The Initiative

Reinier de Man - sustainable business development

Reinier de Man, a consultant for sustainable business development, specialised in building partnerships for sustainability in the supply chain took the initiative to develop a Roundtable on sustainable PGM. The publications of the German Oeko-Institut triggered his attention: apparently, the noble metals that are being used to guarantee clean air in countries such as Germany cause unacceptable environmental damage to the environment in Russia. After a 'quick-and-dirty' study, he published a draft report in the form a  PowerPoint presentation, which focused on problems in Russia. The Dutch Newspaper De Volkskrant was interested and published an article (download Dutch text) in 2003, quoting Reinier de Man and Wouter Pronk (Milieukontakt). With Professor Armin Reller, Reinier de Man wrote an article for the German speaking audience (download German text). 

Milieukontakt International

During 2003 and 2004, a cooperation between Reinier de Man and Milieukontakt International (Wouter Pronk, Jackeline Mekkes, formerly Milieukontakt Oost Europa) developed. A proposal for financial support was sent to the Dutch Ministry of Environment and was accepted, so that in December 2005, the first Roundtable for Sustainable Platinum Group Metals could be organised. 

The Future

After the first modest roundtable meeting, in which a limited number of representatives of different organisations participated, the next step during the Roundtable 2007 was to broaden the number of participants and to seek support from central players. After the successful second roundtable, initiatives for concrete cooperation projects will be developed. More on this website during 2008.