Meet the member HAEDES with pIEt Haerens

Meet CCBP members – HAEDES – pIEt Haerens

Name: pIEt Haerens

Email: piet.haerens@haedes.eu

Company: HAEDES

Website: www.haedes.eu

Position: Founder, Chief Soul & Strategy Officer

Date: 02/07/2024

Briefly describe your professional career:

As a European oriented person with an open mind-set I’m proud to have completed my MSc. in Coastal & Marine Studies at the University of the Algarve. As a creative consultant, expert & project manager, I have been working in the engineering consultancy sector for more than 25 years. During this journey, I have been working for Flemish SME’s, but also a large international group. I had the opportunity to collaborate with brilliant minds during my 12 years at IMDC. Where between 2017 and 2019 I took up the role of CEO. I have been always teaming up with other experts & scientists to develop beyond actual knowing through European projects with leading research institutes in Europe. Since 2020 I’m co-creating a unique place and company, called HAEDES. We create an encouraging environment to develop engineering & soul. At the same time I started-up HAEDES, I started to develop interest into and ability with regenerative thinking, regenerative design and development, a journey of unlearning, relearning and discovering that it brings me to new places and people. Today I am human being in formation, future-oriented, passionately inspired by the wisdom of Nature, dogs and horses, science, philosophy, beauty and experience. I love those who don't know the answers, those who are still searching for answers and who dare to say "I don't know" and in not knowing discover what is there.

Briefly describe your company and the work you do there:

HAEDES enables independent, talent-oriented and creative consultancy & engineering for challenges at our coasts, estuaries, rivers & oceans. HAEDES is a living system ever changing and responsive, relational and interconnected, synergetic and diverse. Realizing our essence, developing engineering soul, is why we do what we do. We learn, unlearn and relearn how to generate and maintain a field of reciprocal nourishment with whom we interact. We provide engineering services worldwide to the government, contractors, developers & partners. Our talent-oriented team & our partners based in Flanders/Belgium and Portugal co-create with our Clients. We dream to create an inspiring, human-centered, possibility driven, holistic & (eco)system thinking environment that has impact on reducing the cause of climate change and the loss of bio-diversity. A company that believes in the added value of being inspired by nature and its regenerative strength. I’m the Chief Soul & Strategy Officer. A role that enables me to source my colleagues not only with engineering experience, but with philosophy, the wisdom of Nature, poetry and alternative thinking. I’m a member of the wolfpack, in which we depend on one another. Together we form a multidirectional web of connections the reinforcers itself and the people interacting in it.

What sets your company apart from your competitors?

Our Engineering Soul. Strange? Not for us. HAEDES functions as an ecosystem where every talent is given the opportunity to connect and develop, creating conditions conducive to thrive. We create from a place of abundance. We aim to realize systemic effects that enhance communities, landscapes, and all life on Earth. We offer ourselves, our partners and our clients with the space to co-create, innovate, and connect with others. Our commitment to contribute to something larger than ourselves fuels our action and innovation. We are a company that learns to see what others cannot - the emerging patterns and trends of an evolving world. Our values: Nature, Trust, Connectivity, Autonomy and Authenticity. And we have courage, compassion and empathy to build long-term connected relationships. In this context regenerative thinking helps us to unfold essence, potential and develop with the bio-cultural-uniqueness of a place... while it also helps us to discover our own uniqueness and role. We do not stick with the “classic” approach, we dare to challenge and co-create new horizons in favor of learning how to thrive in an ever changing and dynamic world all around us. Examples are: https://www.health.belgium.be/sites/default/files/uploads/fields/fpshealth_theme_file/study_regnerativedevel opment.pdf https://www.linkedin.com/company/aquabreak/

What services can you offer to other CCBP members?

Building a world that is different from the one we’ve built so far calls for a different approach. This is why designing the design process is as important as responsible design. A new way of thinking about design provides a basis for the evolution towards a regenerative design process. We think & connect differently, combine engineering & scientific skills with out-of-the-box thinking, regenerative thinking, soul & passion. We are open to interact with those CCBP members that are open to develop a systemic way of working, having a need for a holistic viewpoint, are willing to learn about regenerative thinking and designing or just need a rebellious opinion.

Why did you become a member of the CCBP?

Bridging and bringing people, ideas and opportunities together is what drives me. Elements I can find in the activities of the CCBP. The CCBP brings the bio-cultural-spatial uniqueness of Portugal closer to me and my family. Being a member of the CCBP provides me an opportunity to give back to all those people in Portugal what they have been given me during the past decades. But at the end it is simple: it is because of the friendship, the companionship and the power of being in good company.