How can living labs effectively contribute to a sustainable city and society? Mark’s job is to create meaningful impact through the Urban Living Lab program. Mark manages the strategy of the AMS Living Lab portfolio. Also, he coordinates EnergieLab Zuidoost, which is a collaboration of AMS Institute with multiple partners to accelerate the energy transition in the south eastern part of Amsterdam.
Driven to battle the unprecedented crises (climate, biodiversity, inequality) we face, Mark has worked on a variety of projects focused on sustainability. He helped creating a book and workshops about ‘Hidden Impact’, worked with Ethiopian coffee farmers to establish ‘fairchain’ coffee and most recently he set up a living lab team at Utrecht University.
Outside of AMS Institute, Mark is engaged in the Think Big, Act Now foundation, leading workshops about creating ecopositive impact.
“Cities worldwide are the number one place where humans have impact on the planet, so the largest city of the Netherlands is the place where I want to contribute to urban sustain-ability transitions.”
Mark Kauw
Urban Living Lab Program Developer