The European Network of Ecodesign Centres, driven by Ihobe, finalises its implementation - 24 July, 2012.
On 16 July, Ecodesign Centre Wales, Pole de Eco-Conception, Ovam and Ihobe, as the secretary of the Basque Ecodesign Center, met at the offices of the Basque Delegation to Brussels to finalise the details of the deployment of the European Network of Ecodesign Centres. This Network aims to provide the structure to exchange the best regional practices to drive the widespread use of ecodesign in SMEs.
The meeting convened by Ihobe to prepare the launch
of the European Network of Ecodesign Centres, made progress on developing the
objectives and lines of action of this international network. It also
considered actions for knowledge transfer, to activate the demand for ecodesign
by SMEs and to encourage eco-innovation partnership projects.
Michael Bennett, the European
Commission Ecodesign representative and who took part at the
meeting, stressed that this Network “is an initiative that will show us how to
speed up the incorporation of Ecodesign in European SMEs with the maximum
return on the private-public partnership”.
The Director Ecodesign
Centre Wales, Frank O´Connor, considered that “the European Network of
Ecodesign Centres is an initiative based on mutual confidence that will enable
the policies of our respective governments to promote ecodesign to be deployed
more efficiently and with fewer resources", while Samuel Mayer, Director
of Pole Eco-Conception declared
that “In the more than six months that we have been working together since the Bilbao
Ecodesign Meeting 2011, we have already seen mutual benefits. We are
now beginning to deploy the ambitious Grenelle Act in France and it is time to
show that working together is the way to better promote ecodesign in the SMEs”.
Miranda Geusens, a director of the Flemish
Environmental Agency Ovam,
stressed that this network would open up the way to expand the ecodesign
awareness-raising, information and advisory services for SMEs and to develop
new know-how in conjunction with other European Ecodesign Centres.
Source: www.ihobe.net
24 July, 2012.