Catalysts for Cleaner Cement Production

Sustainable chemistry has a major role in building our future Smart Cities, ensuring our technologies are as clean as possible and providing the basis for 'green' living.

SusChem has provided much input on chemistry's contribution to energy efficiency in buildings and their contribution to Smart Cities initiatives including the SusChem report "Innovative chemistry for Energy efficiency of buildings in smart cities" and our visionary flagship project the Smart Energy Home. 

Another clear example of chemistry's contribution to cleaner construction is provided by Clariant. Cement production generates considerable harmful emissions including fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and ammonia, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulfur oxides. Cement is the main component of concrete, the most widely used construction material in the world.

Using a combined catalytic process the emissions from cement production can be reduced by 90% or more. In a first stage nitrogen oxides and ammonia in the cement process flue gas react on a catalytic layer, where they bind to iron active centres. The molecules interact with each other forming water and harmless nitrogen.

In the next stage remaining organic contaminants and carbon monoxide are eliminated by catalytic oxidation in an innovative ceramic honeycomb catalyst with an activated zeolite-coated surface. The zeolite matrix provides durable protection against dust, sulfur oxides, and moisture which can result in fast catalyst deactivation. This key innovation enables the catalyst to survive under the harsh conditions of the process for a considerable time.

Benefits
Using the two-stage process toxic pollutants are almost completely purified with pollutant emissions reduced by 90% and more meaning that required emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants can be easily met by cement plants. You can find out more about this innovative process in the video below.

For more information on SusChem initiatives for Smart Cities and construction materials, please contact SusChem coordinator Jacques Kormornicki at Cefic.

RESIDE gets Results

The heating and cooling of buildings contributes around 30% of the gross energy demand in Europe. Although new buildings follow more stringent energy efficiency standards, the existing and extensive estate of old buildings with poor energy rating is significant. Around 35-40% of Europe’s building stock was built before 1960 and 45-50% of the remainder before 1991. The density of old building stock varies extensively by regions, but the vast majority of Europe’s built environment more than 25 years old. In order to meet its emission and energy consumption reduction targets, Europe needs to urgently target and refurbish these older buildings in a cost-effective way.

Launched in December 2013 the SusChem-inspired FP7 project RESIDE aimed at supporting the implementation of EU Strategies to boost demand for innovation in the buildings refurbishment market by:

• Adapting and applying of a promising emerging scientific approach, Technology Innovation Systems (TIS) for an extended localised market assessment
• Defining, implementing and monitoring multi-level strategic roadmaps for Demand Sides Policy Measures (DSPM), based on the TIS market assessments, and
• Proactive engagement of all target groups in the whole process

CEFIC was a partner in RESIDE together with CiaoTech (Italy), Bax & Willems (Spain) and the University of Utrecht (NL)

RESIDE has assessed the market and set up a baseline scenario of the EU refurbishment sector with a focus on three EU regions (Lombardia-Italy, Catalonia-Spain, Noord Brabant-The Netherlands), using the TIS methodology to identify the interactions among different parts of the system.

The main results of RESIDE, in particular from the TIS analysis and confirmed through direct discussions with the regional stakeholders, are that the three regions have clear targets and comprehensive plans for building refurbishment and that the main barriers to implementation are not the existence of financing schemes or refurbishments technologies from construction companies but are more due to:

• Lack of knowledge of existing schemes
• The speed of market formation
• Resource mobilisation issues

Smart cities
The final results of the eighteen-month RESIDE project were presented to the General Assembly of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP SCC) at the Metropolitan Solutions conference in Berlin on 21 May 2015.

RESIDE representatives attended the plenary session of the EIP Smart Cities Conference, chaired by European Commissioner for Transport Mrs. Violeta Bulc and European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mr. Günther H. Oettinger. The conference attracted more than 450 representatives of EU organisations and communities including Mayors, CEOs and High-level speakers from all around Europe. The RESIDE project displayed a poster as part of the EIP event within the Berlin “Metropolitan Solutions” fair along with other 20 EU-funded projects on similar topics.

The RESIDE work raised high interest with the stakeholders present. In particular, Commissioner Bulc (see above Commissioner Bulc centre with Laszlo Bax on left from RESIDE) showed high interest in the RESIDE methodology and the three regional case studies, asking for more feedback on project’s results.

In the afternoon sessions, Laszlo Bax, the RESIDE project coordinator, presented the final results of the project to the EIP SCC’s Action Cluster “Sustainable Districts and Built Environment”. The Action cluster, chaired by Mrs. Rinske van Heiningen of Akzo Nobel and the Action Cluster leader, gathered about 40 people, all experts with multidisciplinary background and experience including architects, representatives of various EIP SCC commitments, entrepreneurs, university professors specialising in urban planning and energy efficiency in building, among other disciplines.

Finally, RESIDE partners participated to the break-out sessions on “Business Models for Sustainable Districts” and “District Regeneration” where representatives of the Action Cluster further discussed these topics and links and synergies with the EIP SCC in general, including the next steps for follow up.

RESIDE received several expressions of interest for future collaborations and was included in the list of projects on which the Action Cluster wants to push for a follow up within the EIP SCC community.

Chemistry: Building Energy Efficiency into Smart Cities

SusChem's thinking on chemistry's contribution to energy efficiency in buildings and their contribution to Smart Cities initiatives is featured in the latest Nexus Blog: the American Chemical Society (ACS) blog on Green Chemistry. The article was written by SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki and is based on the SusChem report "Innovative chemistry for Energy Efficiency of buildings in Smart Cities". The ACS's Nexus Blog aims to connect and expand the global green chemistry and engineering community.

The Nexus blog article covers a range of key chemistry-enabled solutions for Smart Cities initiatives including:

• High Reflectance Indoor Coatings
• High Reflectance and Durable Outdoor Coatings
• High Performance Insulation Foams
• High Performance Vacuum Insulation Panels
• Phase Change Materials (PCM)

Today, almost 75% of European citizens live in cities and this trend will continue. To succeed in creating sustainable and healthy cities, the Covenant of Mayors was launched in 2008 and is working to to support Europe’s 20-20-20 objectives of 20% reduction in emissions, 20% renewable energies and 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020.

You can learn more about these Key Innovations for Smart Cities in the SusChem report: "Innovative chemistry for Energy efficiency of buildings in smart cities." For more information, please contact Jacques Kormornicki at Cefic directly. 

Sustainable Energy Europe Awards - Deadline Extended

The EU Sustainable Energy Week 2015 (EUSEW2015) will take place on 15-19 June and as part of this continent-wide array of events the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards are back. Launched by the European Commission in 2006, every year since the Awards have highlighted the very best sustainable energy projects taking place across Europe. And there is still time for you to take part! The closing date is 16 March.

The Sustainable Energy Europe Awards show where you -  private companies, public authorities, energy agencies, NGO’s, cooperatives, chambers of commerce, industry and consumers associations, media, academic institutions and research and technological centres - can make a difference. The awards are the EU's reference prize for sustainable energy projects in Europe. Are you proud of your company’s efforts in reducing its carbon footprint? Does your city deserve further recognition and visibility for its achievements in sustainable energy? If so - don’t hesitate. The Awards are made for you.

If you are involved in a sustainable energy project take part in the Awards competition and get the recognition and visibility you deserve! The winners will be announced in a ceremony to take place in Brussels during EUSEW2015.

Apply now!
The deadline for applications is now 16 March 2015. And applying is easy. Just submit a draft description of your project that you can then adjust after receiving our personalised eligibility feedback.

For the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards 2015 there are three entry categories:

• Renewable energy
• Energy efficiency
• Cities, communitites and regions

Don't delay apply today!

What is EUSEW?

The EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is an initiative of the European Commission that first took place in 2006. Today, it is coordinated by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), in close cooperation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy.

The EU Sustainable Energy Week showcases activities dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. It is designed to spread best practices, inspire new ideas and build alliances to help meet the EU’s energy and climate goals.

Our aim is to form a bigger picture out of multiple individual efforts to motivate change through a varied programme of events.

For more information please contact the EUSEW Secretariat. You can also follow EUSEW activity on twitter (@euenergyweek) and the hashtag for EUSEW2015 is #eusew15.

Sustainable Buildings at Barcelona

Improving energy efficiency in buildings could reduce energy demand by at least 24% in housing and 27% in non-residential buildings with consequent reductions global emissions of some 23% compared to current values. These data set the context for the World Sustainable Building Conference, World SB14, taking place in Barcelona this week (28-30 October). And sustainable chemistry has a big role to play in achieving these objectives.

World SB14 will gather together nearly 2,000 experts in sustainable building technologies from all over the world to discuss the impact of the building sector on climate change and its consequences for the global population. And SusChem co-ordinator Jacques Kormonicki will be amongst them.

A set of chemistry-based proposals for increasing energy efficiency in buildings developed by SusChem was voted as one of the top three key innovations needed to transform European cities at the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference in Budapest in June 2013.

The SusChem proposals highlight five major chemistry-enabled solutions that have been tested and proven to significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings as well as contribute towards achieving the EU 20-20-20 targets.

Chemical winners
Key Chemistry-enabled Solutions are:

• High Reflectance Indoor Coatings
• High Reflectance and Durable Outdoor Coatings
• High Performance Insulation Foams 
• High Performance Vacuum Insulation Panels
• Phase Change Materials (PCM) 

Jacques Komornicki says: "Using these tested energy efficiency solutions can reduce energy use in buildings by up to 70%."

“These innovations are particularly suited to the renovation market and this market in turn has the potential to create growth and jobs in Smart Cities that adopt them whilst also contributing significantly to their emissions reduction goals - a double win!” he continues.

You can learn more about these Key Innovations for Smart Cities in the SusChem report: "Innovative chemistry for Energy efficiency of buildings in smart cities." For more information on SusChem materials innovation for energy efficiency in buildings, please contact Jacques Kormornicki at Cefic directly.

About World SB14 Barcelona
World SB14 Barcelona is a Conference organised by GBCe and promoted by CIB (Conseil International de Batîment), iiSBE (International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment), UNEP-SBCI (Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative) and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers), and counts on the collaboration of WGBC (World Green Building Council). The Sustainable Building Conference Series, of which World SB14 Barcelona is part, is the largest global meeting aimed at debating different aspects of sustainable building.

GBCe (GBC España)  is a non-profit association that unites representatives from the entire construction industry, to work together towards an energy and ecologically conscious approach to the design of the built environment. GBCe counts with the active participation and democratic representation from public institutions, academia, professional and business associations, among others.

Climate-KIC unveils four new climate change innovation programmes

Today (15 May) the Climate-KIC, the European Union’s main climate innovation initiative, has announced €100+ million funding for long-term programmes aimed at fighting the climate change challenge. At least two of these new programmes will be of interest to SusChem stakeholders.

The four new flagship pan-European innovation programmes will accelerate efforts in climate change mitigation and adaptation and will be supported by a combination of Climate-KIC, partner and external sources of funding to the tune of more than €100 million over the next four years. The programmes will start this year.

The new innovation programmes will incorporate a range of pioneering research, innovation and entrepreneurship in diverse technology sectors including:

• Sustainable urban environments
• Climate-friendly homes and offices
• Exploiting CO2 as a resource
• Catastrophe models for the finance industry

Mary Ritter, Climate-KIC Chief Executive Officer, said: “These new flagship initiatives will provide focus and impact for Climate-KIC’s approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation. These innovation programmes enable us to expand our work with climate experts, educators and innovative entrepreneurs across Europe to address climate change mitigation and adaptation – and shape the world’s next economy.”

The four programmes were announced at the European Business Summit in Brussels.

Exploiting CO2 as a resource
Under the leadership of Bayer MaterialScience, the enCO2re programme will further broaden the approach for CO2 re-utilisation, connecting technology leaders as well as leading European universities and institutes in order to leverage a broad utilisation of CO2 as feedstock for chemical value chains. Bayer MaterialScience has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of utilising CO2 as polymer feedstock and the news on this new project came on the same day as Bayer announced plans for an industrial scale plant producing CO2-based polyols in Europe.

Following a successful test phase and promising market analysis, Bayer MaterialScience plans to invest € 15 million in the construction of a production line at its Dormagen site to use CO2 to produce a precursor for premium polyurethane foam. The line will have an annual production capacity of 5,000 metric tons. The objective of the “Dream Production” project is to launch the first product on the market in 2016. Processors of polyols and polyurethanes have already expressed considerable interest.

#useCO2
Within the new enCO2re programme turning CO2 into high-value products, as well as evaluating the required infrastructure, will contribute to further decoupling energy and resource consumption from industrial growth a major objective of SusChem and the SPIRE2030 PPP.

Christoph Sievering, Head of Strategic Energy Management, Bayer MaterialScience commented: “Bayer believes in the potential of industrial symbiosis and open innovation. Climate-KIC offers a unique umbrella for further leveraging our ambitions to turn value chains into closed carbon cycles. The Climate-KIC enCO2re flagship is an industry initiative for enabling CO2 re-use. Climate-KIC drives innovation by connecting industry and technology leaders and convinced us with its three-pillar concept of innovation support, educational programmes and start-up acceleration.”

Other Partners of the enCO2re project include: Imperial College London, Delft University of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Laborelec, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, RWTH Aachen, GDF Suez, TU Berlin, and AkzoNobel.

Climate-friendly homes and offices
The Building Technologies Accelerator will bring together multidisciplinary ‘living lab’ teams across Europe to address the climate impact of new building technologies and accelerate the potential of low carbon products and services in the built environment. By the end of 2014, a range of new prototype technologies will be ready to be launched across Europe’s building sector.

Last year SusChem published a report on Key Innovations in Energy Efficiency in Buildings for Smart Cities that could contribute here and other sustainable chemistry contributions to improved resource and energy efficiency can be found at the Cefic-SusChem Smart Cities website.

Partners for the Building Technologies Accelerator include: Delft University of Technology; ETH Zurich; EMPA; Chalmers University of Technology; Knight Frank; and IVE Spain.

Sustainable urban environments
The Smart Sustainable Districts initiative will help some of Europe’s highest profile city district developments become global exemplar projects testing smart, sustainable systems for replication in other urban areas world-wide. Initially working with four pilot districts from a wider collaborative network of 12, the project will bring together some of the most advanced innovations from Climate-KIC’s network of over 200 partners. The project is led by Imperial College; Institute for Sustainability; TU Berlin; TNO; TU Munich; and Utrecht Sustainability Institute.

The fourth KIC covers ‘Catastrophe models for the finance industry.’

Check out RESIDE!

One of Cefic and SusChem’s latest FP7 project has just launched its website. The RESIDE project aims to boost innovation in the European Union’s building refurbishment sector through roadmaps for demand side policy measures. The project consortium includes Cefic, consultants Bax and Willems and CiaoTech (part of PNO Consulting Group), and the University of Utrecht and will focus on three EU regions: Noord Brabant in the Netherlands, Catalonia in Spain and Lombardia in Italy.

RESIDE aims to support the implementation of European Union strategies to boost demand for innovation in the building refurbishment market and complements SusChem activity in materials research in this area such as SusChem's award winning work on 'Innovative Chemistry for Energy Efficiency of Buildings in Smart Cities' and our work in the Smart Cities/ Smart Housing priority area in general. The project kicked of on 21 December 2013 and run for 18 months.

The project aims to achieve its objectives by adapting and applying a promising emerging scientific approach, Technology Innovation System (TIS), for an extended localised market assessment of refurbishment needs. RESIDE will define, implement and monitor multi-level strategic roadmaps for Demand Sides Policy Measures, based on the TIS market assessment and proactive engage with all target groups in the whole process, in order to guarantee that project’s results have a sound basis and good implementation chances in the ‘real world’.

Market assessment
RESIDE will assess the market and set up a robust baseline scenario for the EU refurbishment market with a focus on three EU regions (Lombardia, Catalonia and Noord Brabant), using the TIS methodology to identify the interactions among different parts of the system.

The best suitable mix of demand side policy measures for the three selected regions will be proposed based on a combined bottom-up regional approach together with an EU-wide market assessment and a clear implementation plan for region-specific and effective demand side policy measures will be developed.

Moreover, the Consortium will pro-actively engage with relevant authorities at all levels and other relevant EU stakeholders in the value chain with the aim of ensuring that the final roadmaps are formalised with maximum levels of realism, viability and impact potential.

Finally, RESIDE will develop appropriate methodologies to monitor and evaluate the roadmaps in their development and implementation, with links to the EU Innovation Demand Monitoring System (IDMS) and Business Innovation Observatory (BIO).

To find out more about RESIDE visit the website or contact the project via this link.

EUSEW13: Top Speakers share SusChem Priorities

Yesterday (June 26), the High-Level Conference of the European Union Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) officially came to an end. Over three days top-level speakers from the European Union, Member States and from civil society organisations discussed the priorities for energy in the years to come. It was clear that SusChem’s priorities in the areas of sustainability and efficiency in energy are shared by many of the speaker at EUSEW.

SusChem was present at a number of the over 100 events organised in Brussels alone and can report that our vision of the coming challenges is widely shared. In future society will need a more efficient and sustainable use of energy if we want to maintain our quality of life and be competitive on the world scene. And that means we have to support innovation in technologies, legislation and the market.

As explained by Paul Hodson, the Head of Unit for Energy Efficiency in DG Energy at the European Commission, we must overcome “financial, administrative and regulatory” barriers if we want to achieve our targets for energy efficiency in 2020. He was speaking at the EUSEW13 event 'Towards EU2020 and Beyond - Local and Regional Actions'. Following his stimulating keynote speech, a series of successful projects were presented: ranging from energy-savings measures for the street lighting of the city of Pula to the renovations of school heating system in some Paris district: it is now clear that the sustainable and efficient use of energy is a priority across the continent.

Chemistry role
And chemistry has a big part to play in overcoming the challenges of energy efficiency. One of the best examples of possible SusChem contributions to this field are the cooling and heating innovative insulations for buildings presented at the recent Smart Cities Platform Stakeholders Conference in Budapest.

Aside from being voted among the top three innovations at that conference, at EUSEW events it was made clear that this type of innovation is exactly what Europe will need to achieve its targets. At the conference event on Energy Efficiency, Mr. Pascal Eveillard, president of EURIMA – the European Insulation Manufacturers Association – made clear that cost-efficient solutions which can resolve technical challenges for the renovation of buildings will be crucial in achieving the proposed energy targets. This description fits SusChem’s key innovations like a glove.

Incentives
On top of this, local authorities are developing new incentive schemes to promote energy-efficient buildings and construction. Mr. Hoogelander of the Dutch NL Agency part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs presented one such scheme that includes tax reductions calculated on expenses incurred while refurbishing buildings, bank capitalisation support for mortgages for energy-efficient houses and an additional index in the calculation of the building’s market value according to their energy savings. A similar scheme, though wider in scope, was presented by Mr Gatier of the French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing.

It is clear that SusChem, and sustainable chemistry in general, will have further opportunities to contribute solutions for the current energy dilemmas. If solutions on par with those already proposed can be made available, it will become evident that chemistry is a key area to involve in the planning of a society that can use energy sustainably and efficiently.

For more information on SusChem’s winning proposals for Key Innovation for sustainable buildings download the SusChem report.

EU Sustainable Energy Week 2013

Following the tremendous interest in SusChem’s chemistry-based proposals for increasing energy efficiency in buildings shown at the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference in Budapest stakeholders will be interested in the events being organised during the EU’s Sustainable Energy Week 2013 (EUSEW 2013) in late June.

One small step from you, one giant leap for Europe! That’s the core message of this eighth edition of the EUSEW. The event takes place from 24 to 28 June and registration is open now!

EUSEW 2013 is set to be an exciting event that is packed full of activities that bring together energy stakeholders and the general public - and a great opportunity to further promote the message on chemistry and energy efficiency to a wider audience.

Details can be found on the EUSEW 2013 website that has been designed to ensure all participants can easily manage their involvement in the Week. The site contains all you need to know about attending events, submitting projects for the annual Awards or organising Energy Day activities that are taking place across Europe.

To participate in the high-level policy conference taking place in Brussels, or any event happening in your region or city, you must first create an account and then register for the conference, workshop, guided tour or exhibition of your choice.

A number of events taking place as part of the high-level conference in Brussels have caught SusChem’s eye:

• Towards EU2020 And Beyond – Local And Regional Actions taking place in the European Commission's Charlemagne Building in Brussels on the morning of 25 June
• Energy Efficiency taking place in the Charlemagne building during the afternoon of 25 June
• Towards smart cities and smart housing in Europe also taking place in the afternoon of 25 June in the Committee of the Regions Building, room JDE 51
• Innovation In Energy Efficiency Buildings And Districts For Smart Built Environment taking place on the morning of 26 June in the Committee of the Regions building in Brussels and organized in association with the Energy Efficient Buildings Association (E2BA) and
• From Ambition to Action: How to best deliver European building sector policies on the ground? on the afternoon of 26 June in the Commitee of the Regions building and organised by the Buildings Performance Institute Europe.

What is EUSEW?
The EUSEW event is organised by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI), the European Institutions, major energy actors and private companies. EUSEW 2013 celebrates innovative energy initiatives for a sustainable future – very much a SusChem theme.

The first EUSEW took place in 2006 and showcases activities dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. It is designed to spread best practices, inspire new ideas and build alliances to help meet the EU’s energy and climate goals.

SusChem voted Key Innovator for Smart Cities

A set of chemistry-based proposals for increasing energy efficiency in buildings from the European Technology Platform (ETP) for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) has been voted as one of the top three key innovations needed to transform European cities at the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference in Budapest.

On Wednesday 5 June, SusChem’s proposal on advanced materials for energy efficiency and buildings was voted as one of the top three Key Innovations critical to the sustainable development of European cities at the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform annual conference. The SusChem proposal highlights five major chemistry-enabled solutions that have been tested and proven to significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings as well as contribute towards achieving the EU 20-20-20 targets.

The vote for the participants'  favourite Key Innovations closed the first day of the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference. Following a full afternoon of parallel sessions where the conference delegates learned more about the 13 Key Innovation proposed by the Platform, the audience had the chance to vote its 'top three'.

Chemical winners
Key Chemistry-enabled Solutions for Smart Cities:

• High Reflectance Indoor Coatings
• High Reflectance and Durable Outdoor Coatings
• High Performance Insulation Foams 
• High Performance Vacuum Insulation Panels
• Phase Change Materials (PCM) 

The chemistry industry’s Key Innovations were presented by Rinske van Heiningen of Akzo Nobel in his presentation on Advanced Materials for Energy Services.

According Jacques Komornicki, SusChem coordinator and Innovation Manager at Cefic: "Using these tested energy efficiency solutions can reduce energy use in buildings by up to 70%."

“These innovations are particularly suited to the renovation market and this market in turn has the potential to create growth and jobs in Smart Cities that adopt them whilst also contributing significantly to their emissions reduction goals - a double win!” he continues.

You can learn more about these Key Innovations for Smart Cities in the SusChem report: "Innovative chemistry for Energy efficiency of buildings in smart cities." For more information, please contact Jacques Kormornicki at Cefic directly.

Smart Cities need Smart Chemistry

The European Commission’s High Level Group for Smart Cities and Communities (HLG) has convened for the first time on 14 May in Brussels. The chemical industry was represented on this important policy group by Giorgio Squinzi, CEO of Maipei and recent past president of Cefic. Chemistry-based products and services are key enablers for improving energy efficiency in the urban environment and addressing other Smart Cities issues. SusChem is working hard to maximize chemical innovation in this area and has just published a new report outlining where chemistry can make an immediate impact.

About three-quarters of the EU’s citizens live in or around cities and the trend is for increasing urbanization. Cities are therefore crucial for the social, economic and entrepreneurial development of the EU. From an energy perspective urban areas consume 70% of energy output and account for 75% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Policy issues in urban areas represent a microcosm of the general issues facing society, but intensified and accelerated. These issues include reducing energy consumption, encouraging greater use of renewable energy sources, adaptations of transport and other infrastructure such as ICT to meet changing needs whilst improving mobility of the population, amongst other objectives on health and education. And this must be achieved at competitive cost and in an environmentally sustainable manner.

To achieve true ‘smart living’ in the future will require major joint public and private efforts to tackle the significant technical and societal issues. To help address these issues a Smart Cities and Communities European Innovation Partnership (EIP) has been proposed by the European Commission. The initiative is supported by a Smart Cities Stakeholder platform. Cefic will be participating in the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference that takes place in Budapest on 5 and 6 June.

Truly smart and innovative cities will need to make the best use of Europe's great capacity for research and innovation to improve the urban environment. The HLG consists of a selected group of senior CEOs, mayors and finance experts (see photo below). Their role is to formulate a technological transformation agenda that can be implemented via the new EIP during Horizon 2020. And chemistry has a key role to play.

What are ‘Smart Cities’?
Smart cities go beyond the EU’s “20-20-20” objectives (20% reduction in CO2 emissions, a 20% share of energy from low carbon sources and a 20% reduction in the use of primary energy through energy efficiency measures) for the deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies with a particular focus on energy, ICT and transport sectors.

Many cities across Europe are already committed to building tomorrow’s cities today - in particular those involved with the Covenant of Mayors organisation to which Cefic and SusChem are affiliated . This group of city authorities is developing a sustainable development framework that will allow them to voluntarily go beyond the 2020 targets.

Chemical innovation
The role of chemical innovation in realizing Smart Cities challenges may not be well recognized but it is a key innovation area. This is highlighted in a new SusChem report: ‘Innovative Chemistry for Energy Efficiency of Buildings in Smart Cities’.

SusChem’s wide stakeholder representation from the chemical sector and associated value chains make it well placed to identify currently available chemistry-enabled products that can make an immediate impact on energy efficiency – in particular in terms of refurbishing the current building stock – at an affordable cost.

The report analyses the nature of Europe’s building stock – comprising some 1.6 million structures in the EU-27 – and concludes that substantial gains in energy efficiency can be gained through refurbishment solutions.

The report highlights five solutions that together represent a Key Innovation area for Smart Cities and Communities:

• Reflective Indoor Coatings to reduce energy for lighting 
• High Reflectance and durable outdoor coatings to reduce air conditioning costs 
• Phase Change Materials (PCM) for temperature control
• New Insulation foams for significant heating savings
• Other insulation modules such as Vacuum Insulation

All these solutions are assessed for technical feasibility and impact. What is required to deploy the solutions, the infrastructure required and possible interfaces with other Smart Cities technologies are considered. Financial requirements and possible funding sources are also discussed.

SusChem has a substantial track record with ‘smart living’ projects that connect research and industrial groups along relevant value chains. These include its Smart Energy Home initiative, the Energy Efficient Buildings PPP and the Building UP FP7 project. Chemical research and innovation are essential to achieving smart living and smart cities will benefit from the early and in-depth involvement of the chemicals sector.

For more information on SusChem activities in support of the Smart Cities and Communities initiative, or to discuss potential collaborations in this area, please contact SusChem Coordinator Jacques Komornicki at Cefic. The new SusChem report can be downloaded here.

Smart Cities: Cefic supports Covenant of Mayors

As part of its work in support of the ‘Smart Cities’ policy area, Cefic has become an associated member of the Covenant of Mayors . The Covenant of Mayors is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities that are voluntarily committed to increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources in their urban areas.

The vast majority of Europe’s citizens live in cities and policy issues in urban areas represent a microcosm of the general issues facing society, but intensified and accelerated. These issues include reducing energy consumption, encouraging greater use of renewable energy sources, adaptations of transport and other infrastructure to meet changing needs whilst improving mobility of the population, amongst other objectives on health and education. And all achieved at competitive cost and in an environmentally sustainable manner.

To achieve true ‘smart living’ in the future will require major joint public and private efforts to tackle the significant technical and societal issues. To help address these issues a Smart Cities European Innovation Partnership (EIP) has been proposed that Cefic and SusChem have a strong interest to participate in.


What are ‘Smart Cities’?
Smart cities go beyond the EU’s “20-20-20” objectives (20% reduction in CO2 emissions, a 20% share of energy from low carbon sources and a 20% reduction in the use of primary energy through energy efficiency measures) for the deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies.

Many cities across Europe are already committed to building tomorrow’s cities today - in particular the Covenant of Mayors. This group of city authorities is developing a sustainable development framework that will allow them to voluntarily go beyond the 2020 targets. To achieve this, the group works closely with the EU to drive innovation across a variety of sectors. In many ways city authorities have more power and opportunity to implement the Kyoto agreement than national governments.

SusChem has already been involved with ‘smart living’ projects that connect research and industrial groups along the value chain such as its Smart Energy Home initiative, the Energy Efficient Buildings PPP and the Building UP Coordination Support Action (CSA). Chemical research and innovation are essential to achieving smart living and smart cities will benefit from the early and in-depth involvement of the chemicals sector. Essentially chemistry’s contribution to smart living is to enable “doing more with less”.

The Smart Cities EIP was one of the topics discussed at Cefic’s public workshop on European innovation at the ‘Tomorrow Starts with Chemistry’ event at Palais des Academies, Brussels on 22 November.

For more information on Cefic/ SusChem’s involvement with Smart Cities contact Ed d’Hooghe at Cefic.

SusChem at 'Entrée en matière'

The SusChem exhibits on the Smart Energy Home (SEH) and F³ Factory (see below) are amongst a multitude of attractions featuring advanced materials and material science at the 'Entrée en matière' exhibition organised by Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris.

This major exhibition runs from today (19 October) to 31 October in the Trocadéro Gardens close to the Eiffel Tower in the French capital.

The SusChem exhibits were organised via the Union des Industries Chimiques who have more images from the exhibition on their Facebook page.

The exhibition covers all types of matter from the elements to galaxies, cells to neutrinos showing the beauty of nature and the excitment of science.

Entry to 'Entrée en matière' is free and the exhibition is designed to be accessible to all ages from 8 to 80 and beyond. Attractions include films, documentaries and debates with specialists.

The major themes of the event are: 'Exploring Materials', 'Transforming Materials', 'Materials for Life', and 'Dream Materials'. A number of special event days are scheduled including a 'Chemistry' Day on Saturday 29 October from 10h00 to 19h00.

In addition two conferences are being organised. On 21 October a conference on "Chemical Careers" is being held at 14h30, while the conference on 27 October at 14h30 the topic is "Decoding chemicals labels".

Not to be missed!