From Mine-Closure Shock to Cross-Border Opportunity Maps

When lignite pits shut across Central Europe, Hub Innovation (Prague) asked us to broker a future. We gathered municipal leaders, NGOs and employers from Czechia, Romania and Hungary, drafted shared-governance charters and facilitated design sprints for new skills pathways. The coalition’s first wave of programmes is on track to reach 500 displaced workers with green-industry jobs and entrepreneurship support.

Why it matters -> Adaptive governance—clear roles, data rules, decision rights—turns regional decline into coordinated regeneration instead of zero-sum competition.

There is more interesting stuff:

Material passports move from pilot to practice

Across our circularity projects material passports are moving from pilots to infrastructure. This dispatch outlines what we’re seeing on the ground, and what it means for organisations ready to lead.

Governance, not templates

Europe is simplifying ESG templates, but raising expectations on governance. Drawing on my work across science institutes, multinats, public finance and circular-economy ventures, this piece explains why reporting credibility now depends on how we design and lead our systems, not 'how much' we disclose.

Geo-Data-Linked Blended Finance

Service lens → Co-Funding Syndicate Facilitation