Within this broad mission, Amsterdam Trade & Innovate organized the trade mission for companies from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The trade mission was mainly focused on the themes of waste & circularity, sustainable building & feeding and greening the city.

In April, innovative companies from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area visited NYC to learn about its challenges on climate adaptation, sustainable building and the circular economy. They visited inspiring projects, determined concrete steps forward together and there was 1-on-1 matchmaking to create business opportunities. 

The high quality matchmaking was organized by TRANSFER.LC where the delegation met with American businesses. The delegations of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and the trade delegation further met with One Architecture & Urbanism (ONE) to discuss resilience in NYC. The delegations learned about flood prevention in the building sector through a presentation by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia Climate School, Columbia University.

In the years after the storm Sandy in 2013, ONE and Arcadis started developing the Big-U together with local communities. The final goal: protect Manhattan from future storms and floods. The delegations visited a construction site of the Big-U where more than 125.000 people are currently being protected by floodgates and protection walls.