The proposition value for public transport

I joined Arcadis France in 2013, within the Urban and Rail Transportation Department. Talking with some French colleagues, I heard that Arcadis NL had participated in a European report (COST : Cooperation for Science and Technology) on Bus of High Level of Service. I thought it was a really great opportunity to share knowledge on Public Transport with our Dutch colleagues and decided to ask for a Quest to Robert-Jan Roos, who participated in the COST program. Three months later, I was in Amersfoort, to start an enriching week! During the first three days of my Quest, I visited several public transport networks in The Netherlands. The first day, I visited with Robert-Jan the city of Almere, a new city, south-east of Amsterdam. This city is a good example of what we can do when we combine urbanism and efficient public transport and I recommend it for everyone who like urbanism. The following days, I visited the Zuidtangent (south of Amsterdam), Utrecht, Enschede (extreme east, on the German border), Ilpendam (north of Amsterdam)… many cities but fortunately, Dutch trains are quite efficient! On Thursday, I was a little bit stressed : it was the day of my lecture! To a dozen of my Dutch colleagues I presented the French concept of BHLS and the new concept of the “light” BHLS. At the beginning, I was anxious to do a lecture in English, but in the end, everything went well. On Friday, I met Bas Bollinger and we discussed the proposition value we could make for public […]

Gaining industrial water audit experience and knowledge in Italy

Thanks to the Lovinklaan Foundation’s excellent and fast decision on my participation in industrial audit, I hurried to Rome on May 20th. The 1st (of 2) day of the on-site audit started the next morning in Cisterna di Latina with the introductory meeting with the site managers and technicians. We were warmly welcomed, instructed on the safety rules on the site and expectations of the audit. This friendly atmosphere accompanied us during the whole visit. We were a international group of Laura Simone working for ADE, Geert Notenboom – ANL and me from APL. It was an invaluable experience for me, as in the next week I was supposed to start the industrial audit on 2 Polish sites – starting of the Water for Industry (WFI) business in Poland. Laura helped with understanding the situation of the Client and exchanged information in Italian. My participation in industrial water audit was possible thanks to fast action by René Hoeijmakers ANL, Anna Rusek APL, Rafał Matak APL and Federico Nava AIT. Due to the limited time because of the decision on my Quest and the starting date, I had to quickly read through the documents about the site, which Laura kindly sent to me. She also informed me on the dress-code during the water audit, so I’ve packed my PPE, because the site is 60 km away from Rome. I’ve been looking for a Quest opportunity for several months, since I was chosen to be the person responsible for Water for Industry in Poland. I didn’t have […]

Overview Quest blogs Q2 2015

From Australia to Belgium: you have been sharing knowledge around the world! See this overview of all blogs shared in Q2 2015 by ARCADIS employees about their #ARCADISQuest experiences: flip.it/BP59l    

Global Shapers: Astonishing and Exceptional

ARCADIS Global Shapers, as how generally perceived it, is an opportunity to gain knowledge, personally develop, share experiences and create a global network. But what’s really fascinating about the program is that these chunks of learnings and experience can already … Continue reading

Improving Business Advisory Knowledge in UK – From Hanover to London and Leeds and back

As I am interested in Business Advisory,  I applied for a Quest at the UK team. The field of Business Advisory is currently at a nascent stage in Germany. Therefore the objective of the Quest was to facilitate an exchange of experience and knowledge. Before I started my Quest week, some preparation work had to be done. To get a better first insight and to figure out which topics are most educational, I had a telephone conference with the colleagues from London and Leeds. During the telephone conference I spoke to Nick Kealey (Quest host) and Julie Hodgson (organizer of my Quest week) from Leeds as well as Rebecca Harlow (Quest buddy) from London. We discussed all the topics I wanted to be introduced to by the different colleagues I was to meet during the Quest week. Afterwards I received a fantastic, well planned and really busy agenda prepared by Julie Hodgson. My Quest to the United Kingdom started with a nice sunny day at Heathrow airport at 7.30 o´clock early in the morning. To get to Paddington Station I took the Heathrow Express, which is a really fast and futuristic looking train. After I arrived at my hotel, which was near Paddington station and also near the EC Harris HQ, I was greeted by Rebecca Harlow and Nicola Harrison who had completed her Quest in the Hanover office only a few weeks earlier. On Sunday we explored London and got to know each other during a Sushi lunch and […]

One of my goals of this Quest was to share and obtain knowledge in the Green Building field

The Green Buildings team in Belgium, leaded by Bram De Meester and based in Ghent, is one of the most advanced and experienced teams in the field of the Green Building business in ARCADIS Europe. Having part of our activities in Germany in the Green Building field, my manager and I naturally decided to send me to Belgium. Being a native French speaker, I could moreover easily communicate with the colleagues working in Wallonia, the French speaking part of Belgium. The goals of my Quest were to share and obtain knowledge in the Green Building field, especially in the certifications (LEED, BREEAM etc.) and the building thermal and daylighting simulations. Another goal was also to see how they work, which projects they work on and of course to expand my professional network. During my Quest, I have been to the different offices in Belgium: Ghent, Antwerp (HQ), Brussels and Liège, which permitted me to meet many people and see how they work. I also visited a construction site or a building where ARCADIS Belgium is involved in almost every day . The most impressive construction site was the new distribution center of Nike, which is going to be the biggest of Europe. They are installing many green technologies (photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, green roofs etc.) and are targeting the LEED Gold certification. We visited the site regarding these matters but ARCADIS is also involved in many other parts of the project, such as the HVAC and fire […]