At the beginning of March, the 5th General Assembly of Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz e.V. took place in the premises of ISSO (Institute for Social and Sustainable Oikonomics) in the Dreikönigenhaus in the old town of Koblenz. The Board was unanimously confirmed in office by the representatives of its member organisations present and entitled to vote. Ecoliance is the environmental technology company network for Rhineland-Palatinate founded at the end of 2014.
Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz and Greater Green are working hand in hand to achieve the same goal: to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized environmental technology companies through sales- and innovation-promoting networking and increased international visibility, thereby promoting growth and employment in the Greater Region. The large overlaps and synergies between clusters and meta-clusters in activities and objectives have resulted in very close cooperation between the two, from which both networks benefit mutually. Therefore, further joint appearances at trade fairs and specialist conferences within and outside the Greater Region, such as IFAT Munich, the trade fair for water, wastewater, waste and raw materials management, will follow. Special activities such as the mutual promotion of members of the Meta-Cluster, as in the case of the "Company Mission" at the beginning of December 2017 between Ecoliance Rhineland-Palatinate and Cap Innove Wallonia, will also be continued. "Such joint events are extremely important and useful for the integration of the environmental technology industry in the Greater Region," emphasizes Werner Pilsner, who is responsible for the internationalization of the Ecoliance Rhineland-Palatinate network. "The participants get to know their colleagues from the other parts of the Greater Region and their work up close and personal. Contacts to suitable partners for a possible cooperation could thus be found directly, Pilsner continues.
Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz's mission is to exploit and bundle the high potential of the leading position of the Rhineland-Palatinate environmental technology industry (11% of GDP) in Europe in order to be more visible, competitive and innovative. Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz is managed and coordinated by the employees of Innovations-Management gGmbH (IMG) in Kaiserslautern. As they are also responsible for the regional coordination of the Enterprise Europe Network, the management always has the internationalisation of the network in mind in order to open up new opportunities for the member companies by initiating contacts and cooperations in foreign markets.
This shows how well Ecoliance Rhineland-Palatinate and the Meta-Cluster Greater Green complement each other in their work. While the Rhineland-Palatinate cluster knows the potentials of its member companies from water and wastewater management, decentralized energy systems, sustainable construction, building technology as well as environmental services and recycling through its close proximity and can provide appropriate advice, Greater Green can use this information to offer targeted support in the cross-border networking of players in environmental technology from administration, business, science and research and in increasing the international visibility of the industry in the Greater Region. Greater Green is a meta-cluster for the green technology industry in the Greater Green Region and is in constant exchange with its network partners. Both act as a multiplier for each other and as an information hub between their members and partners. A win-win situation in which one strengthens the other and together creates added value for all.
The creation of the European Single Market in 1993 enabled the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital, thus removing the main barriers to trade. The separating effect of national borders is still noticeable in cultural and administrative differences (work culture, tax system, legislation, support system, etc.). Greater Green's work helps to overcome these hurdles in the networking of the environmental technology sector within the Greater Region.
"Openness and willingness to cooperate and collaborate are crucial. Only then do questions arise about different handling methods beyond the borders," says Tamara Breitbach, Managing Director of Greater Green. "With the knowledge of difference, a mutual trust can develop, which is fundamental for successful cooperation," she continues.
Greater Green was personally introduced to the representatives of the member companies present. The presentation aroused great interest. The joint networking work will initially focus on the "water and wastewater industry" with an Ecoliance network meeting on the topic "Drinking water - Where does the journey lead? On 23 and 24 May 2018, this year's Greater Green Day will take place as part of the "4th International Conference on Green Chemistry and White Biotechnology" at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia with the participation of Ecoliance from Rhineland-Palatinate.
