Steffen Walvius followed his first semester at the Hanze UAS in the Netherlands and pursued the specialisation in Sustainable Energy Management taught at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, which is no longer part of the programme.
Sustainability can move frustratingly slowly when knowledge remains trapped in silos. External consultants often operate at a distance, while in house sustainability staff rarely have the opportunity to learn from peers in other organisations. I have worked on both sides of this divide. Between finishing my Civil Engineering bachelor’s in 2012 and starting the SESyM Master’s in 2016, and again after graduating in 2018. The lack of real knowledge exchange, and the inefficiency that comes with it, has bothered me ever since.
That frustration is what led me to start my own company in 2022. I began on my own and gradually grew the team to six people, supported by a strong network of freelancers.
Our idea is simple. Instead of advising from the outside, or trying to make progress in isolation inside a single company, we embed energy and sustainability partners directly into client organisations as if they were in-house colleagues. The difference is that they do not come alone. They bring hands-on execution, access to a wider expert network, flexible delivery capacity, and tools and approaches that have already been proven in practice. I have embedded myself in several organisations, while also working on business development to help more companies see the value of this model.
We mainly support commercial real estate investors, developers, and asset managers. At corporate level, we work on ESG accounting, reporting, ratings, and the operating processes behind them. At the asset level, we stay close to day-to-day performance by monitoring and tuning buildings for efficiency and comfort, reducing operational costs, and optimising energy contracts and leasing arrangements.
Underlying all of this is a belief that sustainability should not be a separate discipline or a large standalone department. It is a way of working, and every traditional discipline should be able to operate sustainably by default. Many organisations are still far from that reality.
Our operating model aims to change this by being transparent, collegial, and practical. We focus on knowledge transfer, building internal capability, and helping clients become self-sufficient. This avoids the closed and opaque approaches that keep organisations dependent on consultants. Because we are deeply involved in daily operations, we can adapt pragmatically to each organisation’s constraints and commercial realities, without losing sight of results.
If this resonates, whether as a career direction or as a professional facing similar challenges inside your organisation, feel free to reach out. The EUREC community is a family, and I am always happy to connect.