Business park of Nivelles
Launch of the Project
The association of Nivelles companies "Nivelles Industries", was contacted in December, 2006 and directly showed itself interested in the project Life-SMIGIN of collective management of the environment. The visits of companies took place between March and June, 2007. All in all, it is 26 companies of the zoning South that participate in the approach. The environmental report of the park of activity and the action plan meeting the needs of companies were drafted and presented to companies during the end of year 2007. The implementation of the actions followed at once.
Actions implemented on the Park
Actions "Waste"
- Collective management of waste
The purpose of this project is to improve the sorting of the recoverable waste in companies, this sorting being facilitated by the pooling of the streams of waste for the same provider. The approach was launched in March, 2008 by the sending of a common call for tender. Visits were organized in companies so that the providers can hand an offer by knowing the profile of the concerned companies. The service providers handed their offer and companies met to discuss it in April, 2008. In May, 2008, seven companies chose to continue this project with a common provider. The phase of contractualization between every company and the provider is in progress. - Training
A training on the management of the waste in companies was organized on April 15th, 2008 under the shape of a breakfast of "Level Industries". This moment of exchange of experiences allowed to review the present legislation and to come on the subject as well as the good practices of management to be implemented in company. A special point was dedicated to the legislation relative to the persons in charge of packaging.
Actions "Energy"
- Training
A first training was organized on February 20th, 2008 under the shape of a breakfast of "Nivelles Industries". The purpose of this training was multiple: allow the companies to understand better and to analyze their energy bills, to give them tracks to make the monitoring of their energy consumptions, to present the interest of a reflection on the choice and the organization of the lighting in company, to offer tracks of rational use of the energy in companies. A second training, organized on October 22nd, approached the subject of the heating and more exactly techniques intended for the heating of the big halls and the ways to reduce the losses along the network of heat of any building. - Exchanges of experiences
A company on the park of Nivelles possesses a system of inhalation of dusts on which the energy return was strongly improved, among others, via the installation of a speed variator. A data sheet was drafted and sent to the other companies possessing a similar system. A visit of the installations was realized on June 3rd, 2008. - Renewable energy
In answer to the interest of numerous companies for the renewable energy, an information session on the photovoltaic was organized on June 24th, 2008. - Implementation of the monitoring of consumptions
The energy advisers of the Walloon Union of Companies developed Excel spreadsheets allowing the easy follow-up of low- and high-voltage electricity, gas and fuel oil invoices. Since November 2008, about ten companies received the visit of a Life-SMIGIN adviser to help them to set up a monitoring. Drift of consumptions were able to be directly identified (reactive energy). - Sensitization
Within the framework of the week of the environment (in June, 2009), a pharmaceutical company situated in South Nivelles organized various actionsof which a raising awareness campaign of its staff to energy savings. About fifteen persons, distributed in two groups, participated in the session. This one was based on a quizz bound to the energy consumption to the office and to the house. The participants also determined how they could change their behavior to reduce their energy consumption: switch off completely the computer hardware in the evening by means of the multigrips, for example. Posters were realized to remind these gestures and encourage each to change the behavior.
Actions "Mobility"
- Sensitization
Partners of the Mobility Plan de Mobilité of the Zone of Activity (labour unions, City of Nivelles, Nivelles-Industries, TEC, SNCB, Taxistop, UWE) organized a raising awareness campaign during the Week of the Mobility 2007 by distributing cloth bags containing information relative to the sustainable mobility. Certain partners They also met users of the shuttle between station and zoning to know their opinion on this service. This experience is renewed in 2008 (distribution of cups accompanied with leaflets) and on 2009 (distribution of fluorescent armbands accompanied with leaflets). - Information
Information sessions in companies began during the week of the mobility 2007 and continue even at present. These sessions serve for informing the workers of the alternatives in the autosolisme (train, bus, soft carsharing,etc) in a very practical way. It is also the opportunity to meet the head of the company and to inform him about the possibilities which offer themselves to him to encourage the use of the sustainable modes of transportation: financing of subscription, initiatives of promotion of the car sharing, the identification of a mobility relay-person in the company. These information sessions in companies allow especially to discuss directly with the workers and to raise so more easily the reluctance to change the mode of travelling. - The whole mobility on Internet
All the information on the mobility in South Nivelles is henceforth on the site www.carpoolplaza.be/nivelles-sud. Whether it is at the level of the shuttle station-zoning, schedules of train or possibilities of car sharing, the users of the park of activity find all the necessary information for a sweeter mobility on this site. - GPS Referencing
The Life-SMIGIN adviser went through the streets of the park with a GPS to verify the referencing of these streets. The abnormalities (for example, the route stemming from the GPS leads to an one-way street or a not passable road) were sent to the referencing companies TéléAtlas and Navteq. - Places reserved for carpoolers
Two companies installed panels "carpoolers" similar to panels "visitors" or "direction" to reserve several places of their car park for carpoolers. A beautiful way of bringing to light the persons who make the effort to share their car and a means to encourage those who still do not do it.
Actions "Landscaping"
- Week of the tree
The City of Nivelles submitted a file in July, 2008 to participate in the Week of the tree. The project aims at the plantation of trees and shrubs of local species on various places in the park of economic activity. The traffic circle at the end of the Street of the Industry as well as the traffic circle of the Bosquet and its neighborhoods were fitted out in spring, 2009. The interest of these arrangements is double. On one hand, a pleasant and green living environment improves the working conditions within companies. On the other hand, the presence of plants in the zoning allows to welcome birds, insects and other small animals, so avoiding cutting their life environment by the presence of the industrial activity. - Information
The lunch of Nivelles-Industries in November, 2008 was dedicated to the biodiversity in the plots of land of companies. Pascal Colomb, of the company Ecosem (www.ecosem.be), came to present it the possibilities of welcoming the biodiversity within the economic activity. - Grouped purchase of plantations
Further to the information session of November 2008, it was proposed to the companies which wish to group together to buy plantations for their plot of land. This action did not arouse the interest of the heads of companies but the works of verdurisation of the public places (spring, 2009) should incite companies to pursue the embellishment of the living environment of the park by plantations on their plot of land.
Feed back of the project leader
"To sum up, here are, according to me, some landmarks of the project on Nivelles South.
The project of collective management of the environment on South Nivelles started easily during the first half of the 2007. The necessary information for the launch of the project was quickly sent to me by the heads of companies, what allowed the draft of accurate individual reports, a targeted global report and an action plan adapted to companies, for the rather brief deadlines. The presence of a group of dynamic actors at the level of the mobility contributed to the launch of the awareness-raising action of the users of the park of economic activity in the sustainable mobility, as well as in the implementation of information sessions in companies.
Then, it is the energy which aroused most interest. Nevertheless, although information sessions targeted very concrete subjects very essential to the company, I was amazed to see only about twenty companies in every session.
The collective management of waste also aroused a lot of interest. About fifteen companies received the visit of the service providers and chose, based on their offers, a common provider. Regrettably, at this stage, the action has been delayed. This deadline between the choice of the common provider and the visit of this one in every company to contractualize discouraged quite a lot of participants. It is the lesson which I remove from this experience: once a decided action, it is necessary to implement it directly.
Certain actions needed a time of maturation before hatching. For example, the placement of panels "carpoolers" is an action which I proposed in December, 2008 without that she arouses a big interest. It is only in February, 2009 when companies returned towards me to coordinate the grouped purchase of panels. What proves the necessity of an outside person to coordinate the collective actions.
A difficulty I met was the absence of meeting between all the companies of the park of economic activity. The office of Nivelles-Industries meets regularly but includes only some active members. Nevertheless, meetings with all the companies would allow, according to me, to evoke the possible problems met by several companies, to launch tracks of action to improve the functioning of these, to create synergies between companies, etc. That these problems, actions and synergies are environmental or not, they would contribute to increase the collective spirit and would be beneficial for companies, their staff as well as for their environment ".