Greenov newsletter n°2

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Greenov is a transnational cooperation project aiming at develop-

ing a cluster on sustainable renovation. It gathers a group of partners from

different North-West European countries acting to improve and develop

sustainable renovation practices among SMEs, craftsmen and all actors

working in this field.

Greenov partners have recently validated their common definition

of sustainable renovation: “A process of conception and works in order

to transform an existing building to fulfil the requirements of protecting

the environment and the health of its users and taking into account the

social and societal needs while achieving economic viability.

Sustainable renovation needs special skills for diagnosis, conception, for

using intelligent or new techniques, and then ensuring maintenance.”

This definition is the basis of a longer-term work on a grid of indica-

tors, adapted from existing grids on eco or sustainable construction, and

that will be a practical tool in order to help the achievement of good sus-

tainable renovation projects.

The setting-up of the cluster has started with the structuring or

strengthening of existing local clusters. Different actions are carried out

in order to identify the needs and gaps in the offer of services, information

and training for the actors involved in the field of sustainable renovation,

as you’ll see in this newsletter.

A lot of conferences, seminars and professional fairs are organized

around the sustainable construction and renovation sector. Greenov part-

ners take part in many of these events. Some of the interesting ones are

reported here.

Good reading!

NEWSLETTER . 02october 2011

2

The GREENOV project is structured into 3 groups of activities:

“From exchange of expertise to knowledge

The GREENOV partners will stimulate the innovation cycle by exchanging their expertise and practice and by pooling different stakeholders of the sustainable renova-tion sector. Transnational experts’ panels and thematic conferences will be organised. Common and operational

scale will be also carried out.

Partners will capitalise on this innovation cycle through a cluster approach which will lead to the organisation of the SMEs’ supply chain through the settingup of the cluster management structure and collaborative platform, identi-fying innovative SMEs, carrying out a market analysis, and providing training and services for SMEs.

“Demonstration through exemplary

Four GREENOV partners will launch sustainable renova-tion of one of their existing buildings (private or public buildings welcoming citizens).The four buildings represent complementary and exem-plar case studies. Results will be analysed and disseminated and promotional events will be organised locally. These pi-lot renovations should impact local market development by stimulating SMEs and by raising awareness among all the building sectors’ stakeholders, from political decision-makers to citizens.

Total budget: 7.500.000 €

ERDF funding: 50%

Duration: 5 years (Jan 2010 - Jan 2015)

GREENOV is co-funded by the INTERREG IVB North West Europe Pro-gramme.

-cial instrument of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy. It funds projects which support trans-national cooperation. The aim is

the most of territorial assets and tackle shared problems of Member States, regions and other authori-ties.

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For further information

Welcome to: Stoke on

Trent City Council!

Stoke on Trent City replaces the Birmingham Chamber of Com-

merce. Our new partner is made up of six towns aiming to move

to a lower carbon economy. The Council wants to position itself as

a city of the future – a place that people aspire to live in and enjoy

visiting in particular with a focus on “green issues”. Stoke is a very

relevant partner because it has two current projects that fit per-

fectly with the Greenov mission. The first project is the Centre for

Refurbishment Excellence (CORE) program: a centre for the ad-

vancement of sustainable refurbishment and an authoritative training

facility for retrofitting products, materials and systems (For more

information visit: www.core-skills.com). The second one is the Build

Up North Staffordshire scheme which acts as a support network

to companies in North Staffordshire highlighting tender opportuni-

ties within the public and private sector to enable local companies

to bid for this work. Training is also offered to companies needing

to develop and enhance their employees’ skills. Over 500 suppliers

of services to the construction industry have signed up from brick-

layers and plumbers to electricians and architects, along with dozens

of influential contractors, and such is the success of this innovative

support network that it has now been expanded to offer the same

level of service to the Low Carbon and Creative Industries (For

more information visit: www.buildup-ns.org.uk).

Replacement

of Ashford’s

Future by

Ashford

Borough

Council

Ashford Future’s Company was fully

wound down at the end of March

2011 due to changing funding struc-

tures in the UK and Ashford Bor-

ough Council will take over the role

of Ashford’s Future as direct part-

ner in the Greenov project. The

Council has been integrally linked

into the project for some time as a

core partner of the Ashford’s Fu-

ture Partnership and as the delivery

organisation on the renovation and

retrofit of St Mary’s Church, a key

capital project under Greenov.

Seminar on Energy Efficiency

The first day of the summer was the occasion of a networking and information event

dedicated to the Energy Efficiency of German and Belgian buildings, as one of the

most promising axes of exchanges between these two neighbors. The seminar was

organized by the German and Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce (De-

BeLux).

Sustainable construction is about new know-how, experimenting with new techniques

and new materials. Presentations made by German enterprises have proven that sus-

tainable business is now operational in the EU, and is growing fast! Each day more

sectors invest in energy efficiency, and the snow-ball effect has clearly been observed

by the German businesses.

The architect firm Koch Architekten discussed the core role of natural lights in de-

signing such places, as well as demonstrating that energy efficiency is everywhere, re-

sponding to the presentation of Pr. Ludwig Rongen who demonstrated that passive

building can be implemented all around the world!

But sustainable construction is also a matter of politics, economy and society. On

this topic, the German authorities have a clear vision of the green future of economy

with their export programme “Energie Effizienz”, whose aim is to boost the com-

petitiveness and position of the German enterprises on foreign markets

(http://www.efficiency-from-germany.info/EIE/Navigation/EN/root.html).

On the Belgian side, the presentation started with a little overview of the political

horizon… After a year without a Government, the Belgian context could well have

appeared hazy, however the focus on future Energy Efficiency remains extremely clear

and on track!

Adeline Guerriat from the Passive House Platform (Walloon & Brussels regions) and

To Simmons from CeDuBo (Center for Sustainable Building in the Flanders region)

succeeded in demonstrating that the transition is well engaged in Belgium, with a

special mention for the Brussels-Capital region whose legal framework is one of the

most advanced in Europe! The number of passive-certified buildings is increasing ex-

ponentially…

“Made in Germany”: a certification. Berlin un-

derstands that Germany has two strong attributes for the export

market: the power of the German brand as well as the reputation

for quality also enjoyed by German green products and services.

So, work has begun on developing a powerful combined kitemark.

See this little button…

NEWS

The Passive House Fair and the

Aquasim Mission

(Brussels, Belgium – September 9th to 11th 2011)

The Passive House Fair in Brussels attracted for its tenth

edition 5468 visitors. During the event, the Enterprise Eu-

rope Brussels, in partnership with the Greenov cluster,

hold a networking and partnership event. 27 enterprises

coming from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg

had the opportunity to pitch themselves and to present

their partnership needs. The EEB and its EEN colleagues

have organized this networking event as a starter to realize

a full accompaniement on technological or commercial

partnerships between the enterprises, research centers

and universities. This accompaniement includes, among oth-

ers, services on intellectual property rights, confidentiality

agreements, etc. (more on http://www.enterprise-europe-

network.ec.europa.eu/).

This event will be followed, at the end of October (27th

and 28th), by a Company Mission in Aquasim, near Nantes

– France. The Aquasim mission is not just about network-

ing, but also to discover a research platform reproducing

the water cycle on full-scale, conducted by the French Sci-

entific & Technical Center for Buildings (CSTB). All the pro-

fessionals involved in water management will come to

share and exchange on the up-to-date technologies and

systems dedicated to water management. And, if Aquasim

is not just about networking, the B2B aspect won’t be for-

gotten with bilateral meetings based interests established

through tailored participants’ profiles.

Passive House and Aquasim are the B2B events closing the

EEB sustainable construction round for 2011, with more

to come in 2012.

Codema to promote GREENOV

as part of Innovation Dublin(Dublin, Ireland – October 19th 2011)

Codema promotes the GREENOV project this year

with a stand in the Wood Quay Venue on Wednesday,

19th October, as part of Innovation Dublin. The fes-

tival takes place from Monday 17th October – Friday

18th November and has been extended to run over

a month to meet the scale of Dublin’s passion to in-

novate. Codema’s event will provide a great network-

ing opportunity for Irish SMEs and will showcase the

benefits of the GREENOV project. Innovation

Dublin provides opportunities to promote enter-

prise, to learn and find out how things work, to net-

work and collaborate and to connect ideas with

opportunities. For more information, visit www.in-

novationdublin.ie

Sustainable Construction

Glossary

The BEA attended the launching of the Sustainable

Construction Glossary hosted by the European Eco-

nomic Social Committee. This glossary meets

Greenov concerns on creating a common language,

setting up a definition of the sustainable renovation

and translating technical documents

(http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.events-and-

activities-sustainable-construction-glossary-publicat).

EVENTS

Aquasim Centre

Source : http://www.blog-habitat-durable.com/photo-1712669-Aquasim_jpg.html

PROJECTACTIVITIES

Dublin Thematic seminar

(Dublin, Ireland - March 15th & 16th 2011)

A thematic seminar was held in Dublin on March

15th and 16th on the theme “Energy efficiency of

buildings: possibilities and products”. Partners

worked on two important aspects of the project in

parallel sessions: one on the cluster development

(WP2) and one on the definition of sustainable ren-

ovation and common indicators (WP1 & 3).

In the working group on WP2 partners discussed

the creation of a Greenov portal for public pro-

curements. To set-up such a tool, partners have

started to work on a questionnaire on the organi-

sation of public procurements at national level and

on a survey on businesses’ needs. After this “map-

ping”, the form and content of the portal will be

specified.

The second group worked on common indicators

and on a definition of sustainable renovation (see

the Edito). A first draft of the common indicators

for monitoring a sustainable renovation has also

been produced.

On the second day, a conference with Irish SMEs

has been organised on the theme “Clustering SMEs

for renovation jobs”. Various experts spoke on top-

ics such as the importance of an energy efficiency

revolution in Ireland, public procurements, the birth

of clusters, etc.

Ashford’s study visit

(Ashford, UK – April 19th 2011)

A study visit on the renovation works of Ashford

was held on April 19th for all partners working on

the WP3. It was the opportunity to see the progress

of renovation works in the St Mary’s Church and in

the Library and to talk to the professionals involved

in both projects’ teams. The professionals explained

the sustainable technologies used to renovate these

buildings.

Partners’ working meetings (Strasbourg, France – May 2nd 2011 and Paris, France – June

8th 2011)

Between thematic seminars, partners continue working

on the Greenov cluster. Partners’ working on WP2 met

in Strasbourg and Paris to discuss the improvement of

the Greenov weekly newsletter and check the possibility

to mix it with the Greenov watch services for SMEs.

Other services have been discussed: the public procure-

ment service which would be a selection of procure-

ments that SMEs could bid to and help them to answer

by organising workshops, training, etc.

IN FOCUSPARTNERS

Since January 2010, the San Val Maubuée promotes

the Greenov cluster has been promoting to local

businesses, with multiple aims:

- enhancing networking,

- ensuring future membership,

- checking the relevance of the cluster services,

- discovering experts,

- discovering innovative companies,

- identifying the driving forces…

Thematic workshops are organised in Val Maubuée premises approximately

every two months. All companies in the field of construction or renovation

are invited even if the attendance is low (up to 20). But the recurrence of

this initiative allows identifying interested companies which return several

times. A network takes shape.

Most of them are eager to see the cluster created and their degree of in-

volvement remains fragile. This is why the Val Maubuée plans working

groups dedicated to the future cluster and its range of services in the next

few months. This will allow a better appropriation of the tool by its future

members.

Thirty local or regional companies are already part of Val Maubuée’s net-

work. Our job is to enlarge their number and to make sure that all of them

will join the Greenov cluster.

The SAN Val Maubuée started a series of meetings/interviews with profes-

sionals involved in sustainable renovation such as architects and enter-

prises. Each month, Benjamin Finot meets a person in relation with

sustainable renovation and writes articles describing his work and his proj-

ect. This approach enables us to increase our knowledge of sustainable ren-

ovation and to start the creation of the pool of experts. All partners will

start this initiative in their countries.

The procedure in place is as follows:

Step 1: Search for relevant actors in sustainable renovation

Step 2: Select available professionals whose project fits in with the

Greenov mission

Step 3: Meet the professional in his work environment

Step 4: Write an article presenting the project and

the professional and share it with all partners.

Involving businesses

in the emerging cluster

The example of Val Maubuée

“From the Greenov’ desk”- A tool to increase knowledge

on sustainable renovation

“House of the winegrowers”

in Alsace renovated by the architect R. Jost

02www.greenov

Greenov lead partner

SAN de Marne-la-Vallée/Val Maubuée

Project manager

Charlotte Dessandier

Supporting organisation

Europen New Towns & Pilot Cities Platform

Newsletter designer

Hester Chen / Georges Labatut

Contact information

telephone : +33 1 60 37 24 23

email : [email protected]

website : www.greenv.net

Coming Events

- 16 & 17 February 2012: Greenov Thematic con-

ference in Karlsruhe

- 20 & 21 March2012: London ecobuild fair

- 23-26 March 2012: “Bois & Habitat” fair in Namur

- End of March - Beginning of April 2012: Energy

week in Dublin

- 26 & 27 April 2012: Greenov Freiburg’s study visit

This project has received European Regional Development Funding

through INTERREG IV B.