History

Enviu is the brain child of issue-driven entrepreneur Stef van Dongen. In 2001, Stef made a trip to southern Chile and Antarctica where he saw from first hand the socio/economic and environmental effects of overexploitiation of fisheries in the area. Stories of local entrepreneurs and ecologists made clear to him that the development of sustainable tourism could be viable as an economic alternative for fishery depletion.

Back in the Netherlands Stefs belief that an entrepreneurial approach to sustainable development grew stronger. He was convinced that by developing profitable solutions for social and environmental issues more impact could be created compared to subsidy based models.

Through his work and study he also noticed that fellow young professionals showed an explicit interest in sharing their expertise, time and network in order to make his vision happen. Seeing the opportunity to bring the pragmatism of the young business world and the ideals of the non profit sector together, Enviu was born.

In April 2003 the first pilots started. In February 2004 Enviu was officially founded in the Netherlands with a strategic partner in Chile. Since then Enviu has come a long way and we now have a growing team and community, a growing number of strategic partners and affiliations with over 40 universities and colleges in the Netherlands and abroad.

In October 2006 Enviu featured in an article in the Dutch National Geographic and since 2007 our activities were featured in many national and international media.

Enviu's initiative of the Sustainable Dance Club project was awarded as being one of the worlds most innovative eco-business ideas in 2006/2007 by: Toyota, Springwise and Fast Company (spin off of Harvard Business Review).