What happens when an architect with a radical energy concept and a geoarchaeologist studying the Anthropocene meet within the Pact network of Klimaatonderzoek Initiatief Nederland? In the case of Renee Wansdronk (architect) and Sjoerd Kluiving (researcher in Geoarchaeology and Anthropocene Studies), it led to a collaboration that now includes joint projects, new networks, and the organisation of an international conference on regenerative leadership.
From online soapbox to collaboration
Their meeting did not begin with a fixed plan, but with an online gathering. It was the very first Soapbox on 10 April 2025, a quarterly online session where Pact members share what is on their mind and have space to announce requests and calls.
“You can feel that people are searching for something new,” Renee says. “As if we are on the eve of a different era. That created instant recognition.”
Sjoerd recognises that moment too. “I heard Renee speak and thought: this connects to what we are trying to understand within Anthropocene research. How systems change, and how we as a society can influence that.”
“Transitions do not happen within a single discipline. They emerge in the connection between them. Pact helps make exactly those connections possible.”
– Sjoerd Kluiving (researcher in Geoarchaeology and Anthropocene Studies)
A place where ideas find each other
For both of them, Pact offered space above all to step outside their own discipline. “Through the university I am already part of many networks, but here I met people working on similar questions from completely different angles,” Sjoerd says. “Entrepreneurs, designers, researchers. It broadens your perspective enormously.”
Renee saw Pact as an opportunity to connect his work to wider societal questions. He develops building concepts that combine energy storage, low-emission solutions, and new value models. “You can only get so far with ideas like these on your own. You need others to take it further — both substantively and practically.”
After that first encounter, more conversations, emails, and gatherings followed. “We must have run into each other at least twenty times over the past year,” Renee laughs. “Then you realise it is not a one-off coincidence, but that something is genuinely growing. We would never have expected that, back at the Pact Soapbox.”
“You need spaces like this. Where you step outside your own bubble for a moment and discover that someone with completely different expertise is working on the same bigger question.”
– Renee Wansdronk (architect)
From conversation to joint initiative
From these conversations, a shared interest in regenerative thinking emerged: not only doing less harm, but actively contributing to the restoration of ecosystems and economies. Sjoerd says: “At the VU we were already working on setting up a community around the Anthropocene. From there grew the idea of Regenerative Business Leaders: how do you also involve executives and entrepreneurs in that transition?”
Their collaboration is now taking concrete shape in the First International Regenerative Business Leaders Conference, on 12 March 2026 at the Botanical Garden Zuidas Amsterdam. There they will bring together leaders from business, government, and academia around the question of how organisations can move from extraction to regeneration.
“It is not a classic academic conference,” Sjoerd emphasises. “We want to bring together people with responsibility and influence, so that ideas can truly land in practice. That is why we are also strongly focused on transdisciplinarity.”
Networking at its best
For Renee and Sjoerd, their story shows what Pact can make possible: a place where people meet, test ideas, and take them further together. Much more than a traditional project platform or networking event.
“You need spaces like this,” Renee says. “Where you step outside your own bubble for a moment and discover that someone with completely different expertise is working on the same bigger question.”
The collaboration has not only made the conference and new perspectives possible, but has also broadened networks. “Through Sjoerd I met a PhD candidate working in the field of system dynamics. I had been looking for that for a long time, and he knew someone at the University of Amsterdam. I also met (via the UvA team member) experts in artificial intelligence, which has since led to an ongoing university research project. Two other team members are Kenneth Rijsdijk of the University of Amsterdam and system dynamics expert Jorge Sousa of Whatxnext.” And they have plenty more examples like that — people they would never otherwise have met.
Sjoerd adds: “Transitions do not happen within a single discipline. They emerge in the connection between them. Pact helps make exactly those connections possible.”
More information about the programme and participation can be found via the Regenerative Business Leaders page: https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/more-about/regenerative-business-leaders