“Love” for Interreg North-West Europe was in the air
this Valentine’s Day: From February 14th to February 16th,
Luxembourg’s Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planing (MLOGAT) invited all IB-Green
project partners to the capital of Luxemburg for the second IB-Green project meeting
after the kick-off in Wiesbaden last September.
Ms. Nicole Skirde-Vural, Luxemburg’s National Interreg Contact Point, as well as Marie Josée Vidal, First Counsellor at the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, welcomed the project partners on the first project meeting day. On a very positive note, in the Project Steering Group Meeting, Birgit Haupter from Infrastruktur & Umwelt (Lead Partner support) praised the project partners for their diligent and punctual reporting work during the first reporting phase, but also for the good overall financial status that was achieved so far.
Impact Measurement and Visiting a "Virtual" IBP
In the following Working Group sessions, the partners first received input from Luxplan S.A. on heavy rain events. Together they brainstormed on how certain aspects, such as regulatory aspects and incentives, can support effective heavy rain management.
Further, the preparation of IB-Green
pilot actions was intensified after a previous online meeting at the beginning
of the year: After inputs from different partners, the group discussed how the
impact of adaptation activities be measured. One chance that a lot of partners
used: Trying on virtual reality glasses to “walk” around Sandyford Business
District, a tool which the project partner from Ireland will use to visualize
the effects of future measures.
Best-practices at Ecopark Windhof and PositiveImpaKT
The second day started with a small flashback to school field trips: The project consortium took a bus to visit the site of the Ecopark Windhof. At this industrial and business park, the group visited the office of PositiveImpaKT located in the Solarwind building to gain an impression of the building’s green facades, solar panels, but also solutions on how to integrate renewable heating sources (not to mention impressive upcyling, e.g. of street signs or trash cans for interior furniture).
Developing IB-Green's Strategy and an Award for Companies
After this practical outing, partners dived back into
the theory for the last Working Group session: They focused on
what local or national adaptation strategies exist and how they can favor measures
in industrial and business parks. Finally, Wila Bonn exchanged with
partners on their idea of designing an award to highlight the efforts of “pioneer”
businesses for adaptation measures.
With inspired minds and full stomachs, it was time to say “Äddi, Luxembourg” – and most of all, to thank Maurice Nilles, Daniel Martin and Juliette Matthieu for their hospitality and their organization of this project meeting.