On May 25, POM East Flanders hosted a seminar on sustainable business estate management for representatives from local government. More than 40 people were present at the event and heard presentations from the Agency of Business, POM East Flanders and representatives of the East-Flemish business clubs.
The main message of the afternoon was that mismanagement of business estates in the past led to the creation of so-called brownfields. POM East Flanders is a strong promoter of sustainable management, thus increasing the quality of the business estate. Naturally, energy-efficiency and renewable energy are important strands of sustainable management and will only become more important in the future. Representatives of two business clubs, who have received support through the ANSWER project, talked about the benefits of thinking and acting sustainably as a group of businesses.
Some reflections of the afternoon can be watched in this video. This was aired on local television on June 5.
The East-Flemish Deputy of Economy commented on the subject: "The objective is clearly to create a win-win situation. We want to teach our companies that cooperation leads to more efficient and cheaper ways of working which also saves nature. When entrepreneurs cooperate on managing resources and waste, (and) guarantee safety and mobility on a business estate, the companies and the environment are both big winners."
Jan Lippens, chair of Zaubeek Power, added to this: "There are a number of short term initiatives such as signaling that are very important for the accessibility of the business estate. There are also numerous group purchases that can be undertaken and there are opportunities for networking. But the long term is actually much more important. All of us are entrepreneurs that are willing to think together with (local) governments on initiatives for the business estates.