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ECOPROFIT, Graz Austria

Categories: Urban and Regional Planning: - consultative process -localizing Agenda 21 -regional planning -regional resource planning Technology, Tools and Methods: - management tools and systems -technology transfer Economic Development: - capital formation -cooperative opportunities -enterprise development (formal and informal sectors) -training Level of Activity: Global Ecosystem: Continental

Summary

ECOPROFIT is a public private partnership programme for sustainable development. The name ECOPROFIT informs you about the two main targets, to find measures for reducing environmental impacts and achieve cost-savings with these measures. The practice has shown that the economic success of the programme is about 10:1 compared with the financial inputs.

At first consultants and representatives of local authorities get trained at the ECOPROFIT academy of CPC Austria on location and afterwards organise workshops for companies to transfer know-how into the economy. Simultaneously these qualified employees of the companies form an internal ECOPROFIT team and find as well as implement measures in the companies together with consultants.

The programme was developed in Graz by the City of Graz - Environmental Department in cooperation with the Technical University of Graz. To let other cities and regions participate in the success of ECOPROFIT the Cleaner Production Center Austria (CPC Austria) was founded. Our task is the distribution, further development and quality assurance of ECOPROFIT. At the moment there are over 1000 companies in about 50 cities of the world participating.

Narrative

Situation before

The city of Graz with about 250.000 inhabitants is situated in a basin shape. And Graz is an important industrial area. The combination of these two reasons associated with inversion weather caused great troubles with smog especially in winter.

Priorities

In 1989 the city of Graz decided, that it was time for a change. The target was the reduction of emissions and impacts on the environment. The environmental department worked together with the Technical University of Graz to find possibilities to guarantee ecological success for the region as well as economic success for the companies to get them involved.

The public - private partnership programme ECOPROFIT was born. The combination of corporate training of the companies by consultants and authorities as well as consultancy in the companies succeeded. These successes increased by cooperation and communication among the companies.

Objectives and strategies

The objectives of ECOPROFIT are to reduce emissions and increase resource efficiency with measures in companies that lead to cost savings as well as to the achievement of the Kyoto targets. This is realised with the help of a public private partnership model that makes - Consultants, - Representatives of authorities and - Companies Representatives of companies are trained in collective workshops by consultants. These workshops alternate with specific consultancy in the particular companies where the consultants and the ECOPROFIT team of the company implement the learned aspects in company measures.

Mobilisation of Resources

The financial resources for an ECOPROFIT project (for consultants, project management, training and quality assurance) come from municipality and companies. Usually the municipality supports two thirds of the project, which leaves one third for the companies. Because of the win-win effects on economy and environment there is a high potential for financial support of the government like in Bavaria (Germany), where the government supports the company's part of the financing. The financial resources for the implementation of measures in the companies come from the companies. Amortization time is in 50% of the measures below two years. Companies get their financial inputs back with the factor 1:10 because of cost-savings and efficiency increase.

The know-how comes from experts that train consultants and representatives of the municipality for the project in the ECOPROFIT academy of the CPC Austria. The human resources come from the companies, where an ECOPROFIT team is built, from the municipality which does the project management and from the consultants that train representatives of the companies and offer consultancy within companies. The CPC Austria distributes and coaches the project, does quality assurance and runs the international ECOPROFIT network.

Process

An ECOPROFIT project starts with the decision of a municipality to implement ECOPROFIT in their city/region. They choose at minimum two consultants to accompany the project. The next step is an ECOPROFIT academy course in this city/region where representatives of the authority and the consultants are taught the basic methods of ECOPROFIT as well as know how that they need for implementation (process management, analysis of production, waste management).

After this course the consultants acquire participating companies and an ECOPROFIT team is formed in the companies. In one project cycle there are about 5-8 workshops (concentrating, for instance, on energy, water) where the consultants train representatives of companies. Simultaneous the consultants go into the particular companies to find and implement measures together with the representatives of the companies that took part in the workshops. After this cycle with the duration of about a year, there is a verification of the company's results and if they are positive a certification as an ECOPROFIT company follows.

After this basic cycle continuous participation in the project in form of the ECOPROFIT club programme yields the best results because constantly new know-how is transferred into the companies and there are new potentials for improvements. The problems that appeared in transferring ECOPROFIT all over the world mainly concerned the general recognition of the project. This was soon overcome with the help of offensive marketing focus on single countries like for instance Germany. The next problem was the quality assurance concerning the results of the project. That is why it is urgently recommended that there are at least two consulting companies participating in a project to create constructive and fair competition.

Furthermore the CPC Austria supports quality assurance with the help of controlling and evaluation of the project. To exchange experience among the participants and all stakeholders an internet-platform was created that is now growing to an international network of municipalities, companies, consultants and universities. Periodical meetings strengthen the cooperation and the relations between the network's participants. Problems that have to be dealt with now, are to find consistent possibilities and ways of financing the project in developing countries, to face linguistic difficulties in transfer and to overcome cultural barriers.

Results

The main success so far has been the transfer of ECOPROFIT to more than 1000 companies that participate in about 50 cities of the world. The results of the project that were experienced over 10 years in Graz: 105 companies of 38 different branches that participated within the last 10 years achieved cost savings of 22 Million Euro and an economical growth up to 15% per year with municipal assistance of about 1.5 Million Euro and own efforts of about 0.75 Million Euro. They reached a reduction of eco- related expenses for energy, water, waste, emissions' of partly about 70%. That means a factor of about 1:10 if you compare the companies inputs with the output of the project (cost-savings). The reasons for this enormous factor are the ECOPROFIT know-how and the low consulting costs that are shared between the municipality and the company as well as among the companies. The results were measured and analysed before and after each measure.

The environmental success is remarkable: savings of - Raw materials 15,000 t, - Solvents 580 t, - Municipal waste 4,500 t, - Hazardous waste 1,000 t, - Water 900,000 m³, - Electricity 20,000 MWh, - Heat energy 50,000 MWh, - Natural gas 3,000,000 m³ and - Oil 500 t.

ECOPROFIT substantially contributed to the attainment of the target in Graz, to stop the smog. That has been yielded in the winter 1995/96. Since then in Graz there has not been any smog any more.

Sustainability

The financial input of companies is returned to the companies with the factor 1:10 by cost savings. The consultants are responsible for securing continual amortisation of investments by the companies and, on average, 50% of the investments charge off in lower than two years. At the same time the municipality has the possibility to efficiently support companies, improving the environmental situation and increasing the quality of life for the inhabitants with its support. The effects of ECOPROFIT on economy:

- Sustainability add to the job security and - Creates new jobs for the region as well as - Improving infrastructure due to successful companies. Soft skills for the region are - Improved image of the region, - Less expenses for bio-remediation and - International advantages regarding location and competition.

Last but not least ECOPROFIT helps municipalities as a controlling instrument for the implementation of sustainable structures, supports the realisation of Local Agenda 21 objectives to reach the Kyoto targets and helps to secure the compliance of the OECD guidelines and the "Global Compact" of the UN secretary general office. ECOPROFIT stimulates a change of technology and production towards sustainability in the companies. Among the companies that participate in the international ECOPROFIT network there is also good communication because of social events and meeting each other and synergetic effects in problem solving are reached as well as co-operations are built up. This ducts to better knowing the other participants and contacts to for instance companies that provide technologies for the use of renewable resources that participate too. Therefore these new technologies get reputed and utilised because doubts decrease with examples. Perhaps the biggest success concerning sustainability is the independent continuation of the idea of ECOPROFIT in the companies even if they no longer participate in ECOPROFIT.

Lessons learned

The first lesson had to be learned already before the first programme. The municipality inspected existing environmental management systems like EMAS and ISO 14001 and realised that they do not meet with the objectives of companies. The programmes raise costs for the companies and there was no cooperation aspect included, not among the companies and not between companies and the municipality. That is why they decided to initiate a project that includes these two aspects. And the experience showed that ECOPROFIT is more efficient. Another lesson learned is that continuous participation in the project yields the best results, because constantly new know-how is transferred into the companies and there are new potentials for improvements. The example Graz has shown that even companies that participate for 7 or 8 years still make great success.

Maybe one of the most important lessons learned was the further development of the programme. Topicality and continuous adaptation to the needs of companies and municipalities is done by the CPC Austria. Consultation of experts world-wide, attending conferences around the topic and opinions as well as proposals in the form of questionnaires for all participants make these data available for us. At the moment we are working to implement a new chapter to the topic "ECODESIGN" to the ECOPROFIT academy seminar papers.

Transferability

The Cleaner Production Center Austria was founded by the city of Graz in 1996 to distribute the model ECOPROFIT all over the world to let other cities and region's profit from the success of Graz too. CPC Austria therefore organised the ECOPROFIT academy to transfer the know-how and to secure the quality of the programme in other cities/regions. The academy is held in the specific regions and representatives of local authorities as well as consultants are taught the methods of ECOPROFIT and contents that are tuned to the specific needs. This academy is supported via internet. The content of the academy is the collected know-how of 10 years experience in Graz and the knowledge of international experts.

The project ECOPROFIT grew in the frame of the further development to a complete and comprehensible programme that can be transferred without many efforts. Furthermore CPC Austria is building up an international network of ECOPROFIT cities and regions to support the interregional communication, cooperation and know-how transfer. This is yielded with the help of the internet and periodical meetings. At the moment there are about 40 cities with over 1000 companies participating in ECOPROFIT in Germany (participants like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg). Separate from the 7 regions in Austria (Graz, Vienna) that take part, projects in Upper-Italy and Shanghai, China and Eastern Europe are starting up.

One of the most important factors in distribution and transfer of ECOPROFIT is the quality assurance. We do this with the help of the ECOPROFIT academy to secure that the consultants are well trained and have the required know-how to proceed the project.

Another aspect of quality assurance is the minimum of at least two consulting companies participating in a project to create constructive competition. Furthermore CPC Austria supports quality assurance with the help of controlling and evaluation.

Key Dates

1991 Development of ECOPROFIT in Graz

1996 Foundation CPC Austria; European Sustainable Cities Award (City of Graz)

2000 International trademark; Start of internationalization; 1st ECOPROFIT-academy

2002 over 1000 companies/50 cities participating

Contact

Petra Oswald Messendorfgrund 30 Graz 8042 Austria Tel: +43/316/4079 88 Fax: +43/316/4079 8830 E-mail: [email protected] Type of Organization: Private Sector

Partners

City of Graz - Department for Environment Margit Baumhakel-Schruef Kaiserfeldgasse 1/IV Graz 8042 Austria Tel: +43/316/872 4301 Fax: +43/316/872 4309 email:[email protected] Type of Organization: Local Authority Type of Partner Support: Financial Support