Except Integrated Sustainability
Except Integrated sustainability.
Flourish in a changing world.
Multi-disciplinary consulting, innovation and development organization working on advanced sustainability projects around the globe.

Jacob Verhaart

PhD

Head of Science; Industrial Ecologist

Jacob Verhaart

Areas of expertise:

  • Industrial Ecology & Sustainable building

  • Thermal comfort; Building installations and HVAC

  • Human technology interaction

  • Renewable energy

  • Mobility  & Aircraft systems

Professional Titles:

  • PhD Building Science

  • MSc. Industrial Ecology

  • BSc. Aerospace Engineering

Enjoys: 

  • Good food

  • Designing and building furniture

  • (vegetable) Gardening   

Guilty Pleasures:

  • Loud music

  • Model airplanes

Contact

  • [javascript protected email address]

Jacob is Except's resident genius scientist. As an industrial ecologist, Jacob knows everything about energy and material flows, urban metabolism, impact and life cycle assessment, and the circular economy. As an engineer, Jacob has particular love for building systems and sustainable building practices.  Jacob always always wants to know everything there is to know about a subject. When he was little, his favorite word was “why?”.

That condition never got better. He is fascinated by nature, architecture and technology. He would like to get to know as much as there is to know about sustainability and translate that into concrete solutions for improving the world.

Jacob has a humanist’s understanding of social policy coupled with an engineers’ appreciation of practicality. In the last four years he helped to increase the understanding of the interaction of office workers with their thermal environment, in his role as a researcher at the TU Eindhoven in the department of Building Physics and Services. Comfort through user involvement is essential to make buildings better and more sustainable. Technology is there to help people in making doing the right thing easier.

This practical side is also visible when Jacob designs and builds furniture. The best furniture is esthetically pleasing, is useful and makes life easier. Additional advantage is that woodworking and building is a relaxing activity, and therefore it’s no surprise that a large portion of Jacobs house is filled with his own creations.

Jacob has a PhD in building physics from Eindhoven University, a Master’s degree in Industrial Ecology from Delft and Leiden Universities, and a Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering.

Articles

Sustainable Food in the Desert

Sep 01, 2020, Serenity Farms: A New Model for Sustainable Food Security in Arid Regions

Food security is a critical issue worldwide, particularly in arid regions, where unfavorable local production conditions mean a dangerous dependency on food imports. In Saudi Arabia, nearly 80% of all food is imported, making the country and others like it extremely vulnerable to shocks and systemic disruptions to the global food system. Industry-changing Serenity Farms offers Saudi Arabia and similar regions a sustainable and profitable way to produce food locally, creating jobs, and using only sunlight and seawater.

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Projects

House of Energy

Jan 16, 2019, Inspiration Book Energy Neutral Living

Serenity Farms

Sep 15, 2020, Sustainable food production in arid regions

Serenity Farms is a concept for a sustainable 110ha greenhouse facility for profitable food production in arid climates. The first site is to be located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, under the vision of the Reza Investment Company. It will be the largest sustainable greenhouse operation in the world. The only water it uses is salt water sourced from the red sea, and is powered entirely by the sun. The core of Serenity Farms is a high tech food production solution that provides fresh fruits and vegetables for 170.000 people.  

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Sustainable development Catharijnesingel Utrecht

Jul 09, 2018, Full spectrum sustainability strategy for urban infrastructure

In collaboration with KWS-Infra and tender office GAIM, Except organized  an innovation session  for a sustainable approach to the demolition of a part of the Catharijnesingel in the center of Utrecht. The approach reponds to the sustainability goals set by the municipality of Utrecht.

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ReGen Villages Oosterwold

Nov 19, 2020, Masterplan for a self sustaining neighborhood

For ReGen Villages, we developed a globally unique masterplan for a self-sustaining housing neighborhood of 203 houses in the Netherlands. Designed on a 25 hectare site in an area called Oosterwold, just 20 minutes from Amsterdam, it exemplifies affordable, regenerative, and self sustaining living. 

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Refreeze

Mar 24, 2021, Keep the Arctic in the Arctics

This project aims to reduce the temperatures in the Arctics to prevent massive climate disaster worldwide. It organizes the consortium, action plan, research, technology, finance, and legal framework to  move towards global climate mitigation using autonomous cloud whitening vessels  using salt water vapour. 

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The Future of Sterkenburg

May 23, 2019, Medieval castle Sterkenburg innovates a new future

Historic sites struggle to find business models that protect and optimize their cultural heritage in a rapidly changing world. The owners of the medieval castle of Sterkenburg in Driebergen decided to take up this challenge, looking for new ways to reignite its economic and social value. They engaged a multidisciplinary group of sustainability experts from Except Integrated Sustainability, who developed a special program to help historic sites unearth their opportunities. The resulting roadmap delivers concrete, immediate cost savings in the short term, and new ways for the castle to play a role in both today’s, and tomorrow’s society.

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BKCity Slim Refurbishment

Feb 19, 2013, Sustainable Renovation of TUDelft's Architecture Faculty

BKCity is a magnificent listed monument of more than 30.000m2 functioning as the faculty of Architecture of the TU Delft. Except created a phased plan to make this historic educational building energy and carbon neutral within ten years.

The plan converts the building into a didactic tool that puts sustainability at the heart of education for generations of architects, introducing a unique in-building ecosystem that provides an inspiring environment, functional qualities and cost savings.

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Sustainable Schiebroek-Zuid

Feb 25, 2021, Redevelopment of post-war social housing

We developed a sustainabile conversion and development plan for the post-war social housing area Schiebroek-Zuid in Rotterdam.  The project provides a flexible and exemplary roadmap for converting the neighborhood into a self-sufficient and sustainable area. It applies innovative energy solutions, urban farming, social and economic programs, secondary currencies, and adaptive redevelopment strategies.

This project was commissioned by housing corporation Vestia and agricultural research network InnovatieNetwerk.

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