Winner Plus+ Innovation programme

The second edition of the Plus+ Innovation programme ended on Thursday 29 November 2018. The design and evaluation programme for measuring and providing insight into the potential for circularity in designs was unanimously chosen as the winner of the 2018 edition of the innovation campaign by the external jury, the programme management and colleagues of Witteveen+Bos. The developers of +Circular Design will gain access to various platforms and further support in marketing their innovation.

+Circular Design is an easy-to-use tool that provides insight into the material usage of designs. The visualisations from the programme enable the client and also designers themselves to measure the circularity of the design, to compare it and to gain insight into the potential for improvement. The tool gives concrete expression to one of the seven Sustainable Design Principles of Witteveen+Bos – circular design. The starting point for +Circular Design is that the materials for e.g. a new bridge design can be dismantled, transported and reused at a different location at the end of its lifespan. The programme was developed by Witteveen+Bos employees Joris van den Acker, Matthijs Stam, Iris Snijders Blok, Milicia de Kok, Coen Teeuw, Bram Hendrickx, Rob Dijcker and René Eijsbouts. ‘In our innovation campaign, we were given the opportunity to put our idea into practice, validate it in the market and develop it into a prototype’, says Joris van den Acker. ‘The development of +Circular Design has now progressed to a stage where we are using it for and with our clients. It is good to see that there is a high demand for this from various quarters.’

In 2017, the Plus+ Innovation programme was organised for the first time. In 2018, all Witteveen+Bos employees were once again given the opportunity to develop their ideas into concrete products and services as part of a demanding process. They did this within five categories: Smart Cities, Smart Cycles, Smart Deltas, Smart Infra and Mobility and Smart Company, aimed at improving Witteveen+Bos’ business operations. Arjen van Nieuwenhuijzen, this year’s innovation manager, reflects: ‘It’s great to see how, in this programme, we give innovation a permanent place within our organisation. Although there were fewer applications for new innovations this year, innovations were at an even higher level than last year. In addition to the winning +Circular Design, we now work for our clients with other smart tools developed in the programme, such as ADRC to automatically design river crossings, the air quality measurement tool ISAIRA and the digital design model WIHA, which provides quick and reliable insight into the influence of wave movements on the optimisation of a port design.’