Internship Sustainable Business Development

Royal IHC is investigating how to apply our knowledge and technology to make good some of the damage mankind has done to the planet. One area we are interested in is the restoration of seagrass fields. A century or so ago nearly all of the North Sea was covered with seagrass. At present there is only a fraction of the once abundant seagrass fields left.

Recently some restoration projects have been started in the Netherlands as well as in the UK, France, and other European countries. These restoration projects are without exception dependent on manual labor. We believe that with our heritage in dredging technology and our capability to design ingenious machines that we can accelerate the speed of restoration projects to an industrial scale.
But to launch this project we need to understand the economic value of seagrass fields and find a possible business case on how to finance these restorations.

In this regard we are looking for:

• A bachelor or master’s student: Economics of Sustainability, sustainability engineering, Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Design (or similar).
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills.
• Financial savvy, you understand financials and how to model business cases.
• And, very important, a passion for nature restoration/sustainability.

The assignment:

• You need to help us understand the business potential of seagrass restoration projects. What are the costs, benefits, and sources of financing available?
• Do a literature study on seagrass restoration projects and their carbon capture potential.
• Develop a simple calculation model to assess the ROI of seagrass restoration projects.