My job is a combination of strategic and practical work. On the one hand, I determine the priorities for ROVA where it comes to Circular Economy. I advise municipalities on ways to close local material loops, I work with our own organisation to make circular changes wherever possible and I try to bring everybody in the organisation along on our circular journey.On the other hand I am involved in several concrete projects, where we use the materials we collect to boost innovation and increase our knowledge. For example, we hope to turn our plastic packaging stream into parts of water gulleys, which can then be used in the same municipality where we collected the packaging. In this way, the circular economy becomes visible for everyone, instead of remaining a vague abstract concept.

I worked on speeding up the transition towards a circular economy. Specifically, I was in charge of the topics of Circular Textiles and Behavioural Change. These were challenging and exciting workfields, with many interesting developments. Both of these topics played to my strengths, since they involve a lot of collaboration with all kinds of organisations. Also, both topics (but especially the behavioural angle) are integral subjects that intersect with various other activities. In 2017 I created a mid- to long-term policy strategy on circular textiles, including the role of the national government and the expected roles of other parties. Also, both Textiles and Behaviour have been adopted as focal points in one (textile) or all (behaviour) of the five Transition Agendas towards a circular economy, which were delivered on 15 January 2018.My first years (2013-2016) were spent mostly on the topic of Natural Capital. One of my main projects was the development of the Atlas of Natural Capital, which was launched in september 2015. This atlas helps (local) governments, companies and citizens to find information on the ecosystem services and quality of the environment in their surroundings, in order to support more sustainable decision-making.Furthermore, in 2016 I made agreements with various organisations in the Green Deal Infranatuur and the City Deal "Values of Green and Blue in the City". These agreements define specific actions for all participating organisations, and are resulting in projects in which the value of nature is taken into account in planning, tendering and execution.

In this position, I managed the theme 'People and Nature' as part of the new long-term nature policy of the Provincial Government.Activities• Head of a team of 5-8 people• Writing a policy document on 'People and Nature'• Creating an inspirational document on projects that combine the needs of people with those of nature• Creating an internal network for an integrated approach of projects and policy• Creating and managing an online questionnaire and analysing the results• Organising discussiongroups and managerial policy meetings

During my time at Rijkswaterstaat, I was a member of the Projectteam for Junction Hoevelaken, which is one of the main highway junctions in the Netherlands. More specifically, I was involved in the 'Environment' subteam, which concerns itself with both the physical and the social environment of the project.Activities• Managing and directing a study on local ecology• Researching a rough estimate of the nature and trees to be compensated for, using GIS software• Relaying information on the project during meetings with stakeholders and local inhabitants • Creating synergy between various stakeholder parties• Researching the issues with buildings owned and maintained by the national government

This was my first position as a national government trainee. I joined the team working on pesticides as a secretary, but took on many different roles during my time there.Activities• Writing parts for a policy document on pesticides• Writing a progress report for the Minister for the Environment • Writing a report for the Minister in preparation of a meeting with various agricultural stakeholders• Researching the implemenation strategies in various EU member states• Presenting the results of my research in stakeholder meetings• Creating synergy between various stakeholder parties

Intake and entry of global drug safety data.

• Facilitating online discussions• Strenghtening and maintaining international contacts• Reporting live from the "Commonwealth Forestry Conference"• Analysing the functioning of an online discussion platform on Forest Landscape Restoration• Analysing closed discussions• Building a "Wiki" and a website