Environmental benefits RO-17 Green Industry Innovation Programme Romania 14 Oct. 2016, Bucharest Mihai-Lucian Toniuc   www.norwaygrants-greeninnovation.no

Environmental friendly technologies Green products and services Realisation of business opportunities of greening of the European economy Environmental friendly technologies Green products and services Material efficiency and waste management Greener management and production processes Eco-innovation Creating “green” jobs The current world environmental problems such as climate change, increased pollution and fast depletion of resources call for more action. Goods and services need to have less of an environmental impact, but at the same time to remain economically viable – this calls for innovation Referring back to “Green” component, this was a prerequisite of the GII Programme and was a scope in itself being linked to sustainable development of businesses and society. …the Green Industry Innovation Programme‘s vision is: Good for business and good for the environment. …all projects funded by the GII Programme had to aim at a final result of improving the environmental performance of enterprises. The main activities, developed and implemented within GII, are related to: Environmental friendly technologies – which is technologies that are less environmental harmful than the technology in use today, encompassing technologies and processes to manage pollution (e.g. air/water/soil pollution control, waste management) and that use resources more efficiently. “Green” products and services – which are goods and services that have less impact on the environment (less polluting and less resource-intensive) or less impact on human health than traditional equivalents and which are economically viable. Other project activities aimed at: Material efficiency and waste management - which is improved material flow in manufacturing and supply-chain, use and re-use of recycled materials, improved products based on recycled materials and innovation that change production and consumption patterns. ”Greener” management and production processes – which are improvements related to the way the business operation is carried out, like management, business models, standardization, certification, Human Resources (HR), smart purchasing, supply chain management, green energy interventions that support the greening of enterprises’ activities and processes, initiatives related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), cooperation with networks/clusters etc. Eco-innovation – defined as any form of innovation aiming at significant and demonstrable progress towards the goal of sustainable development, through reducing impacts on the environment or achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources. At the same time the projects have contributed to creating “Green” jobs, jobs that help reduce negative environmental impact, ultimately leading to environmentally, economically and socially sustainable enterprises and economies. More precisely green jobs are jobs that: - Reduce consumption of energy and raw materials; - Limit greenhouse gas emissions; - Minimise waste and pollution; - Protect and restore eco-systems. The Programme specific outcome was the “Realisation of business opportunities of greening the European economy”.

RO-17 GII – the green component The challenge in measuring the “green” component of RO-17 GII ‐ high variety of specific topics or environmental issues dealt with under each of the four Programme areas; ‐ differences between the two types of intervention logic, i.e. investments/infrastructure projects vs. research and pilot initiatives; ‐ differences between types of beneficiaries (large-medium-small companies, NGOs); ‐ differences in terms of environmental impacts of production operations vs. service‐delivery and small‐scale community based activities.

RO17 – environmental benefits Measuring environmental benefits - indicators How to measure? identifying most suitable indicators for demonstrating the positive environmental effects, e.g. Inputs Operations Products I1 M Recycled/ reused content (tonnes/ year) O1 M Waste generation (reduction and prevention) (tonnes/ year) P1 M New raw materials from recyclable products (tonnes/ year) I2 M Waste processed for recycling (tonnes/ year) O2 M Materials consumption (tonnes/year) P2 M New raw materials from biodegradable products (compost, etc.) (tonnes/ year) I3 M Waste collected for recycling (tonnes/ year) O3 P Hazardous chemicals waste generation- POPs, Heavy Metals, etc. (Reduction) (tonnes/ year) P3 CC Biomass (tonnes/ year) The challenge was to identify the most suitable indicators for demonstrating the positive environmental effects of the projects under GII.. The scope of the proposed set of environmental indicators is twofold: a) provide in the largest extent possible, at individual project level, a straight forward insight into the improvements brought by the investments/ financial support of RO‐17 Green Industry Innovation Programme on operations having significant environmental effects; b) aggregate an overall picture of the Programme’s contribution for sustaining the Romania’s transition towards a green and low‐carbon economy, build upon individual project achievements. The proposed set of environmental indicators has been drawing upon various conceptual elements pertaining to Environmental Management Systems, including from guidelines for “greening” business operations worldwide The set of selected environmental indicators can be grouped on two levels: 1st grouping: allows to differentiate between the place of occurrence of the positive environmental effects within the typical production cycle – inputs, operations and products; 2nd grouping allows to differentiate between environmental improvements according to the following topical areas: (M) material consumption efficiency, (W) water usage efficiency, (P) pollution, (CC)climate change, (NR) natural resources.

RO17 – environmental benefits, aggregated, 2015 & Jan-Jul 2016 Material efficiency (i.e. 127.321 tonnes of waste from production and operational processes, collected for reuse or recycling; processed waste as row materials for other production processes: 42.054 tonnes of recycled plastic, 108.636 tonnes of recycled paper 1.772 tonnes of recycled glass 1.247 tonnes of recycled metals 14.306 tonnes of recycled wood) Resources efficiency 59.625 litters of fuel savings 3.620.611 cubic meters of natural gas savings 15.291 tonnes of biomass produced, partly used for heating 17.578 cubic meters of fresh water savings The assessment of environmental benefits shows that the RO-17 Green Industry Innovation Programme Romania has positively contributed to environmental protection, with the greatest achievements in terms of (aggregated results for 2015 and the period January-July 2016): …

RO17 – environmental benefits, aggregated, 2015 & Jan-Jul 2016 Energy efficiency 2.784 MWh of energy savings and 631 MWh of green energy produced) Pollution 552 tonnes less products with content of restricted/hazardous substances 598 cubic meters less polluted water generated). GHG emissions (GHG not released in the atmosphere) 2015: 62.587 tonnes of CO2 eq. Jan.-Jul. 2016: 47.533 tonnes of CO2 eq. A typical passenger vehicle emits in the atmosphere about 2 tons of carbon dioxide per year (1.4 litres petrol engine; 166 g/km CO2 emissions; 12.000 km/year)

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