Who we are

Joost, one of our enthusiastic founders. He would rather stand on two skis than on one board. You can wake him up at night for some classic Dutch ‘stamppot’ (stew), or for lunch, too. With a small dose of humor from under the rivers, he tries to achieve the ambition he and Philip always wanted to start a company for: creating impact by doing. Pushing the transition towards a sustainable economy.

Joost’s mission is to change the world in such a way that Greta Thunberg can go to bed with peace of mind by at least 2030!

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Imme is our Senior Sustainability Expert and enthusiast about timber-construction and biobased-construction. She has a broad background in sustainability and specialized in the sustainable built environment since her master's thesis. Besides in a professional way, Imme also likes to engage in construction activities as a hobby; she enjoys building walls and repairing roofs, as long as she can work with her hands. Sustainability is a big motivation for her, to make sure that her beloved ArenA does not end up below sea level.

Philip, the other founder. Together with Joost he started this journey, guiding organistions towards real and effective sustainability. Creating impact by acting: that's the aim. Philip's love for the animal the hedgehog started while growing up close to the Dutch forests. When facing dangers, hedgehogs curl up and protect themselves against the threat ahead. When confronted with climate change, humans are doing the same. Philip wants to change this by offering a perspective. Nature is beloved by him, he likes enjoying it while hiking, kite-surfing or snowboarding.

Clara, head of communication and sustainability enthusiast. Clara is curious and has broad and diverse interests. She loves reading, podcasts, art-house movies, yoga, vegan cooking, “gezelligheid” and the beach. And sustainability. Her ambition is being friendly to our planet and minimizing the impact we have with our behavior; so we -and all other living creatures- can live happily ever after. Say yes to that!

Saro, life cycle specialist, both boxing- and chess enthusiast (not at the same time) and a big fan of the Italian kitchen. His sustainability journey began at his bachelor years ago together with Joost and Philip. After a few years of LCA experience, he is ready to support companies in their transition towards sustainability. He knows best the added value of sustainable performance.

His mission is ensuring sustainability becomes the norm. In this way, he hopes he doesn’t have to explain to his aunt every time during family birthdays that sustainability is more than solar panels on the roof.

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Gloria has two distinct personalities that harmoniously co-exist within her: a child-like joyful and -at times-chaotic Italian in her personal life, who turns during working hours into an ambitious and detail-oriented professional. Her entrepreneurial spirit allows her to see the bigger picture and make valuable connections. She brings the sustainability conversation to any table, where she does not shy away from getting down to the nitty gritty details of impact assessment measurements. Fun fact: she is obsessed with sea turtles and Disney movies, and has both eternalized in a tattoo. As an ocean lover, she dreams of a world where the future of sea turtles and other ocean creatures is not compromised, and she won't rest until that is the case.

Mees, Junior Sustainable Construction Expert, is a sports-man. He likes soccer (both playing & supporting) and is currently training for his first half-marathon. With joining our team, he can now also sharpen his ping-pong skills in our Hedgehog-after-lunch-ping-pong-competition. Besides this, Mees has a lot of creative talents; he enjoys making (animated)videos, drawing and illustrating. Sustainability is an important topic to him. He wishes to see a nature-inclusive future for us all, where we humans take care of our planet instead of just consuming and eroding our environment. His role as Expert Sustainable Construction makes a great fit to this aim.

Ricardo, our nitrogen sensei, loves to either shred waves or golf courses. On Saturday evenings, you will most probably find him in one of his favorite Jazz cafés in the city centre of Amsterdam. By having an out-of-the-box attitude and a holistic approach, he tackles sustainability challenges head on, thriving on teamwork. During the week, he dedicates himself mainly to calculating nitrogen emissions and conserving nature reserves.

Although the idea of surfing to work appeals to Ricardo, he rather would keep surfing at the beach, and devote himself to keeping Amsterdam above sea level for the coming centuries.

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Max writes articles and is doing research for our Hedgehog Knowledge Base. He is interested in almost everything, but if he had to pick just one thing, he would be -the whole day long-eating good food. The combination of food and sustainability makes him obsessed with the origin of our food products. No surprise that he knows all episodes of his favorite television program “De Keuringsdienst van Waarde” by heart! And when he watched the newest episode, and his stomach is full, he likes to go outside with his binoculars around his neck. And see if he can find some rare birds hiding in nature. His mission is to help educate people about the importance of taking care of the planet, because 'when you don’t know, you can’t act!'

Zoë is a born sustainability queen. With her background in bio-based innovation, she’s mostly analysing the life cycles of products and materials in this field. Zoë loves far travels and good food, of course flying on bio-based fuels…

‘My ambition? To be a driving and supportive force in adopting bio-based materials replacing non-renewable materials.’

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Luc is our creative multi talent. He creates cohesion in our design and communication. He is the creator of this website, our carbon dashboard (which is coming soon) and has done the rebranding of Hedgehog Company. Like most artists, Luc prefers working in the middle of the night.

Luc believes that everything can be sustainable and should be. With his own company, he helps ethical businesses with sustainable branding and web design.

Rik is a fanatic basketball and office-pingpong player. Unfortunately, winning from his colleagues is still a dream. In his free-time, he likes reading books on his e-reader. Having a positive attitude and an analytical performance, he supports solving sustainability issues in a wide range of sectors. He likes to dig deep into the different components and materials of different products.

Rik’s mission is localizing as many environmental hotspots in company’s supply chains. This makes our  goal-driven support in improving environmental performance of our customers almost easy.

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As a die-hard Arsenal fan, Nata is either really happy or really sad on Mondays. Nata's hunger for knowledge and her curiosity never sleep. Her passion for pubquizes and philosophical discussions make this rather clear. In her free time she likes to sing (sometimes also at work), teach English and become a Dutch citizen.

Nata's mission is to help companies getting insight into their impact on the climate. Sustainability can be quite daunting at first, but Nata can make it understandable and interesting for clients.

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Joël, Junior Sustainability Expert with a long-time drive to re-green our future. Joël likes to explore his city Amsterdam: on sunny days you can see him paddling around the canals on his SUP. Or admiring the beauty of the city from behind his camera-lens, shooting some abstract/street-photograpy. He also really enjoys visiting expositions, the theater, cinema etc. Ever since he was a child, he has the ambition to make the world a more sustainable place. At Hedgehog Company Joël is happy to help organisations take their steps towards sustainability. And prevent we keep on damaging our planet by continuing business the unsustainable way. 

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Victor prefers to spend his days off on his boat on the Amsterdam canals. His entrepreneurial spirit has already developed a brilliant concept. This allows him and his fellow boat owners in Amsterdam to continue sailing carefree in the future, as soon as this has to be done on batteries. In addition, he remains a driving force in our team.

His mission: The Netherlands (almost) emission-free by 2030, so Victor knows for sure that he can continue to enjoy the Amsterdam canals in the distant future without having to use a submarine!

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