Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

Clean technologies developed by Horizon 2020 funded projects for reducing the impact of energy intensive industrial processes are helping Europe to transform into a sustainable, competitive economy and address environmental and climate-related challenges. This Results Pack highlights eight cutting-edge EU projects that are supporting this transition.

This book aims to show that despite perceptions, manufacturing is not in terminal decay in western cities. On the contrary, it is at the opening of a new chapter. Urban manufacturing is helping cities to be more innovative, circular, inclusive and resilient. Recently, with increasing interest in the circular economy, with cleaner and more compact technology, with more progressive building codes for mixed use, with increasing awareness of the impacts of social inequality and with a clearer understanding of the value chains between the trade of material and immaterial goods, cities across the world are realising that manufacturing has an important place in the 21st century urban economy.

Very important work has been done over the last decade to take industrial ecology and the circular economy into the mainstream. A lot of credit has to be given to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. At the same time, it needs to be highlighted that the cascading of material and energy flows in small and fast and large and slow cycles is a core pattern of ecosystems and the biosphere. For most of our history as a species we managed our household (economy) based on understanding these patterns of nature (ecology). Bioregionally adapted ‘circular economies’ are nothing new. They are the only long term viable economies! Our current linear and globalised system is the aberration!

Projects of energy and transport infrastructure, district heating networks and energy efficiency measures will be prioritised

Each  stage  of  the  brewing  process  produces  waste. A LIFE project has explored  converting  this waste into high value ingredients for use in the beverage,  nutrition   and  cosmetics  sectors.  The  impressive  findings complement  the  EU's  ambition  of  enhancing  resource  efficiency across industry.