Jeroen Mulder
The Netherlands

"For my company, as an airline, we feel an enormous responsibility to contribute to the worldwide efforts to reach the global climate targets. The most important area is to create more awareness about sustainability."

While working as an Innovation Project Manager and Data Scientist, Jeroen Mulder participated in the online course Sustainable Aviation. Read about his experience.

What was your motivation for enrolling in this course/program?
Sustainability is a very important topic for my company, Air France-KLM. As an airline we feel an enormous responsibility to contribute to the worldwide efforts to reach the global climate targets. I asked myself what contribution I could make as innovation project manager and data scientist. I decided the most important area is to create more awareness about sustainability amongst my colleagues and how we as individuals can contribute. So, I was looking for learning material that could help my colleagues to enhance their awareness and I came across the MOOC Sustainable Aviation from TU Delft. In order to assess whether this MOOC could be interesting for my colleagues to follow, I did the course myself last year. Though some aspects of the MOOC are quite technical for people without a basic mathematics or physics background, I think the MOOC provides a good basis for people to understand all aspects around aviation that impact our environment. So, this year I challenged my colleagues to participate and with a group of about 15 colleagues we did this MOOC and also wrote an internal blog post about it. In fact, because I found that some topics my company was focusing on were not covered in the MOOC, I contacted the TU Delft faculty responsible for the MOOC content, to see how to incorporate these topics. And now the next version of the MOOC has these and also contains interviews with KLM colleagues on sustainability topics we are working on. Since creating awareness is a continuous and ongoing activity, next year I will again try to motivate my colleagues to take up the challenge with me to follow the MOOC.

How did/will this course impact your career or life?
I've been working for Air France-KLM for more than 25 years, with main focus on data and how to use it to improve our company by optimizing its processes. The course helped me to understand better the specifics of basic concepts such as how aircraft fly and why there is still room for improvement in aircraft design. The course also reconfirmed the importance of optimizing our processes inside the company, but now also with the focus on reducing waste that is impacting our environment. In my final assignment, an essay on my vision for sustainable aviation, I emphasized the importance of reaching out to other airlines and working on the topic of sustainability together. Following my own advice, I reached out to IATA, our International Air Transport Association, and participated in a task force to see how the use of data can improve the operation of airlines and airports and help them to become more sustainable.

How was your experience of learning online?
I’ve followed some MOOCs before, and this one really fits in nicely with my best experiences so far. The MOOC has a good balance between presentations and hands-on exercises and assignments. Some topics appeal more to me than others, but that’s a matter of personal taste. Some exercises are technical, but these are the optional ones. I spent about half a day per week on the MOOC which is in line with what was expected. And even during the second time I followed the MOOC, I gained new insights because the content of the MOOC was partly updated and revised.