“We think we’re a factor, because we facilitate the day-to-day activities of the environmental technology companies,” says Gert Kindgren, CEO of Cleantech Östergötland. “We are helping them to become strong by themselves and together with each other. In this context Händelö is a real gem, where the companies exist in industrial symbiosis. One company’s residual products turn into heat or energy for another. An ecocycle is going on through and between the factories at Händelö, and the final residues end up as bio-fertilizer on farm fields or as biogas in cars.
“Interest in Cleantech Östergötland abroad is great, and increasing. Our international visitors are amazed at what have achieved, but I suppose we take it for granted. Now we are planning seminars that will help other countries see how they too can make progress in sustainability. We are charting everything that constitutes the foundation of the society we have today, in which environmental thinking permeates so many things: tax incentives, general education, attitudes, politics – and then comparing that to the systems in other countries. This approach is creating new business opportunities for Swedish companies in environmental technology.”
■ The Händelö business site is owned by Norrköping and Linköping municipalities with Linköping University and has a member organization of 110 members.
■ Additional funding is from Östsam (the Regional Development Council of Östergötland), the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and the EU.
■ The site’s primary goal is to create a world-class business arena for environmental technology.
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