A new EU co-funded project aimed at turning waste into profit officially kicked off in Sweden with a conference on 19th and 20th June in Sweden. Project partners from Sweden, Finland and Poland, gathered in the north of Stockholm to set strategies for the three-year long project.
It was the first time the partners met since the project launched. The partners include: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW (WULS), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Uppsala University (UU), and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
“What we find interesting with the BONUS RETURN project is that we can bring together the science community and cities. We will then foster this new collaboration to identify the right eco-technologies and see how we can get them on the market and scale up quickly”, says Barbara Jackson, Race for the Baltic CEO.
The degradation of the Baltic Sea is posing a threat to its ecosystem, endangering the lives of the 85 million people living in its catchment areas. BONUS RETURN seeks to solve this problem in a sustainable way by bringing together research, local authorities and the private sector to find innovative solutions to reduce the emissions by turning nutrients and carbon in the Baltic Sea into benefits. The project aims to show the potential of how eco-technologies in three case study sites in Sweden, Finland and Poland can turn waste and pollution into profit.
“The way this project is designed provides opportunities for us to work together, share knowledge and learn from each other while transferring the knowledge towards something practical” says Dr. Marcus Carson, BONUS RETURN coordinator.
Representatives of BONUS RETURN will attend a ceremony hosted by Race for the Baltic on 28th June 2017 for cities participating in the Baltic Sea City Accelerator, which includes cities focused on implementing sustainable and innovative solutions for local water management in their cities. Mayors and officials representing cities and municipalities from Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden will also be in attendance. Thereafter Charlotta Möller from RISE, together with Stockholm Environment Institute’s Maria Osbeck and Karina Barquet will moderate a seminar during Almedalen week at the Swedish island, Gotland, on 4th July 2017 at 12:30 to 13:30 on how the BONUS RETURN project will move from problem to on-the-ground solutions by bridging the gap between innovation and commercialization.
Participants at the kick-off event in Sweden.
