Giedo has had a busy week at Feadship. De Voogt Naval Architects involved him in a Feadship-wide think tank 'sustainability and innovation' in the capacity of team leader Research & Development. He contributed to a board presentation for a potential client and was himself a key speaker at a meeting for captains. "That jumped right in between my regular work," he laughs. “But it was super fun to do!"

"Sustainability = where do we influence ourselves?"

Sustainability has always had Giedo's heart. "A cleaner world; I want to contribute to it myself. We can't go on like this." And you can at Feadship, because sustainability is high on the agenda here. The Feadship think tank ‘Bright’ takes the lead in researching where yacht builders can make an impact. "Sustainability is a catch-all term," says Giedo. "The important thing is to bring it down to 'what can I influence? what are the actual and best solutions' That's where we can then focus our priorities. Think technological innovation, but also choices in and influence on our suppliers and the yacht owners themselves who, for example, could already be sailing on fossil-free fuel today."

Giedo is a connector. "Understanding, prioritising and acting together. Processing into new designs or proposals as refit. For example, the think tank includes colleagues from different disciplines. Feadship Refit & Services is also represented, because for the sailing fleet we also investigate the possibilities." He sees the connection as a common good. "We look for one line, we are critical with each other."

In recent years, the Research & Development team leader has put a lot of energy into hiring trainees: graduates in various directions, primarily maritime engineering, but also mechanical engineering and increasingly new directions specialised in data science and sustainability. Recently, he placed six more trainees focusing on fuel cell technology, methanol as fuel, flywheels, plug-in hybrids, machine learning and green refits. "They really add to the momentum in the company," he believes. "For our part, we want to show who we are and bring a certain vision to the work. And the student get-togethers at the Jopen Church are by now legendary - although we skipped a couple for a while for well-known reasons."

What makes him proud? "In terms of sustainability, we have taken the first steps. We have a really good overview and are way past the buzzwords. Success is in the ideas that we concretise, that is what makes me proud."