Meet our expert: Johanna Steketee
Johanna Steketee is a researcher at Wageningen Social & Economic Research (WSER). With her research on Social Sustainability and Human Rights in (food) value chains, she helps companies and policy makers gain insights into human rights risks, such as child labour or forced labour, and other social topics in the production of (tropical) commodities.
Research on just and sustainable food systems and value chains
For the past 3.5 years, Johanna has been working at WSER, focusing on how the human aspects of sustainability can be better understood and integrated into sustainability research. An important project she currently works on is the Due Diligence Dashboard: a tool that shows both social and environmental sustainability risks of commodity production across the world. With a self-developed scoring system, different combinations of countries and commodities can be compared in a systematic way.
“This tool can help companies and policy makers prioritise certain topics in their policies or impact programmes,” Johanna explains. “It can facilitate decision-making and help focus on the sustainability issues most relevant for the sectors they’re working in.”
This tool can help companies and policy makers prioritise certain topics in their policies or impact programmes.
Equipping AgriFood professionals for a sustainable future
Johanna is one of the content experts for the Wageningen Academy course Sustainability, Responsibility and Competitiveness in the AgriFood Sector. “With the recent developments of European sustainability legislations – CSDDD, CSRD and EUDR – food and agri companies have to improve and report on the impacts they have. Although these legislations have been weakened, I do hope that companies and other players in the food and agri sector work towards environmental and social sustainability based on intrinsic motivation, regardless of those legislations. During the course, we aim to provide and co-create ways to work towards both social and environmental sustainability practices.”
Although legislations have been weakened, I hope companies in the agri-food sector work towards sustainability based on intrinsic motivation.
Why Wageningen University & Research?
“Wageningen is quite a bubble, in a positive way. Many people are working towards sustainable, healthy and fair food systems, all from their own field of expertise. Of course, also within the Wageningen sphere, views sometimes differ, but in general we’re working towards a common goal. Though, sometimes it is necessary to step out of that bubble for a bit. Not everyone aligns with the WUR philosophy, which is something we should definitely keep in mind.”
Besides, Johanna sees WUR as an important place for sharing knowledge and expertise: “WUR is the knowledge institute for food and agri-related topics. There is no better place to gain knowledge about these sectors. There is a huge amount of expertise and I think we, as WUR, should share our knowledge with the ‘outside world’ even more than we do now. Network events or courses – like the one I mentioned earlier – are good platforms for exchanging knowledge and experiences among professionals in the agri-food domain.”
Join the Future of Strategic Sustainability
Curious about how organisations can drive change towards a sustainable future? Explore our course on Sustainability, Responsibility and Competitiveness in the AgriFood Sector and gain the tools to lead transformation in your own organisation.