Follow-up - 2nd Greenovate!Europe Sustainable Manufacturing Workshop

Sustainable manufacturing in Europe- Safe and sustainable in handling chemicals in metal working and surface treatment
Brussels, 9 December 2009

This half-day workshop offered a broad view on the different aspects of sustainable chemistry in metal working and surface treatment. 7 presentations, spanning from state-of-the-art solutions to SME experiences, provided the audience with the opportunity to get an insight into the specialized area and equally to ask questions and receive inputs during a longer discussion at the end of the event.

The presentations are to be found as attachments below.

Roundtable and discussion

Aiming at answering the question of “how to bring sustainable solutions to SMEs?” the moderator invited the 7 speakers to take part in a roundtable as a means of extracting some lessons from the workshop. Each speaker was invited to make a short statement on the issue, before opening the floor to the audience who had had the chance to ask questions or suggest solutions on a collective whiteboard during the first session.
Of the individual statements, it is noteworthy to recall the following ideas:

Information / awareness raising

• Communication and information are the most important elements in solving the issue
• At current time, we are on the right track concerning information, exchange of know-how, training and financing - however, more needs to be done
  

Cooperation / networking

• It is positive to belong to a network (professional association/participation in national/international projects...)
• It is important to share experiences beyond companies; to disseminate innovation results
• Linking suppliers and technology users
  

Coaching/Capacity building

• Important to identify the actual problems of SMEs as a first step; an individual appraoch is need, maybe through coaching and professional consulting
• Large companies could act as coaches to SMEs, thus sharing information, experience and expertise to encourage SMEs to innovate, think life-cycle, etc.
• It is crucial to change manager mind-sets in SMEs (something which has already been done in large companies). 3 major hurdles:

1. SMEs do not understand life-cycle approaches
2. They lack overview of the cost-benefit approach
3. Their network attitude is often missing

• Coaching must be practical. SMEs must start learning by doing.
  

Financing/Business models

• PPPs might be the way forward in order to correct existing market failures
• Leasing instead of buying is a still new and little-used approach to avoid high upfront costs for expensive equipment
• Given the important cost savings potential when cleaner solutions are implemented, an ESCO model for manufacturing might be of interest
• However, leasing solutions only make sense with close-loop business models (since the cost is not in the machine, but in the process)
• The industry is evolving: beyond the mere sale of chemicals or equipment, a number of more intergraded solution-providers is emerging, i.e. a cleaning service emerges as alternative to the purchase of cleaning equipment by the SME
• In order to acknowledge the SME need to think in LCA terms, technology suppliers of cleaner equipment have to re-train their sales personnel to communicate differently to SME managers.

The workshop was closed by lurking towards China and other rising economies… One thing is sure: Europe cannot move forward alone. There is an urgent need to go international with sustainability and safety commitments to avoid a distorted competition at global scale that Europe can only lose.

Networking during walking lunch

The workshop was followed by a lunch-buffet during which the participants had the chance to discuss unfinished issues and network.

Attachment	Size
Chemistry and sustainability 091209_Daniele_Colombo.pdf	378.95 KB
Présentation GREENOVATE BRUSSELS_Négré.pdf	3.45 MB
REMake_presentation_Brussels 9_12_09.pdf	715.05 KB
ZVO Brussels_Dekker.pdf	3.75 MB
20091209_GreenovateWorkshop_Linka.pdf	8.88 MB
09122009-Axelera-WKBrussels.pdf	5 MB
R&D for sustainable chemistry in Europe_Mobius.pdf	4.43 MB