Daan works as a sustainability project manager at Metabolic, where he is passionate about helping cities and organizations transition to a more sustainable state. Daan’s fascination with nature started from an early age, spending hours exploring the creatures in the small pond in his parents’ garden. This interest led him to pursue a scientific career as a marine biologist, studying aquatic ecosystems in the Netherlands, Canada, the Caribbean and Norway.

In addition to fuelling his passion for the natural environment, his experiences with ecology, neurobiology and genetics during his PhD also taught him that in nature, nothing happens in isolation, whether it is on a global, regional or individual scale. This insight led him to adopt systems thinking in his work, and today Daan applies this framework not only to natural systems but also to cities and organizations, seeing these as part of the global natural ecosystem.

Before joining Metabolic, Daan has worked in various positions within the Dutch national government, on themes such as sustainable business operations, food systems, and finance.