Frits van Loon is a Landscape Architect trained at the WUR (Wageningen University , Netherlands). He is now Assistant Professor at the department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba. He was co-owner of an office for Landscape Architecture and Urban Design in the Netherlands, called Hosper, in Haarlem; designing on all scale levels from regional design to design on public spaces and street furniture. He still has a strong connection with colleagues from the field, and with the Universities of Wageningen and Delft, who are working on the modern-day assignments of climate change, water management, biodiversity and reversing soil degradation. His path took him into education where, together with his colleague dr. Nico Tillie he started the Urban Ecology Lab. The Lab research is on the same topics through the work of students, but closely connected to the real world, which allows for solutions that are not in line with current days policies or workflows. To make this LAB successful students are trained to collaborate as a team, and work in an inclusive way, being aware of their own qualities and that of others and turning them in to use for the benefit of the project and the team. For this, tools and techniques have been developed, which apply on all (design) teams.