Ökoprofit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ökoprofit certificate award 2018 in Feldkirch , Vorarlberg ( Austria ). In the background the Ökoprofit logo.

Ökoprofit (official spelling ECOPROFIT in capital letters, completely eco logical Pro ject F ÜR I ntegrated Environmental T echnology ) is a collaborative effort between local authorities and the local economy with the aim of reducing operating costs while simultaneously conserving natural resources (u. A. Water, energy). Manufacturing companies, service providers and social institutions as well as craftsmen are equally addressed.

Principles

Important building blocks of the concept are joint workshops of the participating companies, in which the contents of Cleaner Production are conveyed, and on-site advice from Ökoprofit consultants. After a project lasting about one year, the companies are checked using a catalog of criteria (submission of a waste management concept, successful implementation of measures, ambitious environmental program, environmental policy, environmental team, use of key figures, etc.) and awarded by the city for their performance. After participating in an Ökoprofit basic program, numerous companies complete their environmental management system in accordance with standards and are certified according to ISO 14001 .

Unlike other environmental management approaches that are only aimed at individual operations, Ökoprofit aims to create a local network for environmental protection. After one year in the basic program, many companies join a club in which they are informed in regular workshops about new developments in environmental law and relevant organizational and technical innovations.

distribution

The project was developed in Graz ( Austria ) at the beginning of the 1990s by the City of Graz, represented by the Graz Environment Agency, and the STENUM working group at the Institute for Basic Process Engineering at Graz University of Technology. The originally Austrian project also spread internationally.

One of the strongholds in Austria is Vorarlberg with over 150 companies in the Ökoprofit Club. Since December 12, 2013, to complement the Ökoprofit network, there has been a separate association for increased environmental awareness among the already certified Ökoprofit companies and the public or interested companies and people. Vienna and Graz each have over 150 companies participating in Ökoprofit.

This approach to group-wise implementation of preventive environmental protection is also accepted internationally: In Germany, over 2000 companies have participated in eco-profit projects. In Hamburg alone, more than 300 companies had been certified by 2016, of which more than 70 companies joined the Hamburg Ökoprofit Club to form an active network.

By July 2010, 1,055 companies in North Rhine-Westphalia had participated in this project.

In North Rhine-Westphalia 40,400 tons of waste, 3.1 million m 3 of water or wastewater, 545 million kWh of electricity, 186,000 t of CO 2 and around 50,000,000 € in operating costs are saved every year . The investments for these savings measures amount to € 141,000,000 and will pay for themselves after three years.

The participating municipalities include in North Rhine-Westphalia u. a. the cities of Aachen , Dortmund , Hamm , Bielefeld and Münster . In these cities alone, over 200 companies have participated in Ökoprofit and have established local networking structures.

Ökoprofit is internationally recognized by cities and regions in Italy (Modena), Slovenia (Ljubljana and Maribor), Hungary (Pécs), India (Gurgaon, Hyderabad), Colombia (Bucaramanga, Medellin), Korea (Incheon, Busan; Daegu) , China ( Panzhihua ), Nicaragua and the Philippines as a model of cooperation between the municipality and regional companies.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU): Environmental management approaches in Germany . Berlin, S. 27-28 .
  2. ^ " ÖKOPROFIT in Vorarlberg - Association for the Promotion of Environmental Management and Sustainability at Company Level " ( ZVR number 274076974). It is the first such club in Austria.