Environmental issues are more pressing than they’ve ever been. Businesses across all industries in the Netherlands are becoming increasingly proactive when it comes to sustainability. Now they have an even greater opportunity to benefit from the sustainable innovations in play at Amsterdam Science Park. The new SustainaLab, which will be located in the new Matrix One building is set to open in early 2022 with a collaborative focus that welcomes knowledge-sharing and co-creation. In this building innovative R&D businesses in the field of sustainability can rent office & lab space.
Countless opportunities for R&D companies, government departments, NGOs and startups to access talent
Website SustainaLab
“The building is completely designed for interaction,” says Ivo Sweep, director of the Matrix Innovation Center and project developer of the Matrix One building. The building will be an ideal home to the SustainaLab ecosystem which was founded by Matrix IC along with the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Stichting Science & Business. The world’s top researchers, government bodies, businesses and forward-thinking startups will come together to share knowledge in the new location. Designed with collaboration in mind, the SustainaLab will feature labs, project rooms, exhibition spaces, meeting areas, presentation rooms and a co-working area for temporary innovation projects. There will be catering options and a general ambiance of sustainability, in the form of green walls and demonstrations of recent discoveries. An ideal location for R&D businesses to locate innovation projects on sustainable solutions in temporary and flexible office spaces & labs.
SustainaLab also plans to introduce an incubator facility that will nurture green and sustainable startups. This provides countless opportunities for R&D companies, government departments, NGOs and startups to access talent and get involved in hackathons and other innovation assignments.
A few artist impressions of the Matrix ONE building
SustainaLab facilitates knowledge-sharing between researchers, students and industries by connecting the right people with the right opportunities
“The big topics here at Amsterdam Science Park for both knowledge institutions and companies are energy transmission, the provision of solar energy, energy from CO2, green algae, reusable plastics, circular chemistry. There are people working on natural building materials, ecology, nitrogen pollution, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity – you name it,” says Keizer. Add to this UvA’s future planet studies programme, and the park’s expertise in artificial intelligence, and you have the perfect setting to realise complex sustainable development goals.
Margo Keizer, who works with community building and partnerships at Amsterdam Science Park, explains that the SustainaLab initiative capitalises on the collaboration that’s already underway. “SustainaLab, in the sense of the ecosystem, is going on already. But it’s a little scattered within different institutions, different businesses, different disciplines. We’d like to bring that together.”
And it’s all happening within a building that’s a sustainable achievement in its own right. The seventh Matrix building will have a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating. Its circular design means every part will be laid down in a materials passport for reuse, while geothermal heating and cooling makes it essentially energy neutral. There’s also a green roof, solar panels and indoor bicycle parking that will encourage the city’s favourite mode of transport.
While construction of Matrix One is scheduled to begin in the autumn of 2020 and be completed by mid-2022, now is the opportunity to settle your organization in the heart of the SustainaLab ecosystem and benefit from the sustainable innovations that are taking shape. SustainaLab facilitates knowledge-sharing between researchers, students and industries by connecting the right people with the right opportunities. The initiative contributes to sustainable policies set by the City of Amsterdam, as well as regional and central government. Most importantly, SustainaLab works towards globally recognised sustainable development goals, aimed at giving our planet a cleaner and healthier future – one that you can be a part of.
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