The search for cross-border collaborative greentech projects

Supported by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg Greater Region 2021-2027 programme, the Greater Green+ project aims to make the Greater Region a leading territory in the ecological transition to a circular economy and sustainable development.

Its official launch was marked by the GrenTech Solutions Summit conference, held on 26 September in Luxembourg.

"The Greater Green+ project will contribute to the dynamics of the energy transition. It will also focus on quality of the entire value chain to ensure that everything works well," said Fenn Faber, the director of Klima-Agence G.I.E in Luxembourg.

He also sees it as a complementary source of input for the Klimapakt fir Betriber initiative, which supports companies in decarbonisation and energy transition through a structured and coordinated approach that facilitates the use of various initiatives, programmes, support and financial aid. Mr Faber expects that "the provision of expertise will be facilitated".

"A long-term job"

Innovation is obviously one of the pillars for accelerating the ecological transition and economic resilience through the development of greener technologies. But it cannot be improvised. "This is a long-term task that is not self-evident. It is essential to ensure that dialogue takes place and that worlds intersect and understand each other: companies must understand the scientific discourse of researchers and researchers must understand the needs of companies," warned Francoise Scheepers, Marketing & Communication Manager of the GreenWin cluster.

This Greater Green+ project will focus on quality across the entire value chain. Fenn Faber, Klima-Agence

Any project submitted to the Walloon competitiveness cluster dedicated to the industrial and environmental transition must include a life cycle analysis. "We must not fall into the trap of temporality: we know that we are planting trees today that we will not see become adults. Urgency would sometimes make us bang our heads against the wall: we must not get caught up in false good solutions."

This caution, which is essential in a general economic context where speed can easily be confused with haste, was also highlighted by Jérôme Sterpenich, Lecturer and researcher at the University of Lorraine and director of the Icéel Carnot Institute, a major public research player in the French Grand Est region, which brings together 28 research components (laboratories, technological resource centres, industrial technical centres, etc.) who put their expertise and know-how at the service of business innovation.

"Beware of false good ideas in terms of ecological transition," he explained. "We should not believe that any decarbonisation solution is good, without at the same time having a view of the future environmental impacts. This requires further analysis."

"Avoid falling behind"

It also requires a spirit of collaboration and cooperation that is second to none. A dimension that served as a common thread throughout the debates, in the context of a Greater Region conducive to this collective approach. "The Greater Green+ project will allow us to work together on ambitious projects," said Françoise Scheepers. "It will not only be a question of limiting the negative impacts, but of focusing on virtuous processes with positive effects on all value chains across the Greater Region."

"The subject of cross-border cooperation is important because we all face common challenges," said Karl Keilen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz, an association of leading environmental technology industry leaders in the German state. "One of these challenges is the maintenance of wealth and well-being. Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi had already emphasised it in his time."

We must not get caught up in false good solutions. Françoise Scheepers, GreenWin

Even if the "historical" reference is important, it is nevertheless necessary to look ahead. "Innovation is accompanied by creative destruction, as Schumpeter modelled," Mr Keilen said. "We see it today in the automotive industry. It's about advancing innovation, not looking too far into the past and avoiding falling behind. Otherwise, others will gain ground in our place. We need to create value and jobs in the region. We need this region because innovation needs a market."

"Don't be obsessed with KPIs"

In this market, international players are already doing well. This is the case, for example, of the Veolia group, which designs and deploys solutions for water, waste and energy management. It has been present in Luxembourg for more than 40 years, where it is more specifically active in the energy sector. It employs more than 450 people there. "We work globally in the form of thematic communities within the group, in order to propose innovations and solutions that can then be deployed locally," explained Sébastien Vaugenot, Managing Director of Veolia Luxembourg. "For example, we have implemented an internet of things and AI solution developed by our Italian colleagues to anticipate weather forecasts and regulate the heating and cooling needs of buildings. This allows for significant reductions in terms of energy consumption and the carbon footprint of buildings."

We need to create value and jobs in the region. Karl Keilen, Ecoliance

As Ms Scheepers pointed out, the Greater Region is both a geological and historical reality with similar resources and challenges for which collaborative innovation is essential. "The creation of a platform dedicated to greentechs as part of this Greater Green+ project will make it possible to make the resources available in the territory more transparent, as the different regions have service providers, but also gaps."

Hence the importance of "playing as a team", as Mr Sterpenich pointed out, conscious of the fact that many companies are not always aware of the innovative capacities that research laboratories possess and all that they can bring to them. "Overall, we have problems to solve together and not in a competitive way. We must play on complementarities in our ability to solve problems and not obsess over KPIs."