Green expert lays foundation for healthy and sustainable living environment

During InfraTech 2025, the so-called Tree Square in Hall 5 will be a beautiful eye-catcher on the exhibition floor of Rotterdam Ahoy. On this theme square, from January 14 to 17, various organizations with knowledge about trees will collectively present themselves to the public. One of them is idverde NL, with over 600 employees and twenty locations throughout the country a more than established name in the Dutch green sector. A player also that advises policy makers to call on the expertise of green specialists in a timely manner around urban greening challenges. Or as portfolio manager Albert Jan Kerssen puts it, "To make the right decisions toward the future, it is advisable to involve people with knowledge of greenery in your project at an early stage." 

idverde NL, since 2018 part of the internationally active idverde group, the undisputed European leader in the green sector, is strongly committed to positively changing our world. "Nature in our living environment makes us resilient to climate change, promotes biodiversity, is the key to a healthy and active life as well as delivering high spatial quality. People are, consciously or unconsciously, part of nature. Integrating and connecting with our own nature is essential for ourselves and the world around us to ultimately create a healthy, sustainable living environment," says Albert Jan. "We do all this from idverde Consultancy, idverde Bomendienst and idverde Realisatie. Three business units that provide tailored services to governments, large companies, project developers, housing corporations and educational institutions, among others, with greener solutions that have a real impact."

Future-proof

Infrastructure is more than bricks, steel and concrete. Green spaces are also increasingly becoming substantial components within infrastructure projects. Indeed, the importance of greenery in built-up environments is increasing from a social perspective, Albert Jan observes. "Because the Netherlands is becoming more densely built up, nature is coming under increasing pressure. In that context alone, greening the streetscape is highly desirable. With our varied green solutions, we want to contribute to social themes such as biodiversity, climate adaptation, health and spatial quality. One way to do this is with trees. After all, a tree is an important supplier of ecosystem services. In other words, services that nature provides us with, enabling us to live. In addition, in the context of climate change, trees play a major role in creating a sustainable, safe and pleasant living environment. We are also proving our added value in this context, for example in the climate-proof design of residential areas. In a climate-proof neighborhood design, we combine our green solutions, water and infrastructure into one integrated and future-proof design. In doing so, we make use of various advanced tools, among other things. One example is i-Tree, which allows us to calculate the green benefits for each tree planted in various ways. Now and in the future. In this way, we make it even more interesting for parties to start investing in such facilities."

Integral total solution

The multidisciplinary nature of idverde NL, together with the expertise available, ensures that the company can provide a diverse group of clients with a welcome integrated total solution. "Thanks to our various business units, we can serve our clients in every project phase," Albert Jan emphasizes. "From the first, early initiatives and policy-making to implementation and maintenance. That is what we want to emphasize to the infrastructure sector during InfraTech 2025 especially on the Bomenplein, a setting that perfectly suits our business activities."   

An experienced specialist

As an expert on nature-based solutions in the built environment, Albert Jan Kerssen has extensive experience in integrated projects within both the public and private sectors. He is one of the Netherlands' top specialists in building vegetation (author, advisory board National Roof Plan, drafter of quality and performance standards, lecturer and speaker). But he also works daily beyond the building to promote nature-inclusive and climate-adaptive projects. For example, he is part of the Expert Team Residential Construction - Sustainable and Innovative Construction of Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) and works on large-scale (re)design of residential areas and business parks. 

Albert Jan is hands-on advocate, engineer, leader and entrepreneur in the field of product development, research, knowledge sharing and innovation. With two decades of experience in this field, he has been working as consultant and manager at idverde NL, European market leader in the green sector, since 2017.