Introduction
Year：1998
Region：Europe & Former Soviet Union States
Country：Austria
Summary：ECOPROFIT Graz is an on-going project which attempts to put into practice the concept of profit from pollution prevention. The program works to introduce the local industrial and business communities to the financial benefits of cleaner production technologies and processes. The program recruits companies on a voluntary basis and facilitates workshops and technical assistance communities to the financial benefits of cleaner production technologies and processes. The program recruits companies on a voluntary basis and facilitates workshops and technical assistance to help companies identify and implement cleaner production technologies and process changes. The program succeeds in convincing companies to implement these changes by demonstrating that these improved management techniques will result in increased efficiency and profits. The project uses an innovative approach which couples information and technical support based on a three-way partnership between the Municipality, research and local industrial/business community. Companies are given guidance in implementing cleaner production processes which reduce wastes and pollution and increase efficiency and profits. Successful companies are awarded ECOPROFIT labels. Rewarding participating companies through promotional activities motivates other-companies to adopt similar pollution prevention measures and leads to a wider application of pollution prevention approaches. Since 1991 53 companies from aprox. 30 different branches with a total of approx. 18500 employees and a turnover of approximately US $ 3 billion have participated in the project.
Reason to Be Selected
Highlights:
The accession to the Climate Alliance or the WHO network "Healthy Cities" are outward, serious manifestations of these convictions. An immense advantage in this respect is that the provincial capital of Graz has always had its own local constitution. Being a municipality with its own statutes, the local council with its 56 members and the municipal government can to some extent decide on fundamental municipal issues such as sustainable urban development-and the necessary social, ecological and economic framework. This is a basic prerequisite not only for the frequently cited "global thinking", butalso for "local action". This scope of action has been made use of inGraz in any number of innovative schemes and projects and is thus the framework for surmounting the problems facing the city.Details
Recommended
RESULTS ACHIEVED
"Environmental protection as self-interest" is the indicative subtitle of the Graz ECOPROFIT project which increased the responsibility of-business to protect the environment. When the ECOPROFIT project was initiated, the city of Graz was breaking new ground in several respects in the area of corporate environmental protection:· Consistent link-up of business, science and administration in solving common-environmental problems.
· Prioritizing environmental provisions over environmental repair, implementation of concrete parameters of sustainability in every ECOPROFIT Company and absolute transparency both internally and externally.
· Economic evaluation of ecological measures: environmental protection , the principle of self-interest was recognized as a healthy driving force in the-environmental sector
· Applicability to a wide range of companies, environmental management in the family and at schools up to municipal administration and far beyond.In addition to companies willing to innovate, the sectors of science and research at the universities of Graz have joined forces with Graz Department of Environmental Protection. This "triumvirate" has been able to effectively test the principle of sustainability and active provisions and certified this principle as being both-ecologically and economically expedient.
Apart from the obvious savings on resources and thus costs caused by emissions and waste, management and staff can also be motivated by the annual presentation of company awards and great image gain. Graz Department of Environmental Protection is thus a promoting partner and not merely a regulatory bureaucratic authority.
In 1995, the number of companies that have been presented with this ECOPROFIT award for special and well-defined environmental achievements along the lines of this successful concept had almost doubled from 15 to 27 and are settling around 35 in the recent years. At the same time, national and international interest in Graz environmental projects, particularly with regard to the Eco-audit of the EU or the UN "Local Agenda 21", has steadily increased.
| Lat: | 47.0736 |
| Lng: | 15.4418 |
| Type: | |
| Region: | Europe |
| Scale: | District |
| Field: | Economy |
| City: | Graz |