Suze Gehem is keynote speaker, entrepreneur and innovator. She received the title of "sustainable construction woman of the year" because of her company De Groene Grachten, that works at making historical buildings sustainable. Her motto: "Creating impact starts with a good story."
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Suze Gehem is a sustainable entrepreneur at heart. She was crowned “sustainable construction woman of the year” after founding the consultancy firm ‘De Groene Grachten’ together with Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels in 2012. Her motto: “Creating impact starts with a good story”. As a passionate speaker and mission-driven entrepreneur, Suze addresses the major challenges of our time. With her enthusiasm, energy and humour, she knows how to convince her audience of the big changes needed for a sustainable future.
Suze’s mission is to set her audience in motion. Not just by telling inspiring stories, but to surprise and engage them, by providing new perspectives. By combining her technical background with a good dose of charm, Suze is a valued chairwoman and keynote speaker.
Are you wondering how residual heat from beer cooling heats a student fraternity? Or how even a windmill, museum, theatre or business can become more sustainable? Storytelling is Suze’s second nature. She conveys her ideas for a sustainable future in a captivating way to her listeners. Experiences similar to a “dream from a children’s book” are a trigger for any listener and encourages her audience to think in possibilities. By using sample stories, Suze manages to make the ideas of a circular economy and sustainability tangible. She translates sustainable technology to the wider audience.
In doing so, she draws on many appealing examples from her company ‘De Groene Grachten’, which makes centuries-old buildings and areas sustainable in innovative ways, because:
“If even a century old building can become sustainable, it can be done anywhere”.
Over the past decade, De Groene Grachten helped 1,300 monument owners to make their properties sustainable, including iconic locations such as Royal Theatre Carré and the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Yet another 15,000 owners received a sustainability plan via their digital tools. And this is just the beginning. Her ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’? To provide all 140,000 monuments in the Netherlands with a sustainable plan in the next three years. And to expand their business to 10 other countries. The organization is already working at an international scale, including Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy.
Furthermore, Suze is founder of ‘Rooftop Revolution’, an organization that develops nature on rooftops. In 2019, she founded ‘Green Light District’, to transform the oldest part of Amsterdam’s inner city, including the ‘Red Light District’, into a future-proof neighbourhood. Suze is member of the Board of Directors of impact fund ‘National Green Fund’. Her appointment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality makes her the youngest supervisory boardmember at a financial institution in the Netherlands.
Over the past years Suze received countless awards for her contributions to making the Netherlands sustainable, including the ‘Sustainable Construction Woman Award’, and was, among others, featured in newspaper Trouw’s ‘Sustainable 100’. In 2023, Suze was awarded with the first price in the ABN AMRO Sustainable 50, the annual thermometer of sustainability in construction and real estate in the Netherlands.
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