EcoProfit
Encyclopedia
ECOPROFIT was developed in 1991 in Graz
, Austria
by the Environmental Office of the City of Graz
and Graz University of Technology.
ECOPROFIT is a cooperative approach between the regional authority and local companies with the goal of reducing cost for waste, raw materials, water, and energy. Reductions in these areas also reduce environmental aspects of businesses. The model addresses production companies as well as hospitals, hotels, service companies and tradespeople.
Important elements of ECOPROFIT are workshops in Cleaner production
and individual consulting by experienced consultants. After the first year the companies are audited (legal compliance, environmental performance, environmental programme) and receive an official award by the City. A number of companies at the same time goes for certification according to ISO 14001.
Additionally, most of the companies join the socalled ECOPROFIT CLUB. In regular workshop meetings they receive an exchange of experience and update their knowledge on environmental law and new organisational and technical development. The companies also receive support by consultants in the identification and implementation of new measures.
The ECOPROFIT approach as a model of cooperation of the community with regional companies is used in 19 countries on 4 continents.
More than 5.000 companies world wide participate in ECOPROFIT projects, most of them in Austria and Germany.
In Graz, a city with 260.000 inhabitants, until today, on an annual basis approximately 2 million Euros are saved. Results include (as of 2002, first year savings): 100.000 m³ of water, 2 GWh electricity, 0,5 GWhs of process heat, 700 tons of solid waste. This makes Ecoprofit an important means to reduce the industrial contribution to Global warming
. In the German projects, more than 100.000 tons of carbon dioxide
are saved annually.
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
by the Environmental Office of the City of Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
and Graz University of Technology.
ECOPROFIT is a cooperative approach between the regional authority and local companies with the goal of reducing cost for waste, raw materials, water, and energy. Reductions in these areas also reduce environmental aspects of businesses. The model addresses production companies as well as hospitals, hotels, service companies and tradespeople.
Important elements of ECOPROFIT are workshops in Cleaner production
Cleaner production
Cleaner production is a preventive, company-specific environmental protection initiative. It is intendend to minimize waste and emissions and maximize product output. By analysing the flow of materials and energy in a company, one tries to identify options to minimize waste and emissions out of...
and individual consulting by experienced consultants. After the first year the companies are audited (legal compliance, environmental performance, environmental programme) and receive an official award by the City. A number of companies at the same time goes for certification according to ISO 14001.
Additionally, most of the companies join the socalled ECOPROFIT CLUB. In regular workshop meetings they receive an exchange of experience and update their knowledge on environmental law and new organisational and technical development. The companies also receive support by consultants in the identification and implementation of new measures.
The ECOPROFIT approach as a model of cooperation of the community with regional companies is used in 19 countries on 4 continents.
- Austria (GrazGrazThe more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, VorarlbergVorarlbergVorarlberg is the westernmost federal-state of Austria. Although it is the second smallest in terms of area and population , it borders three countries: Germany , Switzerland and Liechtenstein...
, KlagenfurtKlagenfurt-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
), - Germany (MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, DortmundDortmundDortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, AachenAachenAachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, and 60 more cities), - Slovenia (LjubljanaLjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, MariborMariborMaribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
), - Italy (ModenaModenaModena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
), - Hungary (PécsPécsPécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
), - India (GurgaonGurgaonGurgaon is the second largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of national capital New Delhi, about 10 kilometers from Dwarka Sub City and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital...
), - Colombia (BucaramangaBucaramangaBucaramanga is a Colombian city, and capital city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth largest city economy and sixth largest population in Colombia, with 1,212,656 people in its metropolitan area...
, MedellínMedellínMedellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
), - Korea (IncheonIncheonThe Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...
, BusanBusanBusan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
), - China (PanzhihuaPanzhihuaPanzhihua is a prefecture-level city located in the far south of Sichuan province of Southwest China, on the confluence of the Jinsha and Yalong Rivers. It has an administrative area of , and a total population of 1,100,800 as of 2007. It is the only city in China having a name of a flower, and...
) and further more.
More than 5.000 companies world wide participate in ECOPROFIT projects, most of them in Austria and Germany.
In Graz, a city with 260.000 inhabitants, until today, on an annual basis approximately 2 million Euros are saved. Results include (as of 2002, first year savings): 100.000 m³ of water, 2 GWh electricity, 0,5 GWhs of process heat, 700 tons of solid waste. This makes Ecoprofit an important means to reduce the industrial contribution to Global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. In the German projects, more than 100.000 tons of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
are saved annually.
External links
- ECOPROFIT Platform
- CPC Austria GmbH - ECOPROFIT Training and Distribution Center
- Stenum GmbH - International ECOPROFIT Trainer / Consulter
- City of Graz - Regional ECOPROFIT homepage