"Even small things can make a big impact on sustainability"
Sustainable Impact
Energetic, bold and with a heart of green leaves – that sums up One Planet Officer Klaartje Vermeeren in a nutshell.
What’s her mission? To help Eneco eMobility and her colleagues go greener. And she certainly means business: “I don't just do the talk. I do the walk.”
From keeping horses at home to a houseboat
A country girl at heart, Klaartje says that, as a child, she grew up surrounded by nature: “Our home was in the woods, where we had horses. After graduating, I wanted to leave the hustle and bustle of city life and return to the countryside. I now live on a houseboat on a nature reserve near the village of Ewijk in Gelderland.”
A fast-growing company brimming with new initiatives
Klaartje has been working for Eneco eMobility for a decade. During the last six years, she has been responsible for getting the service desk up and running and leading the department. She also set up the customer experience team, which tracks the customer journey and looks for ways to improve customer experience.
“It was the best time of my life”, says Klaartje. “We grew so fast. Ten years ago, we were a small startup with just six people. Today, we’re well established with a team of 200 and counting. I get a kick from starting new projects, and that’s now my role at the company – launching fresh initiatives, testing and expanding them.”
Green explorer
“I see myself as a kind of explorer. Once the customer experience team was fully established, my green heart began to whisper to me. I needed a new challenge. I wanted to explore again and start something from scratch. Leonie Baneke, our CEO, listened carefully and appointed me One Planet Officer. The position has two aspects: I am responsible for ensuring that our activities become more sustainable, and I also aim to excite my colleagues’ green hearts.”
Enjoy your bunch of trees
“When starting my new role, I presented my plan to Leonie: a list of more than 300 suggestions to improve sustainability, compiled with the help of all my coworkers. One suggestion was to stop sending bouquets of flowers to customers, as that’s not particularly environmentally friendly. So, the notion of ‘a bunch of trees’ was born, a joint initiative with the WWF. Instead of receiving flowers, a customer now receives a certificate declaring that, together, we have saved 30 m2 of rainforest. That’s a win-win!”
“Our parent company, Eneco, which sends a lot more flower bouquets than we do, of course, is also interested in this. Once Eneco gets involved, just one simple idea will help to save an area of rainforest half the size of the Netherlands. That’s fantastic, isn’t it? And that’s what motivates me!”
Each colleague has sustainable impact
Part of Klaartje’s mission is to inspire her fellow workers to come up with ideas for sustainable initiatives. Big or small, no rules apply. She values every suggestion and adds each one to her action plan. And the ideas keep flooding in!
“One of the ideas we are working on involves delivering charging stations by bike courier”, explains Klaartje. “Or what about the idea ‘first time right’ when installing a charging station? It’s a pity when a new charging station doesn’t work properly straight away. Sending out another engineer to solve the problem isn’t good for the customer, for us or for the planet. We are also looking at making our charge cards from bioplastic or recycled plastic and aim to serve vegan food at all our events. As a green company, we need to set an example. Together, we can make a genuine sustainable impact. That thought gives me so much energy!”
One Planet Week
Klaartje’s motto is ‘even small things can make a big impact’. She adds: “I wanted to make that clear to my colleagues during the first ‘One Planet Week’ in June 2023 and inspire their green hearts to beat faster.”
“And do you know what is so wonderful?” asks Klaartje. “This is how Eneco and Eneco eMobility truly stand out from the competition. When we commit to our One Planet Targets, including being climate neutral by 2035, we stand head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to sustainability. But the company must pull together, the entire team. Because only then will my mission to create a greener culture succeed.”
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