Karl Beerenfenger

Expert

1 hour

NL, EN

Sustainable Business,
Sustainable Business,
Sustainable Lifestyle

Influence,
Team Building,
Inspire

Karl Beerenfenger is one of the leading Dutch experts in the field of plastic soup and litter. With experience as a diver, entrepreneur and lobbyist, he combines practice and policy. His interactive lectures inspire system change and direct action. Karl recommends and stimulates complex environmental issues for various target groups.

Karl Beerenfenger is one of the Netherlands' leading experts on plastic soup, one of the most important environmental challenges of our time. After six years in window cleaning, studying Hospitality & Event Management and running his own events agency, Karl made the switch to sustainability in 2013. His background as a professional diver quickly led him to plastic soup. In the ten years that followed, Karl set up his own foundation and, as an entrepreneur, developed plastic soup projects for companies and governments. He currently works as a lobbyist for an environmental organization.
Karl moved from research, awareness and education to system change in
boardrooms of politicians, governments and companies. He works daily on the transition from disposable to reusable packaging and an international ban on plastic cigarette filters. He shares his knowledge about plastic soup through lectures, company outings and educational programs.

Karl knows the essence of the growing plastic waste problem like no other. He has spent years researching microplastics in Dutch and international waters, and has guided dozens of companies and governments to map litter on beaches and in cities. He has also taught plastic soup to thousands of children and young people and helped organizations reduce their plastic footprint. Karl knows what is going on in society around the theme of plastic soup.As a lobbyist, Karl closely follows local, national and international policy developments. Plastic soup is a reality, he has seen with his own eyes. Also in the Netherlands. Cleaning up is not the answer, but the question is: how do we turn off the proverbial tap? How do refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle relate to each other? Karl takes you along various solutions, from policy at the United Nations to the influence of the individual citizen. In addition to being a content expert, he is also the founder of the largest plastic soup network in the Netherlands, with 133 affiliated organizations and initiatives.

Why book Karl?
With his unique mix of experience at sea, on land and in boardrooms, Karl offers a confrontational, but at the same time inspiring and hopeful story. With a healthy dose of humor, the ability to put things into perspective and self-reflection, he talks about the plastic pollution that is flooding our planet. As a speaker, Karl connects with a variety of worlds of experience. In an energetic and interactive way, he involves his audience in his authentic story full of in-depth knowledge, insights and perspectives for action. Karl takes the listeners along in the causes, responsibilities and solutions for the plastic soup.

After the lecture, the audience can contribute to system change and reduce their own plastic footprint. Karl is happy to take you along in his own development. He used to shoot cigarette butts on the street, now he lobbies internationally for a cleaner living environment.

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