Measure before you promise
A footprint assessment is only useful if the baseline is honest. I would rather report an uncomfortable number than a flattering estimate.
Sustainability · Ethical research · The Netherlands
Franciska
Franciska
Bothma
Ten years helping organisations shrink their footprint without shrinking their honesty. I work where evidence, ethics and food systems meet.
Based inThe Netherlands
FieldSustainable food systems
In the field10 years
Age31
About
Evidence first, then everything else
I coordinate sustainability work that has to survive scrutiny — from a client’s board, a research ethics panel, or a grower who has farmed the same field for thirty years.
My route in was practical rather than theoretical: nature restoration weekends and a community garden plot, long before it was a job title. That grounding still shapes how I work — I trust what can be measured on the ground more than what looks good in a slide deck.
Since then I have worked across research, project coordination and operations. The common thread is translation: turning environmental data into decisions people can act on, and turning the concerns of growers, residents and funders into something a research plan can answer.
I care about the ethics of the method as much as the outcome. Consent, transparency about who benefits, and honesty about uncertainty are not paperwork — they are what makes a finding worth acting on.
The work I want most sits at the intersection of regenerative agriculture, biodiversity and climate resilience: the places where a better food system and a healthier landscape turn out to be the same project.
How I work
Three commitments
Ethics is a method, not a form
Research standards, informed consent and clear data handling belong at the design stage — not in an appendix written afterwards.
Plan past the funding cycle
Soil, hedgerows and trust all improve on a longer timescale than a project plan. Design the handover on day one.
Focus areas
Where my attention goes
Read on
Four more rooms in this garden
Experience
Ten years, three organisations
Consulting, research and community agriculture — with the detail behind each.
InterestsOpen water, long roads, a full plot
Endurance swimming, bicycle touring, and a garden that feeds most of the summer.
SkillsA garden of five beds
Click any bloom to see what it means in practice.
AmbitionsWhat I am growing towards
Specialising deeper, and bridging research, policy and the field.