Keynote

Are you ready for regeneration?

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Louis De Jaeger helps audiences make sense of a world in transition by giving them the language, clarity, and confidence to act within it. Louis regularly speaks for Global Fortune 500 companies.

Trained as a landscape designer and active as an entrepreneur, he works across land, capital, and culture. As founder and CEO of Commensalist, he leads large-scale regenerative projects worldwide, from future-proof farms to hospitality developments such as vineyard hotels and private eco-islands.

Louis is regularly invited into confidential conversations with ministers, private investors, and family offices. At the same time, he guides educational garden tours for schoolchildren in the Belgian King’s private garden.

An award-winning author and filmmaker and co-founder of Belgium’s first privatized night train company, still operating today, Louis brings both execution and vision.

On stage, he treats audiences as collaborators, creating participatory keynotes with lasting impact.

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What theme fits your event?

Regeneration as the New Premium Asset

In a world defined by heat, water stress, regulatory pressure, and reputational risk, regeneration is no longer an ethical add-on but a premium asset class. In this keynote, Louis De Jaeger reframes regeneration as a source of long-term value, resilience, and legitimacy for investors, governments, and developers.
Drawing from large-scale projects across landscapes, agriculture, and hospitality, he shows how living systems can outperform extractive ones when designed correctly.

The talk offers a clear lens for distinguishing future-proof investments from those that will age badly, and provides decision-makers with a practical framework to deploy capital in ways that compound ecological, social, and economic returns simultaneously.

Why Leaders Should Become Farmers

Leadership today increasingly resembles farming rather than engineering: working with uncertainty, nurturing systems over time, and designing for resilience instead of short-term optimization.

In this keynote, Louis De Jaeger explains why leaders across business, government, and investment are beginning to think like farmers, even if they never touch the soil.
Using examples from food systems, land use, and organizational design, he shows how principles such as regeneration, diversity, and long-term stewardship translate directly into better leadership decisions.

The talk offers a powerful reframing of what it means to lead in volatile times, and why cultivating systems that can grow, adapt, and recover is now a core leadership skill.

How Ecology Increases Hospitality Profit

As climate stress, guest expectations, and operational costs rise, hospitality is being redesigned from the ground up.

In this keynote, Louis De Jaeger demonstrates how ecology, when integrated at the core of a hospitality project, can increase guest experience, reduce long-term costs, and strengthen asset value.
Moving beyond cosmetic “eco” features, he shows how microclimate design, water cycles, productive landscapes, and food systems directly impact comfort, brand differentiation, and financial performance.

Drawing from vineyard hotels, regenerative resorts, and private estates, the talk offers hospitality leaders a new performance model where ecology is not a constraint, but a competitive advantage.

The Cheapest Way to Cool the Planet

Climate conversations often focus on complex technologies and distant targets, while ignoring the most effective and affordable solution already available.

In this signature keynote, Louis De Jaeger explains in simple, compelling terms how trees, soil, and living systems function as powerful cooling infrastructure.
Through storytelling, science, and participatory moments, he connects climate, food, water, and human health into one understandable system.

Rather than overwhelming audiences with guilt or abstraction, the talk replaces paralysis with clarity and agency, showing how small shifts in land use and consumption can scale into global impact.

Testimonials

Be honest. How many Sustainability Thought Leaders do you know who get their hands dirty and inspire large audiences solely through their own projects? Louis De Jaeger is one of them. His work in agroforestry, combined with his vibrant, flavourful, and engaging storytelling, delivers a wealth of hope and positivity. So, kick off your shoes and discover how food forests, in all their diverse forms, offer solutions to... well, almost everything. You find one of his many talks at the Love Tomorrow 2023 series, named 'Louis De Jaeger on The Power of Trees in Agriculture'.

Stefaan Vandist

Tomorrowland's Love Tomorrow

Louis has been an instrumental contributor to the Climate Change Summit 2025 edition. He was exceptionally proactive and generous, delivering an inspiring keynote that resonated deeply with the audience. Beyond the main stage, Louis actively contributed to several side talks, where his insights, openness, and practical perspective brought real value to the discussions.

His engagement elevated the overall quality of the summit and left a lasting positive impact on participants. Not to mention the great human he is! So grateful to have had the chance to work with you!

Smaranda Heroiu

Climate Change Summit

Louis de Jaeger is an exceptional changemaker and visionary in the realm of regenerative agriculture. His expertise in food forests and nature-based solutions has positioned him as a leading voice in shaping the future of food and agriculture.

Louis's compelling public speaking engagements inspire action towards sustainable food tech and innovative farming practices. His dedication to transforming our food systems makes him an invaluable asset in the fight for a more resilient and regenerative future.

Harald Friedl

The Circular Economist

Louis is one of the most refreshing speakers you'll ever meet! He brings unparalleled nature and energy to the stage! He is so unique! He has deep knowledge of food systems, and food forests, and soils.

And he brings it to others in a way, that you'd want to run out of the room and start doing things right away! He also has a very cool sense of humour, definitely something you won't forget.

Elena Doms

CEO Earth+

Louis was a passionate, vibrant and engaging speaker at the Innovation Zero 2024 World Congress, and an absolute pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend him as a speaker!

Alistair Drennan

Innovation Zero London

Louis' Keynote was a great addition to our Techarena Zero event. He was very professional and flexible adapting his content to our audience.

Alexander Engl

Techarena Stockholm

Some of his clients

· Deloitte

· Allianz Insurance

· BNP Paribas

· PYM

· Schneider Electric

· Too Good to Go

· Tomorrowland

· DP World

· Climate Change Summit

· Innovation Zero

· European Commission

· Techarena

· We Are Impact Collective

Social media links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisdejaeger/ 37K followers

https://www.facebook.com/foodforestinstitute 43K followers

https://www.instagram.com/louis.de.jaeger/ 6.3K Followers

https://www.youtube.com/@commensalistdesign 1.8K followers

https://www.tiktok.com/@louis.dejaeger 1K followers

READY TO TALK?

Louis De Jaeger is usually invited to speak on one of these four topics, although each conference is tailor-made. Also you don’t have to limit yourself to any of the above topics.

Themes

Core positioning tags

· Regeneration

· Systems thinking

· Long-term value

· Transition leadership

· Nature-based solutions

· Complexity made actionable

Leadership & strategy

· Leadership in times of transition

· Decision-making under uncertainty

· Resilient organizations

· From optimization to resilience

· Strategy beyond sustainability

Economy, capital & investment

· Regenerative economics

· Natural capital

· Future-proof investments

· Risk, resilience and return

· Premium assets in a changing world

Land, food & ecology

· Food systems

· Agriculture of the future

· Food forests

· Eat more trees

· Soil health

· Biodiversity as infrastructure

Health & human systems

· Soil–gut–brain connection

· Human health and ecology

· Mental health and nature

· Biological intelligence

Hospitality & place-making

· Regenerative hospitality

· Landscape-driven value creation

· Hotels, resorts and living systems

· Ecology as experience

· Profit through place

Climate & planetary systems

· Climate adaptation

· Cooling the planet

· Water cycles

· Biotic pump

· Nature as climate infrastructure

Innovation & entrepreneurship

· Activism meets entrepreneurship

· Building real systems

· From vision to execution

· Innovation grounded in reality

Audience engagement style

· Participatory keynotes

· Audience as collaborators

· Provocation with clarity

· From inspiration to responsibility

LOUIS DE JAEGER