From September 11th to September 13th, project partners from six European countries met in Wiesbaden to kick-off the Interreg North-West-Europe-Project „Industrial and Business Parks – climate resilient & fit for future“. The Kick Off-Meeting took place in Biebrich Castle and was hosted together by the lead partner, Climate Alliance, and project partner HLNUG (Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology).
The location Biebrich Castle, with its adjacent park as a green oasis in the city of Wiesbaden, fits to objective of the Interreg-Project „IB-Green“: The project aims at reducing heat stress, particularly in industrial and business parks, by developing green and blue infrastructure, thus improving air quality in urban areas. As an Interreg NWE-Project, the project partners include six European countries Belgium, Ireland, France, Luxemburg, Netherlands and Germany).
Heat stress played also played a role for the participants at the Kick-Off Meeting: With temperatures rising to 30 °C, participants were still called on to participate actively in four working group sessions, most importantly presenting their planned project activities within IB-Green. In the project steering group meeting, Climate Alliance gave an overview e.g of the internal procedures for the project steering group and responsibilities of lead partner and project partners within the partnership. Vincent Hagneré, Project Officer at the Joint Secretariat and Lorraine Brindel-Schild, National Contact Point in Germany, were also present. Mr. Hagneré presented the reporting requirements in detail to the partners.
On the second meeting day, project partner HLNUG presented their work on climate adaptation and greening industrial and business parks. Further, Martin Burmester from the city of Wiesbaden presented plans to redesign the area close to Biebrich railway station, which at the moment is a bottleneck for traffic, with limited possibilities for pedestrians to cross the railway tracks.
Besides the working part of the meeting, participants enjoyed a walking tour of Wiesbaden as well as a well-deserved dinner in L’Osteria. After one and a half exciting, but also strenuous days, it was time for the IB-Green participants to say goodbye, but see you again soon for the next project meeting in Luxemburg in February 2024!