PASSAGE: Meeting in Bastia

INNOPOLIS, as a member of the partnership of PASSAGE project, was present in Bastia, Corsica from 16 to 17 of May 2017. Together with the other partners of the project, we shared our best practice to support entrepreneurship and social innovation in the framework of low-carbon transition. The seminar was organized by the Chamber of commerce and industry of Haute-Corse (France).

The third thematic seminar of PASSAGE project was the opportunity for us, as well as for the other partners to learn about innovative approaches of the low-carbon transition in the different maritime border regions.

On the first day, Among the best practices highlighted, the development of a Smart City based on digital tools in Tallinn (Estonia) offers impressive possibilities to switch to a decarbonized world. On the Finnish side of the Gulf of Finland, the development of the Peloton Club to support start-ups in the field of environment and mitigation of climate change illustrated the opportunities offered by the creation of networks gathering complementary stakeholders. Another successful example was the creation of a voucher to support social and environmental innovation in businesses through a partnership between the Chamber of commerce of Maremma and Tirreno and the University of Pisa (Italy). In Pas-de-Calais (France), the low-carbon transition is driven by the implementation of the Third Industrial Revolution developed by Jeremy Rifkin in Hauts-de-France, thanks to innovative tools such as a saving accounts open to all to finance the energy transition projects.

On the second day, a visit in the natural reserve of Biguglia Pond took place in order to understand the pressures of pollution generated by the urban area on this safeguarded natural area. The visit of Pietra brewery was an opportunity to discover a successful example of entrepreneurship on the Corsican island, with production of terroir products. The installation, in 2010, of a CO2 recovery system enables this brewery to save about 50 tons of CO2 per year, re-used on the bottling line to pressurize the beer bottles. We next visited the thermal diesel power plant of Lucciana, exploited by EDF PEI since it opened in 2014. This new power plant has significantly reduced the air pollution compared to the old power plant, with an increased quality of engines and the use of catalyzers combined with injection of urea (85% decrease of NOx emissions).

INNOPOLIS and the other PASSAGE partners will now capitalize on the knowledge learnt through the 3 thematic seminars to write cross-border action plans in each of the maritime border region of the partnership, by March 2018. These actions plans will be implemented in a second phase, from April 2018 to March 2020.