Erik van Lennep (erik_van_lennep)

Specialties:

Sustainability Strategies;Local Economic Development; Education and Awareness; Environmental Psychology and Motivation for Change; Sustainability; Policy; Organization Development; Intercultural Communications; Effective Collaboration; Innovation; Training; Sustainable Design; Landscape Design; Permaculture Design; Natural Capital; New Crops; Ecosystem Rehabilitation; Biochar; Climate Change; Community Resilience; Ethical Business and Corporate Responsibility; Diversity; Think-and-Do Tanks.

Design, Sustainability, Teaching and Policy

I have been practicing and often teaching design since the mid 1980's, with an original training as a Landscape Designer, but specialising in ecosystem restoration, land use planning,permaculture and landscape psychology. Over the years I have become very involved in the policy aspects of sustainable design, in creating trainings for other professionals, in application of design principles to strategy development, and most recently, the development of tools to aid in visualising and incorporating complex systems models within planning and policy applications. I retain my original love of  botany, horticulture and plant selection for which I am well respected. (My back garden is possibly one of the most biodiverse bits of turf outside the Botanic Gardens).
 
I have been in Dublin for ten years, co-creating Cultivate Centre (Ireland's national sustainable living training centre) shortly after my arrival. At Cultivate I developed and produced the annual urban planning and design conference, Rethinking the City, as well as a series of sustainable product design and sustainable economy conferences. I also co-created the series of sustainable building conferences. I developed the teaching garden facility there, growing most of the economic plants from seed sourced around the world. Last year, with Design Ireland, Skillnets, and IT Carlow, I produced a pilot certificate course for CPD in 'Sustainable Design Innovation', the first such in Ireland. We are running it again this year.  I am a guest lecturer on design principles and ecological design at NCAD, IT Carlow, and the Kaospilot school in Denmark.
 
Last summer, I produced a policy brief for Dublin City Council to enable planning to require green roofs on new development. Further afield, I was the chief sustainability consultant on a master planning team to design a new community in Qatar, and am currently providing analysis and advice on the development of a comprehensive policy and set of standards for sustainable urban design and development in Abu Dhabi. I am also providing strategy advice on market development, coalition building, policy, and programme integration for the International Biochar Initiative, an organisation facilitating development of one of the most promising technologies for soil-based carbon sequestration, with wide ranging benefits for watershed rehabilitation, food security, and biodiverse landscape recovery.
 
It's been a widely ranging journey with design, social values and ecological principles at the core. Being a 'highly specialised generalist', I find it all integrates very well in the consultancy I provide for sustainability, climate response, and technologies based on living systems.