In addition to Schiphol Airport, the home base of various Dutch airlines and a major international hub, the Schiphol Group also manages the industrial estate surrounding the airport. This estate is notable for its intensive economic activity, particularly in the logistics sector and in airport-related industries. The Schiphol Group wants to establish a cluster for Sustainable Innovators on the estate – companies working innovatively on sustainability and focusing on the climate problem that Schiphol will be facing in the years to come. Themes such as air quality, water management, energy and sustainable mobility are crucial to the healthy growth and future of an airport. The ambition is to acquire a strong position in the international market for sustainability innovation on airport grounds.

In order to gain the support of stakeholders and shareholders in the project, the cluster will be presented as a brand with its own strong identity. In this way, the location will become an entity with which the target groups can identify. A strong identity will be the basis for long-term thinking because it will provide the branding of the location with direction and content without lapsing into material argumentation. Four preconditions for successful location branding have been drawn up. First of all, the brand must be made relevant, meaning that, divorced from its physical location, the brand should be included in wider climate discussions with which stakeholders can identify. Secondly, the location, the cluster of Innovators and the founding fathers must be regarded as a brand. Thirdly, the brand must also be regarded as a mental market leader. Finally, the brand should support and strengthen the marketing activities.

The name developed for the location, TheGROUNDS, must be conceived as an international business platform where market parties and applied-science institutions cluster around the future sustainability of airports. This is an environment in which smart knowledge is translated into new, effective products and concepts for a future sustainable airport. Key objectives of the identity are interaction, meeting and achieving transitions, which are then translated into the descriptor: ‘Connect to transition’. This expresses a challenge to adopt an active attitude to achieving structural changes. The name TheGROUNDS strengthens this identity via the three dimensions of the word: the mental dimension (the combining of strengths), the physical dimension (the grounds, the location, the real estate) and the conceptual dimension (the principle of change). Connectivity continues to be a recurring central theme. The identity of the location is based on this and has an obvious, strong association with Schiphol Airport, where everything revolves around the ultimate connection to the world.