Merijn Everaarts
“You can turn your back on problems, or you can really change things. That’s what I want people to see.”
Merijn Everaarts is founder of Dopper, (hospitality) entrepreneur, visionary and speaker with a mission.
If you ask Merijn what the starting point of his now long and diverse career has been, he answers, “I was about ten years old and at the street party I was ‘responsible’ for scooping up the hussar salad. I felt like I organized the party.” Here was planted one of many seeds that grew into a thriving career in the hospitality industry. His ultimate dream? To own a mansion; his own establishment atop a mountain in Switzerland.
Although that dream did not exactly come true in that form, it came pretty close. He attended hospitality school in Amsterdam, worked (and partied) for a time in Zurich. He also opened a plant-based restaurant in Haarlem: Mama Gaia. But what most will know Merijn from is quite different; as founder of the company Dopper. The now famous three-piece water bottle is not just any bottle, it is the product of Merijn’s story.
Merijn worked in the events industry for a while. Among other things, he organized the catering for the Royal Family, as well as large festivals and events such as ID&T. A time in which he learned a lot about how to get people moving on a large scale. At the same time, he saw how much plastic was being wasted in the industry, which increasingly bothered him.
By replacing plastic PET bottles with a sustainable, reusable model, he thought, less of it ends up in the ocean as plastic soup. With that thought, Dopper was born in 2010. The company grew and so did its global reach and Dopper’s mission: “To end single packaged water. Merijn also wants to address water quality worldwide, which is under pressure from agriculture, medicine and chemicals, with Dopper.
“We are no longer just that fun brand that wants to change the world, we are more combative than before. Therefore, we are also where policy is made, such as at the climate summit in Dubai.”
Meanwhile, sustainability and serving Mother Earth has become Merijn’s life mission. Under the appropriate name, he founded plant-based restaurant ‘Mama Gaia’ as well as sustainable co-working space ‘Oceans’ in 2020. Both located in the same building in Haarlem.
With his three successful impact companies and as a speaker Merijn focuses on spreading his story and sharing his lessons, in order to inspire other organizations and get them on board for a large-scale system change. Because that this is needed, for sure.
Merijn Everaarts is founder of Dopper, (hospitality) entrepreneur, visionary and speaker with a mission. If you ask Merijn what the starting point of his now long and diverse career has been, he answers, “I was about ten years old and at the street party I was ‘responsible’ for scooping up the hussar salad. I felt like I organized the party.” Here was planted one of many View more…
"Even at the deepest points of the ocean, plastic particles have already been found"
"Around my thirties, especially when I became a father, my world view started to tilt."
Dancing on a carpet of plastic
On a summer day in 2009, Merijn Everaarts is sitting on the sunny beach in Bloemendaal. At the end of the day, he notices how much plastic waste is left behind on the beach. At the time, Merijn is still working in the events industry. He cannot deny that huge amounts of plastic are wasted there too.
“During festivals, we danced on carpets made of plastic,” he says.
A significant portion of those “carpets” consist of empty bottles of spring water, he notices. He realizes that not trays, not pallets, but whole trailers full of water in disposable plastic are brought in, while Dutch tap water is of good quality. This begins to gnaw at him more and more. Surely there must be another way?
One of the most important lessons Merijn has learned: convenience is a crucial condition for enabling behavioral change.
“I noticed that many young people reused their purchased disposable bottle. They didn’t buy it for the water it contained, but purely as a means of transporting water.”
So the right behavior for system change was already there. The right tool just wasn’t there yet. This is where Merijn played into it with the Dopper and now the colorful bottle is impossible to imagine our backpacks and sports bags without.
Yet there was a time when Merijn was not at all concerned with sustainability and lived as a consumer pur sang. Perhaps as a counter-reaction to the “green nest” in which he grew up, he tells himself.
“My father had an absolute aversion to war and injustice. He worked for Amnesty International. And at home we had a vegetable garden. I didn’t like any of it then; ate and did everything I felt like doing. But around my thirties, especially when I had children, my view of the world began to change. Especially when I heard that plastic has already been found at the deepest points of the ocean. Shocking.”
Not only did Dopper’s mission and ambitions grow, so did Merijn’s. He sought connections with other do-gooders and bought a four-story building in Haarlem, which he named “Oceans. It is set up as a co-working space and incubator for sustainable, impactful creatives. The bottom floor houses plant-based restaurant Mama Gaia, named for Mother Earth.
“I want to prove that fingerlicking good food without animal suffering and overloading the earth can go together perfectly!”
With his experience and knowledge from founding several mission-driven companies, he aims to inspire and make others aware of their potential impact. He speaks for a wide audience, from Greenpeace to Shell. Because: to make the wave of change bigger we need everyone. Merijn does not shy away from a challenge.
Book Merijn as a speaker?
Create a lasting impact on all attendees together with Merijn Everaarts. Get in touch to book him as a speaker, receive his availability and a tailor-made proposal.
1. Track Record
Merijn has successfully grown three impactful companies. He is therefore the obvious person to inspire others in this and show that change is actually possible by not turning your back on the problem. He shares his successes, but also his lessons from entrepreneurship.
2. Enthusiasm
Merijn is incredibly passionate about sustainability and systemic change because he has seen how small first steps can make a big difference in the long run. He has dedicated his life to bringing about systemic change and he brings that energy to the stage.
3. To-the-point
Merijn is still very involved in his companies and thus still has his feet in the clay every day. He knows what works and what doesn’t and is straight to the point.
4. Practice
Merijn has been an entrepreneur since 2010 and has been an entrepreneur all his life. He has learned quite a bit about human behavior and shares the honest, raw learnings from his entrepreneurship with the audience. Moreover, he also draws knowledge from his large network of other mission-driven entrepreneurs.
5. Down-to-earth
Merijn’s motto is “don’t bullshit but clean up,” which inspires, motivates and activates. His down-to-earth approach and hands-on mentality makes you itch to get started with sustainability yourself.
1. Track Record
Merijn has successfully grown three impactful companies. He is therefore the obvious person to inspire others in this and show that change is actually possible by not turning your back on the problem. He shares his successes, but also his lessons from entrepreneurship.
2. Enthusiasm
Merijn is incredibly passionate about sustainability and systemic change because he has seen how small first steps can make a big difference in the long run. He has dedicated his life to bringing about systemic change and he brings that energy to the stage.
3. To-the-point
Merijn is still very involved in his companies and thus still has his feet in the clay every day. He knows what works and what doesn’t and is straight to the point.
4. Practice
Merijn has been an entrepreneur since 2010 and has been an entrepreneur all his life. He has learned quite a bit about human behavior and shares the honest, raw learnings from his entrepreneurship with the audience. Moreover, he also draws knowledge from his large network of other mission-driven entrepreneurs.
5. Down-to-earth
Merijn’s motto is “don’t bullshit but clean up,” which inspires, motivates and activates. His down-to-earth approach and hands-on mentality makes you itch to get started with sustainability yourself.
Five questions for:
Merijn Everaarts
For Good: what does that mean to you?
“We all have to do good. There is a part of humanity that sees it differently, and a part that doesn’t yet realize for themselves how much they are needed. I hope more people begin to realize how important they are as individuals for systemic change. I too was once just that “little Merijntje” on a beach full of junk. What if I had thought ‘there’s no point’ then? Then nothing would have ever gotten off the ground.”
Walk the Talk: what is your added value?
“I am in the middle of the sustainable transition and actively contribute to it every day. Among other things in the business field, with my companies. But it goes further; stimulating systemic change has literally become my life. I closely follow all developments on sustainability and the environment and pass on that knowledge to others in my network and on stage.”
Do you have an example or source of inspiration yourself?
“Bill Gates. This man makes a very strong case for climate and the world and does not get the credit he deserves for it. I also find him inspiring on a business level. His mission once was for every household to have a Windows computer, mine is for everyone to have a Dopper!”
Do you believe systemic change is possible in the short term?
“I was at the arena last week and they were selling vegan hot dogs. Yes, even on the F-side people are eating plant-based food. You couldn’t have imagined that ten years ago, right? Or, for example, smoking in the hospitality industry, once very normal, now a strange thought. What is crucial if you want to bring about behavioral change, however, is recognizing resistance. If people think something is “too much hassle,” you can argue against it, but you’ll never get them on board. Convenience is simply a deciding factor in this day and age, so you have to take that into account if you want sustainable to become the new norm.”
Who is your ideal audience and what can they expect from you?
“I sincerely don’t have an ideal audience. I could say, I don’t want the guys from Tata Steel or Shell in the audience on principle, but I’m just happy when companies like that ask me on stage. That means there is a small opening for system change. But I also like to invite companies or, for example, students who are already convinced of the importance of a new world. The more people on the ‘green wave’ the better!”
For Good: what does that mean to you?
“We all have to do good. There is a part of humanity that sees it differently, and a part that doesn’t yet realize for themselves how much they are needed. I hope more people begin to realize how important they are as individuals for systemic change. I too was once just that “little Merijntje” on a beach full of junk. What if I had thought ‘there’s no point’ then? Then nothing would have ever gotten off the ground.”
Walk the Talk: what is your added value?
“I am in the middle of the sustainable transition and actively contribute to it every day. Among other things in the business field, with my companies. But it goes further; stimulating systemic change has literally become my life. I closely follow all developments on sustainability and the environment and pass on that knowledge to others in my network and on stage.”
Do you have an example or source of inspiration yourself?
“Bill Gates. This man makes a very strong case for climate and the world and does not get the credit he deserves for it. I also find him inspiring on a business level. His mission once was for every household to have a Windows computer, mine is for everyone to have a Dopper!”
Do you believe systemic change is possible in the short term?
“I was at the arena last week and they were selling vegan hot dogs. Yes, even on the F-side people are eating plant-based food. You couldn’t have imagined that ten years ago, right? Or, for example, smoking in the hospitality industry, once very normal, now a strange thought. What is crucial if you want to bring about behavioral change, however, is recognizing resistance. If people think something is “too much hassle,” you can argue against it, but you’ll never get them on board. Convenience is simply a deciding factor in this day and age, so you have to take that into account if you want sustainable to become the new norm.”
Who is your ideal audience and what can they expect from you?
“I sincerely don’t have an ideal audience. I could say, I don’t want the guys from Tata Steel or Shell in the audience on principle, but I’m just happy when companies like that ask me on stage. That means there is a small opening for system change. But I also like to invite companies or, for example, students who are already convinced of the importance of a new world. The more people on the ‘green wave’ the better!”
What is Merijn talking about?
Would you like to book Merijn Everaarts as a (keynote) speaker for a conference, lecture or event? Below you will find a selection of different keynotes. Custom program? Ask for the possibilities.
Plant that seed, make that wave
‘I want it, I can do it, I do it!’ This talk is about the ways everyone can contribute to systemic change.
Plant that seed, make that wave
‘I want it, I can do it, I do it!’ This talk is about the ways everyone can contribute to systemic change.
Jelle and Claire | Growthinkers
A selection of companies that Merijn Everaarts already had impactful collaborations with….
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Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at Rabobank Nederland on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Rabobank -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at KPMG on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
KPMG -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk for the TedX on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
TedX -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk for BMW Nederland on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
BMW -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk for KLM on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
KLM -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk for Tate Steel on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Tata Steel -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at Event Summit on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper. Mega impact.
Event Summit -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at Sustainable Brands Barcelona on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Sustainable Brands Barcelona -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at Hotelschool Leeuwarden on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Hotelschool Leeuwarden -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Hogeschool van Amsterdam -
Merijn Everaarts gives an inspiring talk at Erasmus University on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
Erasmus Universiteit -
Merijn Everaarts gives an impressive and inspiring talk at B Corporation Portugal on sustainable business and his social enterprise Dopper.
B Corporation Portugal
