On Thursday, September 21, 2023, the Adaptation Allience visited the Flight Forum business park in Eindhoven. On the initiative of the entrepreneurs, this site is being made greener, more climate-adaptive, and more biodiverse in collaboration with the municipality. During this visit, project leader Jesse Poppema told us how this was approached.

The Flight Forum business park in Eindhoven consists of various clusters, including an office cluster. Flight Forum CV sold some of the plots in that cluster to private companies. However, it proved difficult to sell the other plots. Flight Forum therefore decided to make the layout greener and thus more attractive to users. Employees and other users indicated that they would like to work in a pleasant and green working environment. The private owners of office plots also noticed that greenery is increasingly becoming a condition for tenants.

Cooling effect

The new design has not only made the area more attractive, but also more climate-resistant and better for biodiversity. Because a lot of paving has been removed, rainwater can infiltrate the soil much more easily. This prevents flooding and drought. And the greenery that has replaced the paving has a cooling effect in summer. The greenery has been specially selected for Flight Forum and consists of various native species that promote biodiversity. At the time of the visit on September 21, the contractor is working on greening the central square.

Don't get stranded

One difficulty in the project was that one of the eleven companies did not want to cooperate in the joint greening initiative. Flight Forum and the other companies involved tried to convince this company, but unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. What do you do in that case? The employees of this company do benefit from the advantages of the green design, without having paid for it. Flight Forum did not want to let the project fail and therefore also greened the space at the company that did not participate. However, it did so with fewer trees and without seating or signage.

Meetings

Flight Forum CV has kept the parties involved informed about the greening work and other developments in the redevelopment. Facilitating a consultation and sending a few emails is not enough. Especially when the parties involved are partners and make a financial contribution. It is important for a development company to take this into account and build relationships by organizing interesting meetings and fun activities, such as giving out free ice cream in the square.