The Birkenfeld environmental campus, the Wallonian export agency AWEX, the GrandEst region, Luxinnovation and htw saar Greater Green have been developing for around a year. The start of the project on 30.9.2016 with the high-ranking press conference at the invitation of the Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken underlines the political significance for the Greater Region. The growth sector of environmental technology is to become more visible internationally. With annual economic growth of 11 percent in the region, the Greater Region is a core area for green technologies. Sectors such as water and wastewater management, renewable energies and their possible applications in industry, the public and private sectors, environmental services and the recycling sector as well as sustainable and ecological construction offer attractive jobs and promote sustainable management.
The preparation phase of almost six months has already paid off: the project team got together well and successfully started working together on the project goals. Six official team meetings and five trade fair and exhibition accompaniments, many individual discussions of the regional coordinators with member clusters, two Greater Green Meetings as well as the first Greater Green Day since the kick-off of Greater Green in mid-May testify to the high intensity of work.
The focus is on greater networking and better visibility of environmental technology in the Greater Region. The first successful steps have already been taken: the development of the corporate identity and the uniform and multilingual trade fair presence with trade fair stand, roll-ups, information material and giveaways has been completed. At trade fairs such as the LetzBiz in Luxembourg, the 8th International Conference on Environmental Services in Birkenfeld, the 4th LIESA Congress in Saarbrücken, the Renewable Energy Day at the htwsaar or through participation in the EU-GreenWeek of the European Commission, more than 550 experts from research institutions, environmental technology companies and ministries beyond the Greater Green region (Switzerland, Netherlands, Baden-Württemberg) have learned about Greater Green. No less than 50 people have been personally convinced of the potential of the Meta-Cluster and expressed their interest in participating. It is to be expected that interest in the Meta Cluster will continue to grow as trade fair and exhibition activities intensify.
