About us

As international consultancy and advisory to business, politics, and science, with more than 30 years of professional experience in sustainability and transformation science and management in Europe, Southeast Asia, and North and Central America, CIVICON offers a highly professional user-driven approach for individuals and organizations to successfully transform the sustainability shift of the global, regional, and local business landscape.

Dr. Hans Meves, CEO and founder of CIVICON – Institute for Sustainability Management in 2009 and the Network Bureau Europe (N.B.E.) in 2003, received his academic and professional training in geography, ecology, regional development, social environmental studies and global environmental change at universities in Kiel, Frankfurt, Sapporo, Yokohama, Tokyo and College Park/Maryland. He has extensive experience in European and international collaborative projects, with a thematic focus on the implementation of sustainability issues in a regional and organisational context.

From 1988 to 1997 he lived in Japan and the USA, where he completed his PhD research and worked with several universities, research organizations, NGOs and governmental bodies. After his return to Europe, he worked on EU environmental and development issues in the public and private sector. After another year of postgraduate studies in business administration, he served as chief EU-programme and project consultant for the “Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein”, EU-technology transfer and SME consultant for an innovation centre and incubator, as European business and project consultant for a private consultancy firm, and EU and international policy and project advisor for the regional government of Schleswig-Holstein.

In 2003 he founded the Network Bureau Europe – an international consultancy firm for innovation and sustainability. The organisation’s focus was on the transfer and implementation of EU environment and sustainable development policies and programmes, applying EU policy principles and project tools at all levels of EU project co-operations and network initiatives. Since he founded CIVICON in 2009, Hans has shifted his professional focus to science-based consulting and training for sustainability and transformation management, sustainability evaluation and reporting, and SDG interventions for business innovation.

His aim is to impart sustainability know-how and competence as a competitive advantage for regions and communities, public and private stakeholders, business and science as they increasingly becoming aware of their systemic interrelations in the changing landscape of resilience interventions for a sustainable future. Therefore, he works together with several national and international organizations like Europäische Akademie Berlin, Universität Wien, La Universidad del País Vasco, Wissenschaftszentrum Kiel, Universität Kiel, Innovationsfabrikken Kolding, Internationale Hochschule Erfurt, TUEV Nord, and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) among others.