On 19 June, Jan Peter Balkenende, chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC), presented the statement ‘Dutch companies endorse sustainability in COVID-19 recovery’ to Minister Kaag. More than 200 companies have signed the statement 'Dutch business endorse sustainability in COVID-19 recovery' and PropTechNL is one of these companies. The statement advocates taking the Sustainable Development Goals to guide the corona recovery plans.
The statement is made at the initiative of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition in collaboration with Global Compact Netherlands, MVO Nederland and the “Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken” (Dutch association of Banks) and VNO-NCW.
The broad coalition of Dutch businesses endorses a strong focus on sustainability and asks the Dutch government to consider the following points:
1. Endorse the EU Green Deal as one of the cornerstones of the EU Recovery Plan;
2. Build the COVID-19 recovery plan around an investment schedule that firmly puts our Dutch economy on the path of realizing the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement;
3. Continue to provide long-term certainty regarding the Dutch climate agreement and measurable commitments.
In addition, the coalition would welcome an independent Dutch study on how we can “Make markets fit for SDG purpose”, to further embed sustainability in our economy. This study should focus on how government instruments can strengthen market conditions for business, so that the sector can make a maximum contribution to the SDG agenda.
We believe that green recovery is necessary to create a future-proof environment for everyone. By investing in innovation, talent development and scaling up sustainability -with digitization as a lever and Sustainable Development Goals as our North star- the built environment will make a positive leap forward.
Menno Lammers / PropTechNL - PropTech for Good
Read more at the website of Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition.