Our approach in 7 steps
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DEFINE ETV POTENTIAL FOR MARKET ACCEPTANCE AND RECOGNITION
We will analyse barriers and define key leverage points for ETV market acceptance and recognition including:
• ETV value perception
• Complementarity and synergies of ETV with other schemes
• Capacities and skills
• Market and policy related factors to ecoinnovation
• ETV communication deficiencies
• Benchmarking of the EU ETV with successful national ETV programmes in EU and worldwide -
ESTABLISH A MULTISTAKEHOLDER ARENA FOR ETV
To jointly explore the potential of ETV and co-design the most effective ways of building its broad market acceptance and recognition we will:
• Establish an ETV community of stakeholders
• Interact with them through project events and social media -
CREATE A FAVOURABLE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR ETV UPTAKE
We will develop and promote:
• Policy Briefs to show policy and decision makers how to integrate ETV in a larger framework of tools supporting innovation, green finance, SMEs and develop stronger links with EU and Member State environmental legislation and policies
• Guidelines on ETV use for public procurers to make green public procurement a market driver for ETV -
SET UP A EUROPEAN NETWORK OF ETV KNOWLEDGE CENTRES
We will ensure that ETV information is where SMEs most seek support by:
• Engaging with EU and national business support organisations to establish a network of ETV Knowledge Centres
• Equipping the network members with relevant ETV knowledge and materials -
DEVELOP AND LAUNCH AN ETV KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM
We will provide a digital environment tailored to the ETV information needs of different stakeholders so that they can benefit from the tool in an efficient way, including:
• A collection of information materials on ETV
• ETV guide for green technology providers
• On-line tool enabling a quick eligibility check of ETV candidate technologies -
BUILD SKILLS AND CAPACITIES
We will try to extend the access to the ETV service in EU through:
• Engaging with entities interested to become environmental technology verification bodies and accreditation bodies
• Offering coaching webinars to the entities on how to prepare for accreditation and how to set up appropriate accreditation schemes -
RAISE AWARENESS & PROMOTE ETV
To raise awareness in green technology and promote ETV we will:
• Develop a Roadmap towards ETV broad market acceptance and recognition
• Design a model ETV promotion campaign
• Launch 6 demo ETV promotion campaigns in Poland, Italy, Spain, France, Slovenia and Hungary
• Elaborate ETV promotion guidance material based on the experiences and lessons learned from the demo campaigns and promote it towards other countries and organisations that would like to engage in ETV promotion
Our outputs
ETV community
ETV is a great scheme offering multiple benefits for diversified actors of EU, national, regional and even local level. It helps market ecoinnovations , guarantees support for proving their technical viability and environmental performance. It acilitates implementation of environmental, climate and innovation policies, helps derisking green investments and provides evidence in support of sustainable financing.
LIFEproETV will reach these audience, bring them together and get engaged to jointly explore the potential of ETV and build its market acceptance and recognition.
LIFEproETV will provide guidance and promote the opportunities and benefits of using ETV in public bidding and procurement to contracting entities e.g. municipalities and utilities and the tenderers.
ETV in public procurement
The purchasing power of public buyers represents 14% of the EU GDP. Therefore, the use of ETV in public procurement and innovation procurement is a strong driving factor for market recognition and acceptance of the scheme facilitating green finance. The EU Green Deal is empowering public buyers to receive trustworthy and relevant buying offer including information on the environmental performance of the product or technology. With Green Public Procurement criteria and targets to become mandatory for sectoral legislation and reporting, ETV definitely satisfies the requirements as a credible source of information providing both: a reliable proof of the technical and functional performance of a technology as well as its environmental performance.
Mapping of ETV competition, synergies and recognition landscape
Established certification and other environmental schemes dedicated to environmental management or environmental footprint of products and organisations , either legally required or voluntary, are often in competition to ETV. Green technology providers must make decisions which certification or verification scheme will bring them value in a successful deployment of their eco technology or rising their profile on a competitive market. Moreover, the attractiveness of ETV will increase if its compatibility with other environmental schemes e.g. EMAS or ISO 14000 is clearly demonstrated.
LIFEproETV attempts to define possible synergies and overlaps of environmental schemes with ETV for different technology areas to identify niches where ETV can really help technology providers. We will also demonstrate potential performance test data recognition pathway to enable a common test data generation for certification and verification of new environmental technologies . Such synergies could also be a business case for testing and certification bodies to extend their testing offer while technology providers applying for e.g. an obligatory certificate could save time and money doing performance testing for compliance and ETV at one time.
LIFEproETV will identify these policies and programmes on EU and national level of the countries participating in the project and develop Policy Briefs as means for establishing an effective ETV use advocacy dialogue with policy stakeholders and decision makers to present the different options for integrating it in a larger framework of tools supporting innovation and SMEs and developing stronger links with EU and Member State environmental legislation and policies.
Favourable enabling policy environment
Despite obvious benefits, an ISO based framework and an EU Programme behind it, ETV as a voluntary environmental scheme lacks sufficient visibility and links with environmental and innovation policies and programmes. The Green Deal and the new European Industrial Strategy highlights the need for a modernisation effort of industries based on the development and uptake of cleantech innovations that use less energy, reduce waste and avoid pollution in line with the objectives of industrial, environmental, climate and energy policies.
ETV could become a strong contributor supporting the move to a more circular, zero waste, zero emission, zero pollution and climate neutral economy being referred to in the EU and national policies and programmes that encourage better environmental performance of industries by ecoinnovations, define performance requirements of technologies for applications in different industrial sectors, address research, development and innovation, stimulate green public procurement, promote investments in green technology or ensure sustainable financing.
Capacity, skills and knowledge base for ETV
Beside an enabling policy environment, a wide uptake of ETV needs strengthening the skills, knowledge and infrastructure that will shore up for the sustainability of the scheme. Technology providers must better understand what ETV helps them to achieve and how while technology buyers need knowledge about the sheme, its values, quality, credibility and certainty.
The ISO 14034 standard, on which the ETV system is based, is technologically neutral, which allows for the verification of various types of technologies that demonstrate a more favorable impact on the environment than conventional technologies or enable the measurement of parameters reflecting the impact on the environment. However, to create the widest possible verification opportunities, it is necessary to build the appropriate verification infrastructure and capacity available to technology providers offering innovations in new ETV technological areas and in different countries.
LIFEproETV will offer a guidance package for technology providers accompanied by an easy technology self-assessment tool allowing them to check if their technology is a good candidate for verification and assess whether ETV brings value for them. It will help them get better prepared for verifications and plan for ETV in advance as an essential step in their innovation development and marketing strategy that shortens the way, reduces the time, costs and workload necessary to deploy an early market stage green technology with innovative features. As a knowledge builder activity, we will develop a portfolio of materials and webinars dedicated to business support organisations as key entities where businesses seek help when challenging the market entrance of their green innovations. To strengthen the ETV infrastructure base, LIFEproETV will offer coaching for entities and accreditation bodies interested to become new verification bodies and set up appropriate accreditation schemes.
LIFEproETV will establish a European Network of ETV Knowledge Centers based on business support organisations and equip them with relevant knowledge and materials to ensure that ETV information is there where SMEs most seek support in addressing their innovation and market entrance challenges.
ETV Knowledge Centers Network
ETV market uptake requires easy access to information about the scheme. Coming across the EU ETV web site or contacting verification bodies happens only when technology providers are aware of the scheme.
ETV Knowledge Platform
Currently, access to information about ETV is hindered by its dispersal. This applies to both information that is essential for suppliers wanting to verify their technology, and for buyers of public and private technology, as well as for entities interested in obtaining the status of a verification body.
LIFEproETV will provide an ETV Knowledge Platform – a digital environment gathering both the existing information and the resources about the scheme developed by the project and cluster them according to the needs of specific target groups to enable an easy one-stop-shop access to ”all what you need to know about ETV”.
Jointly with the stakeholders LIFEproETV will develop a roadmap towards ETV broad market acceptance and recognition based on which we will design a model ETV promotion campaign. The model will be validated trough 6 demo ETV promotion campaigns launched in Poland, Italy, Spain, France, Slovenia and Hungary. Based on the experiences and lessons learned from the demo campaigns, we will elaborate guidance material for other countries and organisations that would like to engage in ETV and cleantech promotion.
ETV Promotion Campaigns and Guidance
Intensive promotional and dissemination activities are necessary to increase the recognition and visibility of the ETV system based on the ISO 14034 standard in the market. The aim should be to build awareness and a strong brand for the system, as well as a concrete business case for ETV. These actions should involve technology buyers and providers, as well as other stakeholders such as innovation support program funders, supervisory bodies, decision-makers, and investors.
Contact
LIFEproETV Coordinator
Institute for Ecology of
Industrial Areas, Katowice, Poland
i.ratman-klosinska@ietu.pl
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Disclaimer
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Programme and is co-financed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, Poland and the Ministry of Agriculture, Hungary |  |