As a leading NGO in the Netherlands, Milieudefensie (part of Friends of the Earth) needed to develop a secure way of working across teams and partners while staying true to its commitment to opensource and self-hosting.
With Nextcloud, the organization replaced a restrictive, fragmented setup with a unified collaboration platform. Today, all users can work from anywhere, collaborate in real time, and maintain full control over their data and infrastructure.
Milieudefensie needed modern remote collaboration and open-source, self-hosted control.
Nextcloud unified files, tasks and documents in a sovereign, self-hosted collaboration hub.
Milieudefensie is a leading NGO in the Dutch climate movement, working tirelessly to hold major corporate polluters accountable and drive climate action aligned with the Paris Agreement.
Through past successes, reputation, credibility, a strong research capacity, connections with policy-makers and their broad global support base, the NGO coordinates around 200 employees in their fight against pollution.
This work depends on close coordination, internally and with external partners, making a flexible and secure digital environment essential.
Before Nextcloud, teamwork at Milieudefensie was limited by a traditional IT setup built around Ubuntu desktops, Samba network shares, and remote access through X2GO. This environment made remote work difficult and prevented real-time collaboration on documents.
As a result, teams often had to rely on external tools to get their work done. This, in turn, created inefficiencies but, more worrisome, introduced risks around data control and consistency.
On top of that, the organization had clear principles guiding its technology choices. It definitely wanted to remain self-hosted, continue using open-source software, and avoid dependence on proprietary cloud providers.
The main challenge was finding a solution that could hold up to these values and, at the same time, support modern workflows.
Milieudefensie chose Nextcloud as a central platform for file sharing, communication, and general online work. Building on earlier experiments with ownCloud, the team effortlessly migrated to Nextcloud which has a strong commitment to open source and its active development.
The implementation started on-premise and later moved to a self-hosted cloud environment. Key tools such as file storage, document collaboration, and task management were brought together in one place and further development ensured that integration with existing systems, like Zimbra and OpenProject, were possible.
The rollout was handled carefully. Instead of migrating everyone at once, the team took the phased rollout approach to introduce Nextcloud department by department. Each group received training before onboarding, which helped provide a smooth transition and strong user adoption from the start.
The impact of the transition was immediate and organization-wide. Users are no longer tied to the office infrastructure and can work from anywhere without losing access to files or real-time collaboration opportunities.
Workflows that previously required workarounds are now part of the platform itself. Teams can work synchronously on documents, communicate directly within the same environment, and coordinate their work more effectively.
While the organization did not track specific metrics, the shift from static network drives to an integrated collaboration platform has observably improved productivity and reduced friction in daily work.
Just as importantly, Milieudefensie has regained full control over its data and digital infrastructure. The NGO no longer depends on external SaaS tools for core online work, aligning its IT landscape with its broader mission and values of independence, community, and transparency.
Milieudefensie continues to expand its use of Nextcloud as part of a broader strategy to build a fully sovereign digital workplace. The organization plans to increase its adoption of Nextcloud Talk to replace Zoom, Nextcloud Deck instead of Trello, and deepen the integration with OpenProject for project management.
Looking ahead, there are also plans to move email and calendar functions into Nextcloud and to expand the use of local AI through the Nextcloud Aassistant. The long-term is clear: consolidate all collaboration tools into a single, open, and self-controlled platform.
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Client
Milieudefensie | Friends of the Earth Netherlands
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