On the 2nd day I went from Monster to Rotterdam. I visited The Impact Hub where they use their 3D printers for social needs and interviewed Kromkommer about their weird vegetables.
English subtitles will follow soon!
DAY 2
A night with not much sleep, I worked till 3AM on my video. At 4AM Radio 1 called me for an update.
I said goodbye to Frank and his family and drove to Rotterdam. First stop was at the Better Future Factory, they use 3D printing for social and sustainable goals. They print prostheses for children and in Peru they make loom for locals. Later I went to Kromkommer. They collect vegetables with weird shapes which can’t be sold in supermarkets. From these vegetables they make soup. Their aim is not to make money but to stop existing after a while when all the weird vegetables are used again.
My plugger that day was Iris. I met her while I travelled through Australia in 2009. She invited me to come over at her apartment in the center of Rotterdam. She cooked a traditional Dutch dish and later she showed me the ‘De Witte Aap’ bar, according to the Lonely Planet this is the best bar in the world.
https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/467059036836497/?type=3&theater
Check my video-update from this day:
The first daily video is online now! Watch how the kick-off went and see my first experience with someone who plugged me in.
Today was the day! I’ve been thinking about this day for 2 years now, and as always it’s never what you expect. In the morning a technician from Radio 1 came over. She set up a live-link with the studio from where the presenter interviewed me about my plans. You can re-listen the interview here (from the 18:15 mark).
After that I had to rush to Houten where to kick-off would start at 11am. I arrived at 10:45 and first we had to fix the car a bit. We removed the backseat for more space and gave the software an update (that’s one of the advantages of an electric car).
At 11 the first guest came in. I invited sponsors, friends, familie and people who where involved in the project the last months. I explained my plans for the coming months, thanked people for their help and said everyone goodbye, a weird moment. Then Ruben waved the flag and I set off for the long journey.
#plugmeinproject @WiebeWkkr has started. He is leaving today pic.twitter.com/F9WcEPqpxX
— Solar2Drive (@Solar2Drive) March 15, 2016
https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/466155470260187/?type=3&theater
The first stop was at Frank’s place in Monster (Netherlands) in Westland. He invited me and left a message: “I got some avocado powder for you to take on your journey.” I got interested so he was the first one I wanted to visit. Frank was involved in numerous sustainable projects in the area. With a friend he builds a boat with a whale-like driven mechanism powered on solar energy.
https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/466371020238632/?type=3&theater
Later he and his familie cooked for me and we talked a lot about his journey. He and his wife made a road and train trip from Holland to Australia. A very interesting journey especially because I’m going through a few countries where he has been so he shared a lot of information.
I feel good about this day. I was nervous during the kick-off and visiting the first pluggers was exciting as well. Looking forward to the coming days, weeks and months!
From 4pm you can check the first video-update on the YouTube channel.
Today I was invited by Roelof Hemmen, television and radio presenter, to talk about Plug Me In on BNR Newsradio. BNR is one of Holland’s biggest news radio stations.
Roelof talked to me about what my plans are, what I expect from the journey and the difficulties of the trip.
For me it was the first time live on the radio and it was a good experience. In the middle of the interview I got a bit nervous about everything that happened around me but that’s what this project is all about, falling and getting up again.
If you master Dutch you can listen to it here:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250896505″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”50%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
On Valentine’s day, February the 14th I received the 100th offer of energy. A milestone. I didn’t expect it would happen this fast and I’m very happy with everyone who’s offered energy so far. At this moment (February 21) a staggering amount of 136 people already offered food, a place to sleep or energy for the car.
A breakdown off the energy I received.
ENERGY
Food: 110 offers
Places to sleep: 97 offers
Chargepoints: 115 offers
COUNTRIES & OFFERS
Netherlands: 34
Belgium: 7
France: 5
Italy: 10
Austria: 12
Switzerland: 3
Germany: 28
Denmark: 3
Sweden: 5
England: 1
Greece: 1
Iraq: 1
Hungary: 1
Romanya: 1
Slovakia: 1
Bulgaria: 1
Portugal: 1
Mongolia: 1
Spain: 1
Thailand: 2
Australia: 22
That’s 21 countries in total!
It’s a lot but I’m still looking for more spots. The car has a range of 200km so even in countries where already energy is offered I can use more place to recharge my batteries.
If you can you offer me energy, please…
I proudly present you the trailer of Plug Me In. I worked really hard for it and I’m very happy with the end result. Watch it here and let me know what you think of it!
Yes! The big news is out! I’ve finally got a car sponsored and now I can start my journey.
In January 2014 I started working on my dream to travel around the world with the help of others. It took me a while to came up with the right idea. In March ’14 I’ve had the concept of Plug Me In ready and then I started to work out the details. Finding partners, sponsors, creating the website etcetera. The big deal was to find an electric car. Quite expensive things and way out of my student budget so I had to find creative ways to get one. I talked to several car companies and most of them where interested but at the end the risk seemed too big or the plan didn’t fit their marketing campaigns.
In June this year I got in touch with Marcel Peters from Bundles. Bundles is a new way of washing. You don’t buy a washing machine but pay for the service. This way you save money, electricity and because the washing machines have an A-label it’s also more sustainable. I approached Marcel because I saw a good match in Bundles in terms of sustainability and asked him about the possibilities of sponsoring. Marcel was instantly very enthusiastic about the project. He told me that he owns a electric car and might want to provide it to me when the time was right. I kept looking for alternatives, waited a long time and finally last week Marcel called: “Wiebe let’s do this!” he told me. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it, probably the neighbors 3 blocks aways could hear me yelling.
The car is a converted VW Golf Variant. The back is loaded with batteries and the car has a range of 160km. This may not sound like a lot but for an electric car this is pretty decent. Most common cars you see now on the road make it till 130km.
Planning
Now that I have the car I can set the startdate and that will be March 15. So the next 3 months are going to be busy, very busy. I got most things sorted out but still need to make agreements, create a trailer and find some sponsors. For more info about that keep an eye on this website and my social media channels.
One last thing is that i want to express my gratitude to Marcel and the Bundles team for believing in this dream and that they want to join in on this adventure! It’s going to be one hell of a ride!
Last Sunday I volunteered for the Greenteam at Mysteryland. The world’s longest-running dance festival, this year the 22nd edition, took place at the former Floriade terrain in the Haarlemmermeer. While the first two editions of the festival where held during 2 days, this was the first time since 1994 that Mysteryland was a weekend festival. Party-promoter ID&T had a long dream of returning the weekend concept and this year they finally managed to do so and even offer visitors the possibility to camp at the holy grounds!
For me this was the 12th time I visited the festival. The first time, in 2002, I was just a 14-year-old kid and not allowed to enter the festival-site so I had to climb over the fences to enjoy the spectacle. Now, 14 years later I joined the Greenteam and could witness the festival legally backstage. And what I saw was a great example for sustainability in the event industry.
The Mysteryland Greenteam
In the morning we gathered backstage at the campsite. We received clothing and got professional make-up applied so we all looked like happy little green bees. Our first task was to clean-up the camping area. 5000 visitors from all over the world stayed here for 3 days to enjoy the festival in all its glory. You would expect a big mess after 3 days of madness but (most) of the visitors left zero to none garbage. To be honest I was surprised about this, having visited many weekend festivals where most visitors left almost everything behind. Maybe it’s because Mysteryland takes a lot effort to leave no footprint and informing their attendees about the impact a festivals makes on the environment. Separated bins are provided throughout the campsite and garbage bags are handed out to everyone.
Garbage bins at the campsite
After having cleaned the most part of the campsite and helping people pack their tents, we moved to the festival area. The reactions of the visitors when seeing the Greenteam where very positive. Many people took the effort to throw their plastic beer glasses in the garbage bags carried by the Greenteam members instead of throwing it on the ground. Also visitors asked me questions about what we are doing, where the garbage is being taken and how they can sign-up as a volunteer.
In front of the mainstage I couldn’t resist dancing to the sounds of Deep Dish while picking up the garbage, which put a smile on many of the visitors faces who even wanted to take selfies with me. Some experience!
https://instagram.com/p/7ArJMCki9d
After walking some rounds on the terrain we returned to the campsite and wrapped things up. At 6pm we finished our work and got treated with some cold beers left by the visitors, really recycling to the max 😉
Then I had the whole day left to discover the festival and enjoy the music. What makes Mysteryland special is that they really try to create another world with place for theater, acts and my favorite part: the magic forrest. A little forrest which has been decorated with crazy creative things which can’t be really explained but have to be discovered.
What I like about Mysteryland is that they see recycling as a basis part of their sustainability plan, besides that they find it important to go further and pay attention to developing talents and local communities.
At the festival many cool sustainable projects can be discovered and I made a list of the ones I encountered:
Het Gekke Groente Museum (The Crazy Vegetable Museum)
https://instagram.com/p/7Anas7C8Dj/
A museum dedicated to weird and crazy shaped vegetables.
Kartent
A crazy and very cool idea: a tent made completely out of cardboard. Kartent knows that every year 1 out of 4 visitors leave their tents behind so they came with a completely recyclable solution. After the festival the tent can go straight to the recycling of the paper-industry. Not only is this idea very refreshing but it looks totally cool, especially when you can decorate it with your own creative ideas!
Coca Cola
The famous drink understands how important it is to create a sustainable brand and Mysteryland is the right place to show this to their consumers. They created some activities where visitors could play games from recycled materials.
Waterbar
A great initiative by Mysteryland: the waterbar. In exchange for 2 tokens you receive a water-bag which can be refilled for free at all the waterbars placed throughout the festival. The water-bag is small and can easily be attached to your jeans. The waterbars have been at Mysteryland for already 4 years and because of its succes the City of Amsterdam even decided to make it mandatory for all events taken place in their city to provide free water to visitors.
Now back to the festival. Mysteryland is very diverse as it comes to music styles and artists and it’s a luxury problem to make the right decision. First I watched Dillon Francis play a diverse set at the mainstage and then I went to Q-dance. The stage of Q-dance is the eyecatcher of the festival and this year a huge monkey was blasting CO2 out of it’s nose while loud hardstyle played through the speakers. Wildstylez was playing and I heard him play some great new tracks.
The northern part of the festival has some small islands with crazy stages like Milkshake, the Bollywood Bar and Vieze Poezendek (dirty pussydeck, go see yourself).
At the end of the day everyone went to the mainstage to see Martin Garrix play. The youngster started here 4 years ago and this year he had the honour to close down the festival accompanied by an epic end-show.
The Q-dance stage at Mysteryland. (Source: ML Facebook)
I had a great day at Mysteryland. It was interesting to see whats going on behind the scenes and I felt proud to be part of the Greenteam and helping a bit to reduce the festival’s footprint.
I am impressed by Mysteryland’s Festival Soul: to create a positive ecological impact and help for a better future. What I like about this is that they don’t say “we are festival X, we organize a festival and to be sustainable we support a good cause” but it’s really in their DNA to be sustainable and carry this message out. I saw that Mysteryland’s visitors are conscious of this message by the way they tried to keep the camping and festival clean. The festivals sustainable efforts have not been unnoticed and Julie’s Bicyle, a non-profit organization that is putting effort for a sustainable creative industry, has awarded the festival with the Industry Green Certificate.
Mysteryland is a great example for festivals around and I hope to visit many more festivals alike during my trip.
Even with all these CO2-guns Mysteryland managed to receive a certificate for reducing C02 emissions. (Source: ML Facebook)
During the journey I will focus on staying at sustainable locations. I’ve been searching the internet and made a list of 10 locations worth staying at. Locations who are up front on sustainability, deserted places with a new purpose, hotels build from recycled materials and many more cool places on this list.
1. DasParkHotel, Germany & Austria
The Daspark Hotel offers rooms in old sewer pipes. If you wouldn’t have seen the picture you might have some nasty thoughts about this location but from the looks its more cosy then an average hotel room. Each room has room for 2 persons and offers light and electricity. The toilets are shared in a building next to the rooms. All other amenities can be found in the public space.
The hotel has 2 locations; one in Germany and the other one in Austria. Visitors can pay whatever they find its worth, called the “pay-as-you-wish” system. To book a room you can visit their website, select the date of arrival and you will receive a personal code to unlock the door. The code changes everytime so you don’t need to worry about leaving your stuff in the room.
The Daspark Hotel is a great example of using used materials and public space. Because of the materials used it doesn’t need much maintenance.
2. Hotel Costa Verde, Costa Rica
This location is plane crazy! In Costa Rica they managed to make an hotel from an retired Boeing 727. Previously taken passengers from Avancia Airlines all over the world, now it can be enjoyed by 4 people in 2 luxurious suites. At the height of 15 meters it has jaw-dropping views that make you feel like flying. The planes interior is local Costa Rican teak panelling from tail to nose. For more information visit the Hotel Costa Verde website.
3. Tree Tents, Germany
Probably the most romantic location on this list. German organizer Hochselgarten Hoelschlucht offers nightstay in a 2 persons tent hanging on a thick branch from a free standing tree, overlooking the local mountains. Ascending and descending is only possible with the help of a rope.
4. No Man’s Fort, UK
Another great example of upcycling non-used property to a new purpose. The No Man’s Land fort is located 2.2 kilometers off the coast of the Island of Wright and was builded in 1880. Previously used to protect Portsmouth from pirates, now high-paying guests can enjoy an indoor swimming pool, a private nightclub and challenge each other in a laser-battle. Guests arrive in style on one of the two helipads. Bookings can be made through the Amazing Venues website.
5. The Bird’s Nest, Sweden
The Bird’s Nest in Sweden is built on the contrasts between the outside and inside. The treeroom’s exterior is nothing but a gigantic bird’s nest. It gives a camouflage so you quickly disappear and become part of the surroundings.
The nest is owned by Treehotel which has more unique architectural locations like the UFO.
6. URBN Hotel, Shanghai
URBN Hotel Shanghai was the first carbon neutral hotel in China and has received many awards because of their eco-friendly character. The boutique hotel is a renovated warehouse and completely made of recycled and local materials. By renovating an existing structure, focusing on using recycled and locally sourced materials such as reclaimed hardwoods and old Shanghai bricks, implementing eco-friendly solutions like passive solar shades and a water-based air conditioning system, URBN Hotel Shanghai is one of the first examples of how to create a more ecological hotel establishment.
7. Hilton Stockholm Slussen, Sweden
A more traditional kind of hotel in this list, the Hilton Hotel Slussen in Sweden. The employees receive a training about sustainability and every year their knowledge gets updated. Since 1996 they are recycling and disposing their waste and from 2010 their landfill waste dropped with 90%.
Fun fact: because of 60.000 bees on the roof of the hotel, they can produce their own honey which guests can enjoy at the breakfast!
8. Whitepod, Switzerland
The Whitepod eco resort located in the village of Les Cerniers in the Swiss Alps offers a private ski resort, mountain chalets and 15 geodesic-dome pods that offer low impact accommodations. By minimizing the daily water and electricity usage, reducing the waste of products and stimulating renewable reserves, the white pods have almost no impact on nature. Guests tour the resort by skis, snowboards, dog sleds or snowshoes in the winter and relax in the luxurious and efficient Whitepod domes. The Swiss adventure resort won the World Prize for Sustainable Tourism in 2005.
9. Campi ya Kanzi, Kenya
Get up close and personal with Africa’s “big five” mammals (Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros) and support the native Maasai community at Campi ya Kanzia, luxurious safari camp in southern Kenya. The camp and its 400 square miles are owned by the Maasai people, who work with the camp’s Italian hosts to preserve the local wildlife and provide a personalized and sustainable experience for visitors.
The camp’s six thatched-roof tented cottages were constructed of local materials without cutting down any trees. Electricity and hot water are generated by solar power, and waste is composted or recycled. The menu includes organic eggs, milk and vegetables, and all meals are cooked with eco-friendly charcoal.
10. Binna Burra Mountain Lodge and Campsite, Australia
Last but not least, a unique location on my final destination: Australia. Deep within the subtropical rain forest of Queensland’s Lamington National Park is the Binna Burra Mountain Lodge and Campsite, an ecolodge where guests can enjoy hiking, bird watching, abseiling and numerous environmental education programs. Accommodation options include safari-style canvas tents or a more luxurious room in the main lodge. Binna Burra was founded in 1933 on land that had been cleared and farmed; since then, the lodge has restored the land to its original rain forest state and encouraged the growth of native plant species. Recycling, composting, low-flow water fixtures and the use of energy-efficient lighting are just a few of the lodge’s environmental initiatives. Binna Burra makes regular contributions to research projects within the national park as well as to other environmental organizations.
11. Faralda Crane Hotel, Netherlands
I was supposed to make a list of 10 hotels but a friend tipped me on the Faralda Crane Hotel and this had to be in the list. This crane has been build in the 50’s and went out of use in 1984. The crane has been standing there for 25 years before they decided to demolish it because of possible danger of collapsing. A local entrepreneur heard about this and decided to buy and renovate it into a hotel.
The hotel has 3 luxurious suites at 50 meters above the ground. At the top of the crane is a jacuzzi overlooking Amsterdam and there is even a possibility to bungeejump off the crane!