Green Faces: Top Groen, Daniël Schoenmaker

Welcome to Green Faces, our inspiring portrait series where we shine the spotlight on our clients. Each episode, we dive into the lives and careers of the companies that are not only making our environment greener, but also shaping our future. In this series, we explore how passion, innovation and green thinking come together to truly make the world a more beautiful place. From architects and designers to landscapers and roof greeners, "Green Faces" highlights the different backgrounds and unique insights of each of these professionals.

Get to know the faces behind the companies and get inspired. Discover how easy and special it is to make a green difference for our beautiful planet. We previously spoke to Marc Rotmans of Groendakcoach, in this second part we speak to Daniël Schoenmaker, co-owner of full-service green roof company Topgroen. 

"Sustainability is the future and it will only get bigger"

Daniël grew up in an entrepreneurial family and learned to think commercially at an early age. This led to great jobs early on in his career. Among other things, he was a trainee at Dutch coffee brand Douwe Egberts and later spent several years at a recruitment agency, placing the right people in the right places. But Daniël aimed for more. He wanted to be more independent and really mean something; to make a difference. In what area he did not yet know, so he explored several routes. Until he came into contact with a company called Topgroen. Not long before, Coen Visser and Eelko Sieval founded Topgroen and they were looking for a Business Developer. A startup with great potential, great ambition and the possibility of working more independently were the deciding factors. There was a good click and Daniël started as Business Developer at Topgroen.

Every disadvantage has its advantage

Shortly after Daniël started at Topgroen, the Covid-19 crisis arose. For many a true crisis but, in the words of famous Dutch football player Johan Cruijff, every disadvantage has its advantage. So too for Topgroen. People remained in lockdown in the Netherlands, there was no travelling, and the Dutch spent their holiday money on refurbishing and decorating their homes. This made for a flying business start for Daniël. Daniël felt he was in the right place and decided to officially step on board the organisation. Since then, he has been co-owner of not only Topgroen but also Sedumworld for a year now.

"With our acquisition of Sedumworld, we can now achieve a clear split between the business and consumer markets"

Two shades of green

"With this acquisition, we can serve the consumer market even better and make the world a little more beautiful even faster," said Daniël. The familiar Topgroen will focus more and more on the business market and offer a complete package of carefree service for its customers. Topgroen will also provide installation and maintenance services. With Topgroen's practical maintenance contract, you can ensure yourself of a beautiful evergreen roof or wall. Sedumworld focuses exclusively on consumers and supplying products to this customer group. Topgroen mainly deals with the total package for greening roofs and facades, whether or not in combination with solar. "With these two green branches, we will make many more companies and consumers happy in the near future and make them part of our mission; Make Holland Green Again." 

Make Holland Green Again 

"Well, this slogan is still great to me and of course comes from the time when there was a spirited campaign around the election in America. Our slogan is a nod to that campaign but apart from that it does encompass our mission. We really want to make the Netherlands greener (again). We see enough climate misery all around us and we are all responsible to tackle these problems. My generation can no longer look away, we are actually experiencing the challenges of climate change, so I have no choice but to help offer a solution for these challenges." When asked whether Daniël's heart has always been green or whether Topgroen has brought about a change in that, he is very clear. His heart has gone green. "I have definitely become more conscious, if I see waste lying around, I throw it in the bin and separating waste is now well internalised in my system. The only negative aspect of sustainability is the word expensive, an association that unfortunately is still too often true but with all the wonderful developments, that too will change in time."

"In the past I probably would have sailed past it, now I pick empty cans out of the water when I come across them"

From turf to Sedum blanket 

As mentioned, Topgroen wants to completely unburden its customers. That includes both installation and maintenance. Good installers are not easy to find but we are never short of good people. 'A funny fact is that in the early stages we were of course immediately looking for good installers. We are main sponsor of the rugby club in Utrecht and that turned out to be the solution. I managed to enthuse 15 strong rugby players and they all went into training to help. Naturally, it is fantastic work because you get to work outdoors and really make an important contribution to make the world a bit nicer. Most of these rugby players are still part of the team. Of course, I have also spent the necessary hours on the roof myself and have since amassed knowledge about roofs, construction and certainly greenery.'

A rookie on socials 

That Daniël has equipped himself with a huge amount of knowledge that becomes evident when you watch Sedumworld's videos. They have just recently started with short, clear videos in which Daniël touches on various topics to provide the viewer with information. The videos are simple, friendly and seemingly very professional. Yet there is no director or elaborate script involved here. "We just do it all ourselves and basically just share our knowledge". That people are waiting for this was proven when the third video immediately had an organic reach of more than 50,000 views. "Personally, I don't use social media but this is a lot of fun to do and I think it's great to get people excited about joining our mission this way. We have to do it together after all".

Making it green together!

'We have to do it together'; let that be exactly how we at Sempergreen also look at it. We love being able to work with partners like Topgroen. Fortunately, the feeling is mutual because Daniël says he enjoys working with Sempergreen. He sees Topgroen as an extension of Sempergreen. 

"it's a collaborative effort. When we indicate things, they really listen, and I can contact Kai van Gool (business development Sempergreen) or Sander Scheper (Sales Sempergreen) at any time. Sempergreen's completeness is unriveled. And of course, sometimes things go wrong, but Sempergreen always resolves it super well.  Topgroen's warehouse is only 600 metres away as the crow flies, so that's a nice extra. I can feel confident that I can always deliver, because you at Sempergreen always have stock. If I decide on a Friday afternoon that I need something on Monday morning, I can rest assured that it will be there. I find that relationship very valuable. If I need to come up with a solution quickly,I can always count on Sempergreen."Hail and snow, thunderstorms, wind and rain...

Hagel en sneeuw, onweer wind en regen…

We asked Daniël about his favourite project he had done with Sempergreen; 

"That is a great project which unfortunately I cannot say anything about right now. This is because several parties are involved in the realisation of this project." What we can say is that there will be plenty of news about it coming out soon, so follow us on our socials or subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to read what a great project this is.  

"But of course we have done many other cool projects with Sempergreen. One of my favourites is the Apollo House in Amsterdam.  A project that is very special and took quite a while to complete. We had all kinds of weather; hail, snow, rain and when it was finished the sun started shining. It is a project that encompasses so much; architecture, solar and a lot of flora and even fauna as there is now a goose nest on the green roof." 

Green or blue? 

We may be able to solve the shortage of green in the world with lots of beautiful companies like Topgroen, but where there is a shortage of green, there is an increasing excess of blue; or in other words: flooding From Sempergreen, we have therefore developed water retention roofs. You will read much more about this topic on this website in the upcoming weeks, so keep an eye on us. Daniël also sees this problem as very serious and therefore wants to keep developing in that area with Topgroen. “We have been working with Sempergreen's retention roofs and will do so more and more in the future. But we have also set up a separate branch for rain barrels. I find it absurd that in the Netherlands we water our plants with pure drinking water. When you collect rainwater with a rain barrel, you relieve the sewerage system and have enough buffer to water your plants, including your plants on the roof. I would like to do more with that in the future”. 

For now, Daniël remains busy enough within Topgroen. Make Holland gGeen Again was not achieved in a few years. And by now his heart is so green that he expects to remain personally active in the sustainable sector forever. And that makes us happy, because Replanting the Planet is something we do together! 

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