Except · Systemic Strategy & Design
Except helps organizations, cities, and industries design their futures. We have done this since 1999, across roughly 700 projects. We integrate strategy, design, and engineering in one practice, from the first question to result on the ground.
Except Systemic Strategy & Design
We reshaped IKEA's paper supply chain, built Heineken's roadmap to fully circular operations, and designed Salesforce Park in San Francisco, alongside city governments and developers across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Our work is about creating lasting value and better futures. Our clients bring us the decisions that are expensive to get wrong. We bring a unique combination of systems thinking and groundbreaking design to every project, whether it's a bold new venture or a grand vision for a city. We help them see the whole picture, find the critical leverage points, and build the world they want to live in.
A few of our clients since 1999
Work
A complete operating model for human settlement, designed to run at 140% net-positive.
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A fifteen-year sustainability roadmap co-created with the CEOs over three days: energy, water, biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and community.
Read the project →A fifteen-year sustainability roadmap co-created with the CEOs: energy, water, biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and community.
Read the project →A roadmap to 2030 with a dozen circular projects running within the first year.
Read more →A fifteen-year sustainability roadmap co-created with the CEOs: energy, water, biodiversity, and community.
Read more →Except's people simply work extremely hard and invest unbelievable amounts of energy into solving your problem, making it their own and getting to the bottom of it.
Bart Verhagen · Development Manager, Vestia Housing Corporation
The world's largest ecosystem rooftop, serving 1.1 million people.
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IKEA Paper Supply Chain
For Inter-IKEA, we boosted the sustainability of the world's entire paper supply chain. Big-data dashboards for purchasers, suppliers, and retailers: 484 GWh of energy saved, 285,000 barrels of oil annually.
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A 20-year adaptive redevelopment roadmap for Vestia, co-developed with hundreds of residents.
Read the project →484 GWh of energy saved, 285,000 barrels of oil annually through big-data dashboards.
Read more →A 20-year adaptive redevelopment roadmap, co-developed with hundreds of residents.
Read more →Except has excellent knowledge, resources, and a good work ethic. They provided realistic options for significant sustainability improvements of our region.
Greg Powell · CEO, Shire of Merredin, Western Australia
Climate-adaptive park with a wadi retaining over 1,000 m³ of rainwater. Lighthouse Award 2021.
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An integrated desert agriculture complex pairing greenhouses with clean energy, designed as one water, energy, and food system.
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A UNESCO experience center on the Wadden Sea coast, making the world's largest tidal flat system tangible for visitors.
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A sustainability journey for the Vietnamese printing group, anchored by a 12-person core team trained to carry it forward.
Read the project →Greenhouses and clean energy designed as one water, energy, and food system.
Read more →A sustainability journey anchored by a 12-person core team trained in-house.
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A vision with Schiphol Real Estate to transform a business park into an innovation garden connected to the Amsterdamse Bos.
Read the project →1,800 m² of energy-neutral, circular workspace housing 180+ organizations.
Read more →A vision to transform a business park into an innovation garden connected to the Amsterdamse Bos.
Read more →I am impressed by the energy, expertise and commitment delivered by Except's team. It touches you personally that everyone at Except recognizes in their very core the need for transformation to a sustainable society.
Miriam van Gool · IUCN manager, Leaders for Nature
From a sushi restaurant in New Haven to a 1,500-hectare agro-industrial park in Estonia. 91 published case studies, the rest in the archive.
Browse the archive →Projects · 1999 to 2026
Region
Timeline · 1999 to 2026
Except has excellent knowledge, resources, and a good work ethic. They provided realistic options for significant sustainability improvements of our region with innovative solutions.
The ecosystem
Except’s advisory and innovation is grounded in real experience, from self-initiated projects and self-funded developments. A selection of the most significant of these:
1,800 m² heritage train depot in Utrecht, rebuilt energy-neutral. Home to 180 organisations, and to Except.
utrechtco.nl →
Vietnam’s first sustainability center, connecting the country’s sustainability-driven organisations from Ho Chi Minh City.
vico.asia →
A 40-hectare regenerative city in southern Vietnam, carried by a consortium of more than 25 organisations.
orchidcity.eco →
Regenerative resort development worldwide: self-powered, water-secure destinations with on-site food production and biodiversity restoration.
regenresorts.com →
Systemic strategy platform that turns the SiD method into software teams run themselves.
yvoke.now →
AI automation for small and mid-sized enterprises, priced like a tool.
boostgood.eco →
Symbiosis in Development: the systemic design framework behind every project on this page. Open source since 1999.
thinksid.org →
Training programmes for systemic design practitioners.
academy.except.eco →
The Rotterdam Collective: an innovation workspace community, initiated and operated by Except from 2009 to 2017.
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High-yield polyculture greenhouse concept for urban food production.
polydome.net →
An online modeling tool for material and energy cycles at urban scale.
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Carrying regenerative projects and research the market will not yet fund.
except.eco →
Systemic Innovation Framework
SiD connects systems thinking, resilience science, and practical design tools into a unified open framework, enabling professionals to create solutions that regenerate rather than deplete.
Developed by Except across 27 years of practice, SiD guides a team from mapping its whole system to a working transformation roadmap. It converts complexity and uncertainty into clear, actionable strategy, co-created with the people who will carry it out.
Open source since 1999. The framework, the omnibus book, and the tools are free to read, use, and build on at thinksid.org.
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Knowledge
Research, essays, and white papers from the practice.
News
Ninety-one global trends mapped against Vietnam’s systemic resilience, across 54 pages of leverage points and critical dependencies.
Film
News & Events
Article
Article
Article
News
Article
I am impressed by the energy, expertise and commitment delivered by Except’s team. It touches you personally that everyone at Except recognizes in their very core the need for transformation to a sustainable society.
Newsletter
Perspectives on integrated sustainability, systems thinking, and the projects we are working on.
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