TRAINING IN VIENNA ON ECO-INDUSTRIAL PARK TOOLS, LESSONS LEARNED AND WAY FORWARD

The RECP Centre’s technical experts Ella Dmytrychenkova and Tetiana Dehodia visited Vienna (Austria) on February 21-24, 2023 to participate in the training on eco-industrial parks tools “Lessons Learned and Way Forward”. The Vienna International Centre became the venue for the training. The Agenda was tailored to listen to a number of speeches delivered by the representatives of Austria and speakers from Ukraine, as well as direct visits to industrial parks in Austria and Poland. The training was initiated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with the support of the Swiss government and within the framework of the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP).

 

Thus, from the very first day, the UNIDO staff members Jerome Stucki, Christian Susan, Rana Pratap Singh, Klaus Tyrkko tuned the workshop properly. All of them are directly involved in the implementation of eco-industrial parks around the world and have considerable experience in this area. The main goals of the workshop were announced as to gain capacities in eco-industrial parks development for Ukrainian stakeholders and to exchange lessons learnt in eco-industrial parks development among countries.

First, the participants were acquainted with the powerful experience gained throughout the project implementation. Thus, Yulia Skubak, a representative of the Ministry of Infrastructure, reported on the main achievements and trends in the national policy for the development of eco-industrial parks (EIPs). Alessandro Flammini familiarized the audience with the experience gained and all the barriers encountered in implementing the EIP policy in other countries. Representatives of the GEIPP-Ukraine national team, Anton Kleshchov and Viktoriia Shkolna, spoke about understanding and meeting the needs of industrial park management in Ukraine. The final official part of the first training day was devoted to considering the key obstacles to the implementation of the EIP concept: Oleksandra Stepaniuk (representative of KeyGroup (Ukraine), Anton Kleshchov and Cesar Barahona (UNIDO) delivered their speeches.

The second training day began with a presentation by Dick van Beers (UNIDO), who focused on planning the EIP concept and the tool for master plan verification. Then Iryna Shatalova (Ukraine) spoke about supply chain disruptions and their recovery in accordance with the EIP model. Branko Dunjic, the international RECP expert (UNIDO), focued on the  EIP monitoring tools and industrial symbiosis. Dick van Beers presented the possible services that EIPs can offer to resident companies. He introduced the best international cases were implemented during the GEIPP Program implementation. Oleksandr Nikolayenko, a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was invited to the seminar to highlight the issues of financing the EIPs.

On the third day, the representatives from Ukraine together with their UNIDO colleagues, visited industrial parks in Austria and the Industrie Zone Niederösterreich-Süd (IZ NÖ-Sud) to get acquainted with the EcoPlus Business Park and Ecoplus environmental services was the first visit site. The representatives of the industrial zone told about the history of its creation, its structure, and the functional purpose of each specific technopole (a structural element of the EcoPlus industrial zone). The second was the Wiener Neustadt Technopole TFZ, which is a structural part of EcoPlus. All educational institutions and research laboratories located on the territory of the technopole are united by the same activity – medicine and materials technology (mainly for the aerospace industry). In his presentation, Rainer Gotsbacher (manager) informed the trainees about the structure of the technopole, the research areas of the laboratories and their scientific achievements, and the onsite social facilities. The speaker received a number of questions from the participants concerning energy efficient technologies implemented on the territory of the Technopole, the relationship between educational institutions and research laboratories, and synergies between facilities for different purposes.

The training participants then moved to another Austrian city Graz to visit the Green Tech Cluster, where all the companies are united by their field of activity, namely the development of technologies and services for renewable energy and the circular economy.

The fourth and final day of the training was spent in Katowice, Poland, visiting the Silesian Automobile and Advanced Manufacturing Cluster. The cluster’s management informed the participants about the principles of uniting various enterprises on its territory. The cluster members are mainly automotive companies (Fiat, Opel, etc.), enterprises producing various car spare parts, and machine tool companies. The cluster also includes IT companies and educational institutions to train the specialists. The educational institutions and manufacturing companies have established good relationship that helps students gain practical skills during their studies. The meeting ended with a briefing for the representatives of the management company and the students.

Through this study visit, the participants exchanged experience in the development of eco-industrial parks between different countries and strengthened the capacity of Ukrainian stakeholders for further project implementation.

Click here to see the training agenda.