Jan Paul van Soest
Jan Paul van Soest (1955) is a well-known sustainability strategy consultant, entrepreneur and 'idea developer'. Key to his work is the insight that our economy can only flourish and sustain if its impacts on nature and environment does not exceed the natural resilience of ecosystems. He has almost 30 years of experience in this field.
He is and has been member or chair of a variety of companies, organisations and committees, currently a.o. Triodos Bank Green Investment Fund (member, Supervisory Board), the Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CLM, chair), Gelderland Nature and Environment Association (chair), Energy4All Foundation (board member), and previously a.o. World Wide Fund for Nature NL (WWF, board member), Dutch Energy Council (member) and many others.
Jan Paul works for companies, NGOs, governments and science organisations, and often starts initiatives and organisations on his own account. He recently co-created Carbon Stars, a company that helps developing and financing innovative energy and climate oriented ventures. He is one of the founding fathers of The Green Business Case, an organisation of companies lobbying for ecologically sound government policies.
He is one of the Founding Partners of De Gemeynt, a cooperative of independent consultants, thinkers and entrepreneurs working at the interface between economics and ecology, and promoting collaboration between key parties in pursuit of sustainable solutions. Previously, he was director of CE Delft environmental consultancy in Delft.
He is author or chief editor of innumerable publications, among which the books Nature = Economy! (Natuur = economie! with Martijn Blom; publ. Kluwer, 2003, in Dutch), Life is a Game (Het Leven een Spel) (with Erik van Praag; publ. Servire, 2003), Earth Fever (with Judy McAllister and Erik van Praag, Publ Cosimo Books) and Biodiversity – Challenging Business (with Steven de Bie), 2008. In 2011, the much-discussed essay Clogs in the Works appeared.
