My interests have always centered around agriculture and food, leading me to study Animal Sciences at Wageningen University and Research. In my early career my work in sustainability started with a simple question: how can we make better decisions about the impact of the food we produce and consume?

Over the past 18 years, that question has shaped my career across research, policy, and consulting in the agro-food sector. I have worked with governments, businesses, NGOs and scientific organizations to understand and reduce environmental impact, often in situations where the answers are not straightforward.

I moved into Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) consulting at Mérieux Nutrisciences | Blonk, a leading and well-established organization in the field. There, I worked on LCAs for a wide range of agro-food products, translating data into environmental insights that companies could act on. I was also involved in methodology development, including work related to the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), and contributed to the development of major databases such as the French Agribalyse and Agri-footprint. This period shaped my technical foundation and gave me a deep understanding of both the possibilities and limitations of LCA.

I later continued this work at Wageningen University & Research, where my role expanded beyond analysis into connecting perspectives. Operating at the intersection of business, science, and government, I developed a deep understanding of how different stakeholders approach complex sustainability questions; each with their own priorities, constraints, and expectations.

I led multi-stakeholder projects in which aligning these perspectives was essential. What I particularly value in this work is the process of building a shared vision together, and then translating that vision into concrete projects that create real impact. This often meant not only developing new insights, but also creating the structures and agreements needed to apply them in practice.

A significant part of my work focused on the harmonization of methodologies, helping to create consistency in how environmental impacts are assessed and comparability of outcomes. I also led the development of databases and worked on ecolabeling approaches, always with the aim of making sustainability information more robust, transparent, and usable for decision-making.

Through this experience, I learned that progress in sustainability is rarely just a technical challenge; it is just as much about collaboration, alignment, and trust.

During all those years I have had a special interest in broader system questions, including sustainable diets and the protein transition. Again and again, I found that organizations struggle not because they lack ambition, but because the complexity makes it difficult to decide what to do next.

That is where I see my role. With Broekema Consulting, I help navigate that complexity. I translate detailed analyses into clear insights and practical steps, so that sustainability becomes something you can act on, not just aim for.

My approach is analytical and independent, but always grounded in real-world application. I value clarity and pragmatism over complexity, and decisions over reports. Because in the end, better data should lead to better decisions and better decisions to meaningful change.