Harry believes we’re looking in the wrong direction, thinking about cooperation between cities economically. We can learn way more from history and we should renew the alliances that where formed in the past. As an example he explains the New Hanza, a cooperation between cities in North-West Europe. Harry quit his job to build this new old connection.

“I want to inspire people and stimulate the circular economy and innovation to create new jobs in the region ”

Harry quit his job at the age of 58 to follow his passion. He calls it ‘cooking’ with the unusual ingredients ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Profit’. With the successful recipe from the past, where we (Deventer) had strong partnerships with Hanze cities all over Europe, he creates our new future. An old but at the same time new way of looking at the circular economy and cooperation between cities.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx