Context

Sustainability and profitability are often considered conflicting values within the blue economy, creating a challenge in adoption of sustainable practices. However, designing solutions in a sustainable way is increasingly recognised as a source of competitive advantage. In multiple EU policies a resilient renewable energy mix has been linked to biodiversity and sustainability challenges. This together with a new market drive to ensure environmental impacts minimization (dictated by offshore wind tenders) makes sustainability a crucial aspect for a future-proof economy. Most projects on offshore renewable energy innovations display a shortcoming in considering sustainability in the early stage.

Objectives

• Develop an accelerator strategy to help innovators address the growing demand for sustainability in their roll-out
• Pilot the sustainability accelerator for 25 SMEs, to improve their competitive innovation capacity.
• Leverage ORESA’s expertise and diversity in 30 capacity building activities (deep-dives, university & school training, staff exchange programs & videos) to reach relevant stakeholders and engage future work force in offshore sustainability, to ensure a lasting change in the perception of sustainability.

Partners and funding

This project is lead by the Dutch Marine Energy Centre.

The total budget of the project is €5,6 million, of which €3,4 million is funded by the Interreg North West Europe programme.

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