As sustainability manager at Koninklijke Kuijpers, Esther Loman moves daily between strategy, technology and behavioral change. Her work is not just about energy-efficient buildings or circular installations, but mainly about changing an entire sector.
Loman calls herself someone who "sows": plants ideas, brings people along and creates movement step by step. She does this both within Kuijpers and outside, in collaborations with industry organizations, suppliers and other sustainability managers. Bright spoke with her.
Diversity and inclusion make for better teams
This broad perspective is reflected in her role. No two days are the same. Sometimes she sits at the table to assess new sustainability standards, other times she works with supply chain partners on circular solutions for installation technology. For her, diversity and inclusion also come naturally to her. According to Loman, a mix of different people, backgrounds and perspectives leads to better products and stronger teams. That's why she actively advocates for women in engineering, including through initiatives such as Girls Day.
The building full of energy
A good example is Kuijpers' office in Den Bosch, which the company itself calls "the building full of energy." There, two existing buildings are connected with a circularly built heart, in which a conscious choice was made for as few installations as possible. Strange for an installation company? Instead of putting technology at the center, the company looked at how the building can work intelligently with the environment. Solar heat is used when necessary and kept outside when cooling is required. The result is a building where comfort and sustainability come together.
The ventilation error
The standard ventilation rates used in buildings are often unnecessarily high. By cleverly "tweaking" those margins, less air needs to be pumped through a building while maintaining the same level of comfort. That allows for smaller ventilation ducts and more compact installations. The result: less use of materials, lower investment and maintenance costs as well as lower CO₂ emissions. According to Loman, this shows that sustainability and cost savings can actually go hand in hand.
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It is not about recognition, but about movement
What makes her work special is a long breath. According to her, change rarely happens quickly. Sometimes it takes years before an idea really lands. A small but significant example is her fight against plastic tape on packaging. Over and over again she brought up to suppliers and internally that paper tape is more sustainable and works fine. At first she encountered resistance, but later she saw the change come about by itself. Without anyone even knowing where the idea came from. For Loman that doesn't matter. "I sow a lot, but I don't reap a lot," she tells herself. What matters to her is not recognition, but movement.
One of the successes she is most proud of occurred just outside Kuijpers' walls. Within the Branchplan Verpakkingen, she was the initiator of the project for a low-waste construction site. That project brought the construction and installation sectors together, whereas traditionally they often work alongside each other. Under her leadership, concrete requirements were drawn up that will eventually be included in the roadmap of the Government Buildings Agency. This will structurally anchor the agreements in the market. For Loman this is an example of real impact: not just talking about sustainability, but ensuring that sustainable choices become part of the system.
Still, she remains realistic. According to her, sustainability means constantly weighing things up. She likes to travel, but also struggles with the impact of it. It is this honesty that makes her story credible. For her, sustainable living is not about perfection, but about making more conscious choices. That applies just as much to companies. Her most important message to the sector is therefore simple: find each other, work together and dare to question existing habits. Because according to Esther Loman, real sustainability does not start with technology, but with learning to look at things differently.
Also read: 'Stop with too many solar panels and too powerful ventilation!'
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