Kraaijvanger

Project leader Michel Weijers gave one tour after another to international delegations at the construction site of the 'C2C City Office'. From film teams from Belgium, South Africa and Taiwan, among others, to an international trade mission of around 160 drivers from 40 different countries. This month Weijers receives a delegation of Breton architects and developers. The South African program maker / presenter Bertus Louw visited Venlo twice. He made a documentary about it. "I was deeply impressed both times. Most of the fact that C2C enables people to have a positive impact on our environment instead of a negative or less bad one. And that you can make a difference in an urban environment. The city office is a great example of this, but certainly not the only one. A nice other example is the renovation of sports hall Egerbos. You simply can not build everything new, so I found it inspiring to see that you can also base refurbishment projects on C2C. " In the period between his first and second visit to Venlo, Louw's brother died of cancer. "That made the last visit very special for me personally. I became all the more aware that cancer and many other health problems that we face are caused by disrespect for our environment. South Africa has an enormous biodiversity. I hope that my documentary contributes to South Africa learning something from the Venlo C2C examples. "

In the period between his first and second visit to Venlo, Louw's brother died of cancer. "That made the last visit very special for me personally. I became all the more aware that cancer and many other health problems that we face are caused by disrespect for our environment. South Africa has an enormous biodiversity. I hope that my documentary contributes to South Africa learning something from the Venlo C2C examples. " Professor Lin Shen-Fong from Taiwan recently visited a number of C2C projects in Venlo, including the city office, for a report that will be broadcast in Taiwan and China at the beginning of next year. The production team travels around the world to report on projects in the field of sustainability. Shen-Fong: "That's how we know what's on sale in this area. The municipal office of Venlo is a landmark on a road that we undoubtedly all have to take. And to think that we were initially afraid that the C2C developments in Venlo would provide sufficient material for a documentary of an hour ... But after a few days we were convinced.

The people we interviewed and the stories we heard were all inspiring and promising. The way in which Venlo, as a provincial city, embraces the C2C policy and takes this step by step, testifies to the balance between idealism and pragmatism. " Michel Weijers is now accustomed to the enthusiastic reactions that Venlo receives from all over the world. "The people of Venlo, on the other hand, hardly notice what we have put down here. We therefore want to use the cradle-to-cradle year mainly to involve citizens in cradle-to-cradle. In the C2C year, the municipality wants to bridge the gap with citizens. In the coming year, the cradle-to-cradle principles will be central to various expressions and we will seek cooperation with events, business and education. "