Minister Gerardine Mukeshimana of the Ministry of Agriculture & Animal Resources and Minister Sharon Dijksma of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands signed this morning a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cooperation in plant variety protection and breeders’ rights at the No More Food To Waste Conference in The Hague. Memorandum of Understanding The Rwanda government wants to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants, for the benefit of further development and economic growth of the Rwanda agricultural sector, specifically the potato sector and the seed sector. The Netherlands has a strong interest in sharing knowledge through private companies and science institutes for the benefit of the agricultural sector. Both governments acknowledge the importance of an effective system in order to improve the agricultural sector of Rwanda as well as to further develop the investment opportunities for foreign companies.   For a photo-album on Rwandese Minister visit to The Netherlands, please click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/sets/72157655631413962   Agriculture Mission Minister Mukeshimana was in the Netherlands from 16 to 19 June to intensify the economic relations between Rwanda and the Netherlands on developing the agriculture sector through extending business to business contacts and to discuss the Dutch institutional framework on agricultural policies, research and good agricultural practices.   The Minister started with No More Food To Waste Conference and participated in a panel discussion deliberation on food loss, waste and opportunities for action. Furthermore, she attended a Horticulture Platform meeting with the Rwanda trade delegation where an update was given on the SMART Project in Rwanda. This is a smart greenhouse technology specially developed for Rwanda by a consortium of Dutch and Rwandan private sector companies and research institutes, which will result in increased quality and production of vegetables and a stronger market position. The Minister continued her mission together with Ambassador George William Kayonga (CEO of the National Agricultural Export Development Board), Mr Robert Kayinamura (First Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda in the Netherlands) and Mrs Teddie Muffels (Agricultural Counsellor at the Dutch Embassy in Rwanda). The delegation visited Bosman Van Zaal that is one of the private companies in the SMART Project and specialized in the production of conditioned facilities for vegetable and floriculture production worldwide. Furthermore, the delegation visited Olij Roses (a specialist in growing and propagation of roses) and a dairy farm of the Vollering Brothers, which is a good example of modern farming with four strategy points; animal welfare, cows in the pasture, labour efficiency and energy neutral.   For more information: Ministry of Agriculture & Animal Resources         www.minagri.gov.rw NAEB                                                                       www.naeb.gov.rw No More Food To Waste Conference                       www.nomorefoodtowaste.nl Bosman Van Zaal                                                     www.bosmanvanzaal.com Olij Roses                                                                 www.olijrozen.nl Farm Vollering Brothers                                           www.boerderijlandleven.nl    

  On behalf of the Danish company ROCKWOOL B.V. the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark H. E. Ole Emil Moesby hosted a huge event in connection with the presentation of their updated CSR Report (Corporate Social Responsibility) containing interesting tools for sustainability in the building sector in the future. Rebuilding our future, a manifesto on Social Sustainability and the ‘AQSI’, a tool that provides insight into the social performance of a building, were both launched by ROCKWOOL on June 30, 2015, at the Danish Embassy in The Hague. Several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) experts including Mark Frequin, Director General of Housing and Construction at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, were on hand to share their views on society’s necessary transition towards a sustainable and circular economy, a process which is seeing ever-more attention being given to social sustainability. The resilient society: what does tomorrow’s society look like? What can be done differently in the transition to a circular economy? Accounting for environmental and social impact, how are we going to facilitate the change? These questions characterised the theme of the conference and walking dinner hosted by H. E. Ole Moesby, Ambassador of Denmark.  Present as speakers: Prof Dr. Anike van Hat, Professor of Sustainable Building & Development at Nyenrode Business University, and Professor of Sustainable Housing Transformation at Delf University of Technology. H.R.H. Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme, Director – Institute for Sustainable Innovation & Development. Hannle Stappers, Director Public-Affairs Benelux ROCKWOOL Benelux The 175 participants represent the following sectors: • Politicians (European, national, regional) • Insurance companies • Financial sector • Consumer organizations • Industrial associations • Key customers (sectors: engineering, building, agri, automotive, (process) industry) • Knowledge institutes • CSR foundations (NL, BE, DK, EU) • Pension Funds • NGOs “CSR is defined as the integration of social and environmental considerations throughout your company, and it says everything about the long-term competitiveness of your company,” according to Danish Ambassador Ole Emil Moesby who opened the meeting at the Danish Embassy in The Hague. The ambassador continued: “Denmark is one of the frontrunners in the fields of CSR and social sustainability and ROCKWOOL, as a Benelux company, is also taking this position based on the principles of sharing value and creating a win-win situation. It’s about solutions for the building sector and a strategy that benefits both the company and society at large. But that’s not something a company can do all by itself. This is a challenge you have to undertake together with the stakeholders.” CSR report After these opening words, Hannie Stappers, Public Affairs Director at ROCKWOOL, presented the second CSR report to Willem Lageweg, Managing Director at MVO Nederland and Sabine Denis, Managing Director of The Shift, the Belgian sustainability network. Stappers pointed out: “In our CSR report we have embarked on a new path. It is about value creation and true social impact. An important conclusion is that the value of ‘the human capital’ in a building is greatly underestimated. The quality of a building still tends to be determined by lowest price considerations, instead of by the performance of the eventual users in a building. We don’t have any idea about the costs associated with, for example, employees performing less well or students’ results being negatively affected by poor acoustics or by a poor climate inside a building. More attention also needs to be paid to the maintenance costs of a building and the circular economy where products are recycled, upcycled and reused.” When drawing up the report, the views of the stakeholders as regards to future trends were also taken into consideration. A recent questionnaire among stakeholders revealed three main trends: a ‘Need for a resilient society’, the ‘Transition to a circular economy’, and ‘Accounting for environmental and social impact’. To effectively support their stakeholders during the transition to more sustainability, ROCKWOOL has detailed these trends in its CSR report, together with best practices and tools.     A word on AQSI Director General of Housing and Construction at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, and Erwin Prins, Managing Director ROCKWOOL Benelux, together launched the Manifesto on Social Sustainability. This manifesto, which was signed by a large number of stakeholders – including MVO Nederland, DGBC, Innovatiecentrum Duurzaam Bouwen, GPR Gebouw, VACPunt Wonen and Slim Bouwen – commits its participants to make an effort to make social sustainability measurable and open to debate. ROCKWOOL then introduced the ‘AQSI’ tool. To create this, the company took the initiative to translate the European Standard EN 16309 ‘Sustainability of construction works assessment of social performance of buildings. Calculation methodology’ into a practical tool, called AQSI (Assessing and Qualifying on Social Impact of buildings), that can support stakeholders such as architects, developers, insurance companies, investors and pension funds in considering the social performance of a building. The ambition is that this ‘AQSI’ tool will be integrated with sustainability instruments in order to support, assess and qualify the true and transparent performance of buildings. Harm Valk, Senior Advisor of the Nieman Groep, further explained the launch of AQSI at the end of the meeting: “We build for people and then it is important that social sustainability can be made measurable. This tool visualizes the social qualities of a building that are not normally measured. A building must feel safe and comfortable to fulfil expectations. That’s why the owners of buildings should become more aware of their social performance. For me, true sustainability in the built environment is all about the impact on the end user.”