SPA Sustainability

SPA Sustainability originated from the feeling that neither economic and market based instruments, nor technological innovation alone will do the job for a global sustainable development. Rather, deeper social and political reforms will be required for a successful transition to sustainability. Involving potential losers in transition, reducing existing welfare gaps and a broader interpretation of sustainability than only economic development are key elements of this vision and of projects, trainings and viewpoints that SPA Sustainability aims to provide.

Dr. Stephan Slingerland is owner of SPA Sustainability. He has a career of over twenty years in energy and sustainability transition research, working in various roles on geopolitics, political economy, governance, participation and engagement issues in a large number of projects for many international, European and Dutch clients. He has an interdisciplinary natural and social scientific background, holding Master degrees from Leiden and Cambridge University and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam.   

Maxime Köse is a young and versatile researcher with a special interest in the societal aspects of the energy transition. Maxime has followed a Liberal Arts and Sciences program at Amsterdam University College (AUC) for which she graduated with a cum laude distinction. With a ‘major’ in social sciences, she studied subjects regarding environmental economics and policy, sociology, and international relations. Through studying at AUC, an institute that is known for setting high academic standards, Maxime has obtained advanced research and writing skills. Her thesis, named The role of energy cooperatives in preventing and unequal energy transition: Case study of the Netherlands, was very well received by her supervisors and makes her an expert on socio-economic inequality that can arise from an unbalanced energy transition.