Can a fossil fuel stronghold become a climate innovation hub? How Rotterdam’s industrial heritage is being leveraged to its sustainability advantage By Carrie Denning Jackson (pictured), Director of Innovation, Jamestown
The Rise of Climate Innovation Ecosystems
Rotterdam, a traditional stronghold for the oil and gas industry, might not be the first city that comes to mind when thinking about green innovation. Yet the city is starting to transform, becoming home to a growing number of climate tech startups and sustainability-focused companies – forming a future green gateway to the rest of Europe.
The Port of Rotterdam is becoming a key player in the development of green hydrogen production and distribution, with plans for large-scale hydrogen production, while the city itself is embracing circular economy initiatives, where waste is minimized and resources are reused.
Sustainability efforts in Rotterdam have the potential for outsized benefits. Over 13% of all energy used in Europe flows through the port of Rotterdam and it is the world’s largest seaport outside of Asia. That scale makes the clustering of innovative climate approaches poised for real impact. This transformation is not happening by accident, but through strategic investment in collaborative infrastructure and a commitment to sustainable development by both the public and private sector.
Groot Handelsgebouw: A Microcosm of Green Evolution
An example of that private sector movement can be found at Groot Handelsgebouw, which has become a microcosm of Rotterdam’s larger green evolution. Built in 1953 as a symbol of post-war reconstruction, the massive 450 tenant building has evolved from a traditional business center to a vibrant ecosystem of collaboration, particularly in climate technology. When Jamestown, a global real estate investment and management company, acquired Groot Handelsgebouw in 2019, we saw an opportunity to continue this historic monument’s legacy for a new generation. Besides our own sustainability efforts at the property, like replacing heat pumps and opening new greenspace to the public, we’ve worked to co-locate businesses and startups focused on climate tech and sustainability—in the efforts of maximizing the collective efforts of the individual tenants.
This approach builds on Jamestown’s successful model of creating innovation ecosystems across our portfolio. At Industry City in Brooklyn, our climate tech cohort — including energy company Equinor and BP’s Offshore Wind Innovation Hub— has catalyzed New York’s offshore wind industry. At The Innovation and Design Building in Boston, we’ve seen how biotechnology companies working in proximity can facilitate collaboration and create opportunities for new breakthroughs. These experiences have informed our strategy for helping develop Groot Handelsgebouw into a climate innovation hub for Rotterdam.
Innovation in Action: Climate Tech at Groot Handelsgebouw
A great example of this approach in action is the US-based startup hub CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center), which recently expanded its innovation campus at Groot Handelsgebouw to meet a growing demand for office space from Rotterdam’s rapidly expanding startup community. CIC has been helping innovative startups grow and scale for nine years at Groot Handelsgebouw, with close to a quarter of the companies there focusing on green tech, and others involved in sustainability and health/life sciences.
Startups like SwitcH2, which focuses on offshore green energy production, and TransitionHERO, a green energy transition engineering firm, are making meaningful progress in climate action and are leveraging Rotterdam’s position as a global trade hub to work towards sustainability.
Beyond CIC, Groot Handelsgebouw is home to a variety of climate-tech tenants including We4Sea, which focuses on sustainability-minded performance monitoring for commercial ships and Gradyent, which works to optimize and decarbonize heating systems. Even traditional fossil fuel companies such as SBM have located their sustainability work within Groot Handelsgebouw, further adding to the green energy community at the property.
The Future of Climate Innovation Hubs
Climate tech companies are increasingly seeking locations that offer more than just office space with good transport links. Leaders are looking for ecosystems where they can benefit from proximity to like-minded businesses, share resources, access networks, and pursue collaborative opportunities.
Rotterdam itself offers a unique combination of nearby world-class research institutions, access to global markets, and a growing community of climate-focused entrepreneurs–all of which position the city as a potential hub for climate tech innovation.
The emergence of these innovation hubs signals a fundamental reimagining of how we approach environmental challenges. By creating collaborative spaces that transcend traditional organizational boundaries, cities are developing new models of problem-solving. Rotterdam’s efforts in both the private and public sectors suggest that fossil fuel hubs have the capacity to evolve and leverage their historic economic advantages into opportunities for sustainable innovation.
As global environmental challenges become increasingly complex, climate-tech hubs, such as what is being created at Groot Handelsgebouw, will play a pivotal role in developing and scaling transformative solutions. At Jamestown, we envision Groot Handelsgebouw becoming not just a component of Rotterdam’s green transition, but a model for how historic commercial properties worldwide can be leveraged as catalysts for climate innovation. By continuing to attract forward-thinking tenants and fostering meaningful collaborations, we’re committed to amplifying Rotterdam’s impact on the global sustainability movement for years to come.
