Jorn Verbeeck

Change Agent, Connector, Idea generator, Project manager

With a background in language & literature, Jorn first worked as a journalist. He then worked several years as a political advisor on local, federal and European level, in the last years as an expert in sustainable development, waste and materials. He moved to the Flemish Government in 2010, during the Belgian EU Presidency, with a focus on the EU’s resource efficiency and circular economy strategy. He represented Belgium in the United Nations Environment Panel. Following that, he became programme manager of the Flanders’ Materials Programme (now known as Vlaanderen Circulair), which translates the EU’s long term strategy into a regional vision, research and public-private action that aims to achieve a systemic shift towards the circular economy. In 2016 he moved to the City of Ghent as director of the Environment & Climate Agency with the aim to turn Ghent into a climate neutral city by 2050. Since 2019 he works as expert circular economy at technology federation Agoria. In August 2020 he joined the Global Covenant of Mayors as Head of Research and Innovation. He is also board member of the EU Chapter of the Club of Rome.

The city as a living ecosystem, where all grand societal challenges come together and become tangible and are inviting city makers to come up with solutions.

City real estate offices are of a past century. We should be promoting city solutions brokering offices, where challenge owners look for matchmaking between a city challenge and worldwide city solutions. Let us speed and scale up, and make the sustainable, healthy and liveable city our home.

storytelling ... as the universe as Muriel Rukeyser said is not made of atoms, but of stories.