Hanna Dijkstra

Hanna Dijkstra is a Visiting Fellow in the Environmental Economics department at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science, focusing on plastic pollution prevention and marine litter management. Her work integrates economic methodologies with environmental policy, contributing to global initiatives like the CLAIM project (H2020). She holds a MSc (Cum Laude) in Environment and Resource Management from VU Amsterdam and a BA (Distinction) in Environmental Studies and Communication from UC Santa Barbara.

• Teaching roles: Course coordinator for Economic Methods in Environment and Resource Management (2022), lecturer in sustainable business models and survey methodologies, and fieldwork support for Earth Sciences students in Tenerife (2019).
• Research expertise: Plastic management, circular economy, ecosystem valuation, and community adaptation strategies.
• Collaborations: WWF’s Zambezi River Basin studies, The Nature Conservancy’s Pacific islands project in Palau, and EU-funded marine conservation initiatives.

Her research emphasizes sustainable entrepreneurship’s role in systemic change, particularly through business models addressing plastic pollution. Key outputs include frameworks for plastic waste ventures in low-income countries and regulatory approaches for cleanup technologies. She has published 17 peer-reviewed articles and a PhD thesis on plastic system transitions.

Grants and projects include the CLAIM consortium and contributions to ecosystem service valuation in Aceh and the Chaco-Pantanal. Her work aligns with UN SDGs 12 (Responsible Consumption) and 14 (Life Below Water).