Road to zero footprint

Director of Business Development at Skytree, who develops and deploys smart technology that captures atmospheric carbon dioxide, enabling its use or storage to combat climate change and aid society and businesses around the world.

VDE plant is a family owned nursery with several locations, in total we grow over 30 different types of tropical potted plants, in total over 10 milion pots a year.

With a team of 7 people we are responseble for growing on our main location of 8 hectares, partially equipped with dimmable LED growing Lights.

Our energy comes from a gas-fired CHP, supported by a heat pump, E- boiler and gas boiler.

In crop protection we mainly use beneficials for optimal results and a minimum impact on environment and footprint.

We started early with footprint calculation in 2015, which helps us to make sustainable choices to improve our poces.

Henry Gordon-Smith is the Founder and CEO of Agritecture, a global consulting firm specializing in climate-smart agriculture and urban farming. Since founding Agritecture in 2014, Henry has led over 300 projects in 50+ countries, helping developers, entrepreneurs, and governments design resilient, profitable agricultural systems. His expertise spans controlled environment agriculture (CEA), regenerative farming, ag-tech integration, and food systems strategy.

A recognized thought leader, Henry frequently speaks at global events, including the UN Food Systems Summit and World Green Economy Summit. He also teaches at Columbia University on climate-smart agriculture and consults on food policy and sustainable land use planning. His work has been featured in The New York Times, AgFunder, and more. 

Henry holds a Master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. A digital nomad and global citizen, he brings a multicultural, forward-thinking lens to agriculture.

Through Agritecture, Henry is building the world’s most accessible and data-driven platform for farm planning, with a vision to help global agriculture adapt to climate change. His mission is to make agriculture more resilient, transparent, and equitable through smart design, innovative policy, and responsible technology.

Alexander van Tuyll has been working at Wageningen University & Research’s Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture for nearly four years, with a background in biosystems engineering. His research explores circular greenhouse horticulture. This is also the topic of his ongoing PhD. Nutrients, CO2 and renewable growing media are the focus of his current projects.