach to challenges in a systems thinking manner. Experiences from the 2022 cohort of the semester “Design with Nature” within the Industrial Design Engineering program at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands have shown that the mixing and matching of connected biological design strategies to understand integrating functions and relationships within a human system is a promising first step. Stevens LL, Whitehead C, Singhal A. Cultivating Cooperative Relationships: Identifying Learning Gaps When Teaching Students Systems Thinking Biomimicry. Biomimetics. 2022; 7(4):184. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040184
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In recent years, it has become a commonplace to argue that cities should be the focus point of sustainable development. Various authors have presented a variety of arguments why cities should be the preferred target to foster sustainable development-focused innovation; - The average consumption of resources of urban dwellers is higher. - The population of cities is growing continuously, while rural populations stabilize. - Deteriorating living conditions and segregation in cities caused by processes of gentrification of traditional neighbourhoods that drive out lower income groups to the suburbs. - Cities are ‘concentrated’ emitters of pollutants and therefore solutions and re-use might be easier to implement. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185013 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karel-mulder-163aa96/
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Publicatie naar aanleiding van de door Stadslab European Urban Design Laboratory georganiseerde Master Class met als thematiek het ontwerpen van een Innovative District voor de Poolse stad Lublin. De Master Class werd gevolgd door 8 internationale deelnemers en stond onder supervisie van Didier Rebois (Europan, Parijs), Marc Glaudemans (Fontys) en Juliette van der Meijden (Fontys)
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from the article: "Abstract The way in which construction logistics is organised has considerable impact on production flow, transportation efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion, particularly in urban areas such as city centres. In cities such as London and Amsterdam municipalities have issued new legislation and stricter conditions for vehicles to be able to access cities and city centres in particular. Considerate clients, public as well private, have started developing tender policies to encourage contractors to reduce the environmental impact of construction projects. This paper reports on an ongoing research project applying and assessing developments in the field of construction logistics in the Netherlands. The cases include contractors and third party logistics providers applying consolidation centres and dedicated software solutions to increase transportation efficiency. The case show various results of JIT logistics management applied to urban construction projects leading to higher transportation efficiencies, and reduced environmental impact and increased production efficiency on site. The data collections included to-site en on-site observations, measurement and interviews. The research has shown considerable reductions of vehicles to deliver goods and to transport workers to site. In addition the research has shown increased production flow and less waste such as inventory, waiting and unnecessary motion on site."
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To prevent the social worker being jammed between the economic and rationalized logic of managers and politicians on the one hand, and the life world of the people on the other, he needs to develop a healthy identity. The social constructive view can help to overcome the identity crisis the social professional is in. It offers a model to analyze the conflict a social professional has to deal with, and forces the social worker to make a clear and moral choice for the life world of his clients. This view seems also suitable to develop an indigenous body of practice theory for social work. The presence theory, the family group work and constructive social work demonstrates the possibilities. To regain confidence from both the people and the politicians, the rationalized system of planning and control has to be replaced by the trust model. To develop this model we have to find ways to justify the money used in this sector.
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Sustainability is without doubt one of the most important challenges of our time. How can we develop prosperity, without compromising the life of future generations? Companies are integrating concepts of sustainability in their marketing, corporate communications, annual reports and in their actions. Information systems (IS) provide organizations with the ability to change and improve business processes to better support sustainable practices. Therefore, IS can make a contribution to the sustainable development of organizations. However, the organizational change aspects of „Green IS‟ are covered only marginally in literature. This paper aims to contribute the debate on Green IS, by highlighting the role of sustainability in the organizational process of implementing IS and organizational change resulting from IS. Based on a literature review of the concepts of sustainability, and the role of IS in sustainability, we will apply the concepts of sustainability to IS projects and create a checklist for developing sustainability indicators in IS projects.
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The emergence of organic planning practices in the Netherlands introduces new, non-conventional, local actors initiating bottom-up urban developments. Dissatisfied with conventional practices and using opportunities during the 2008 financial crisis, these actors aim to create social value, thus challenging prevailing institutions. Intrigued by such actors becoming more present and influential in urban planning and development processes, we aim to identify who they are. We use social entrepreneurship and niche formation theories to analyse and identify three types of social entrepreneurs. The first are early pioneers, adopting roles of a developer and end-user, but lacking position and power to realize goals. Secondly, by acting as boundary spanners and niche entrepreneurs, they evolve towards consolidated third sector organizations in the position to realize developments. A third type are intermediate agents facilitating developments as boundary spanners and policy entrepreneurs, without pursuing urban development themselves but aiming at realizing broader policy goals. Our general typology provides a rich picture of actors involved in bottom-up urban developments by applying theories from domains of innovation management and business transition management to urban planning and development studies. It shows that the social entrepreneurs in bottom-up urban development can be considered the result of social innovation, but this social innovation is set within a neoliberal context, and in many cases passively or actively conditioned by states and markets.
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