The Route to an Industrial Renaissance is Paved with Clean Technologies
For the 11th edition of its Cleantech Forum Europe, Cleantech Group is going to Florence, Tuscany, on April 27-29, 2015. You can get a feel of what you can experience at our Forums by watching this video here. Apart from the well-known players, like utility Enel, diversified industrial Finmeccanica, energy giant Eni or automotive brand FIAT, you will find a number of dynamic start-up companies at the Forum including Kitenergy, a developer of high-altitude wind generation technology and Is TECH, the developer of air cleaning systems and solutions for smarter cities.
Italy is one of Europe’s largest and most heavily industrialized manufacturing economies. Like many European countries, it is striving to achieve a new kind of re-invention towards a different and more sustainable future. At the forum, we will highlight four areas of particular strength including manufacturing, food, fashion and chemistry.
In addition to the country’s strong manufacturing base and tradition of SME’s and family businesses, Tuscany is home to leading innovative research and development. For example, Simbario-based Personal Factory has developed a self-producing plant for producing chemical premixes for the construction industry.
The region is also historically associated with resource-intense industries such as food and textiles. Big companies in food production like tomato maker Mutti, or renowned coffee maker illy are currently greening their supply chain.
In the fashion space, brands like Gucci and Ferragamo are improving their operations with more sustainable materials sourcing or manufacturing process. Canepa, Sinterama and Filature Miroglio use renewable and recycled fibers, and have introduced efficiency technologies and hazardous chemicals treatment to their textile production.
Last but not least, more and more players are emerging in the green chemistry space. Novamont, a global front-runner in the bioplastics space, is headquartered in Italy. The company has developed a proprietary biodegradable polymer called the Mater-Bi, which has applications in agriculture, packaging, accessories and the automotive sector, which brought partnership opportunities from Eni and Syngenta. Agroils develops a technology platform for the sustainable production of jatropha as a feedstock for biofuels, biochemicals, and animal feed.
