Since 2000 Telos, the Brabant Center for sustainable development of Tilburg University the Netherlands, has been involved in supporting and measuring sustainable development at both the local and regional levels. At the same time, it has been developing innovative practices, first in the province of North Brabant (the region in which Telos is based) and later throughout the Netherlands. The Telos approach has become the national standard for measuring the sustainable development of all 393 municipalities and regions in the Netherlands. The key elements in this approach are that the idea that sustainable development is about balanced development, that it needs a strong strategic vision, that sustainable development is explicitly normative and about the long term, and that stakeholder involvement is essential. Sustainable development requires the adoption of a common language by not only environmental organizations, but also by employers, farmers organization, and all stakeholders.

Dr. John Dagevos is managing director of Telos, the Brabant Center for Sustainable Development at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, as well as an adjunct professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Canada. John has a wide experience as a manager, director, professor, lecturer, senior researcher and consultant. He has expertise in areas such as sustainable development, local and regional socio-economic development (economic and employment opportunities, labor market issues, vocational training), evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of policies, and the development of monitoring systems. He has worked as a researcher and consultant  for government at the municipal, national and European Union levels, not only in the Netherlands but also in the former Czechoslovakia and the Baltic Republics (especially Lithuania). He also has extensive civil society experience. He is a board member of the public library in the Region Midden Brabant (500,000 inhabitants), was vice-president of the Brabant Development Agency (an economic investment agency with capital of €500 million) for a dozen years, and for seven years has served as chairman of a foundation helping long-term unemployed people (especially women and disabled people) to reintegrate in the labor market.