Marc Okhuijsen | Zonnova

Marc is specialised in the application of ecological principles to spatial and energy-related initiatives for urban sustainability, focusing especially on social relationships between partners from different sectors  

Marc has extensive experience of developing and managing EU-funded cooperation projects on, for example, water management, suburban and rural land use, and social energy cooperatives.  The most recent projects support circular economy approaches, involving symbiotic industrial energy systems. 

Marc originally studied Biology and Physical and Social Geography at Fontys University. He started his career at the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Nature where he worked in the late 1980s on the creation and Implementation of the national and provincial structure plans for the Primary

Ecological Networks (EHS and GHS) and then on the integration of urban areas into these major networks. In 1993 he was appointed City Ecologist, City of Breda, later becoming Head of the Department of Habitat-Environment  and Strategist – Sustainable City Development until 2014.