The kick-off meeting of the INSIGHT project took place on November 2019, in the beautiful city of Barcelona. The project Consortium decided to merge the project’s kick off with the first “learning, teaching and training activity”.
The result was a four-day meeting where all partners had the chance to get to know each other, discuss the main internal features of the project (intellectual outputs, timeline, management structure, quality plan, next deliverables…) and join the learning, teaching and training activities organised by Símbiosy, the host partner of this first encounter:
- Meeting with the IS facilitation team at the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium: the vision, objectives, methodology and main opportunities identified in the course of the EcoCircular ZF, the industrial symbiosis project at the Zona Franca Industrial Estate, were presented. Currently the team is focusing on reusing water streams, promoting the generation of energy from renewable sources and the creation of Local Energy Community, boosting sustainable mobility schemes within the industrial park and identifying synergies among the industries around the valorization of different waste streams.
Learn more about EcoCircular ZF: https://ecocircular.zfbarcelona.es/
- Guided visit to the first European incubator of advanced technology in 3D printing: prepared to incubate more than 100 companies in five years, the 3Dfactory Incubator will support the business take-off of the incubated initiatives through the provision of 3D production services, business consultancy, piece certification and market launch activities.
Learn more about the 3Dfactory Incubator: https://www.dfactorybcn.org/
- Guided visit to the biomass plant of the Ecoenergies District Heating and Cooling Network: the Ecoenergies network is operated through a public-private partnership and wants to provide the municipalities of Barcelona and L’Hospitalet with heating, cooling and domestic hot water. The DHC will also offer industrial cooling (-10°C) to industrial customers. The heating production comes from biomass from the forests and the maintenance of the city’s parks and gardens, whereas the cooling production comes from a surplus cold recovery from a liquefied natural gas terminal at the Enagas plant (located at the harbour of Barcelona).
Learn more about Ecoenergies Barcelona: http://www.ecoenergies.cat/es
- Guided visit to the Saica Natur plant, a global waste manager and secondary raw materials provider: Saica is working towards the recovery of paper and cardboard packaging for subsequent recycling at their Saica Paper facilities to manufacture new recycled paper packaging. In 2017, Saica Paper recycled a total of 2.900.000 tons of paper for recycling. Likewise, the team is working towards the recovery of low density polyethylene (LDPE) for subsequent recycling into new recycled pellets at their plastic recycling plant at Saica’s headquarters.
Learn more about Saica Natur:https://www.saica.com/en/saica-natur/
- Presentation of the current circular economy strategic initiatives in Catalonia: the representative of the Catalonia Ministry of Territory and Sustainability presented the main policy instruments to facilitate the circular economy transition in Catalonia. The Ecodesign award and catalogue, communication campaigns on food waste prevention, Green Public Procurement guides, grants for projects on circular economy, the Catalan eco-vouchers programme for SMEs, loans with the Catalan Financial Institute on circular economy, their participation in several EU projects (the CIRCE project, the ENHANCE project and the ECOWASTE4FOOD project), the Circular Economy Hub of Catalonia and the Circular Economy Hotspot Catalonia 2020 were some of the main insights presented during the meeting.
Learn more about the current circular economy strategic initiatives in Catalonia: http://mediambient.gencat.cat/