Invited to close the event "Sustainable construction for resilient cities 2.0," Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, emphasised the need for increased collaboration between all involved public and private stakeholders.
Jean-Michel Gaudron
Jointly organised by Neobuild, LIST and Luxinnovation, "Sustainable construction for resilient cities 2.0" conference brought together some 180 people on 23 May at the Neobuild building in Bettembourg.
No single actor among us holds the key to solving the problem. Sasha Baillie
“I take away strong ideas from this day, such as bringing together stakeholders, exchanging best practices at the municipal, national and neighbouring country levels, the importance of a holistic approach, and the enormous challenge of coordinating systems that still operate too much in silos,” remarked Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, during her closing speech.
The collaborative and interactive aspect highlighted naturally aligns with the activities of Luxinnovation, whose role as an innovation agency is to raise awareness among the country’s businesses about new technologies that will make them more sustainable as well as more competitive.
“We support them in developing and adopting these technologies by offering a range of innovation support services such as the Fit 4 Sustainability programme. This programme offers, for example, an assessment of resource use and the development of a roadmap to improve sustainability. I would also mention the support we provide to companies to structure their projects so they can be eligible for public investment aid.”
If we do not take the time to interact, we will miss the real issues. Sasha Baillie
But Luxinnovation’s role also involves stimulating collaboration between private sector players and public research entities to bring about collaborative innovation projects. These projects can also address problems or bottlenecks that hinder the real growth of innovation ecosystems.
“It’s very complex and multi-dimensional. No single actor among us holds the key to solving the problem,” she pointed out. “This makes me even more aware of the importance of multidisciplinarity, the sharing of skills and experience and, in particular, the sense of listening. If we do not take the time to interact, listen and seek solutions together holistically, we will miss the real issues and find ourselves in a vicious circle of reactions and counter-reactions.”
This collaboration already exists in many initiatives across various sectors. In the construction field, notable examples driven by the multidisciplinarity of the involved actors are well advanced.
These include large eco-district projects currently underway: Metzeschmelz (with Agora) on 60 hectares of industrial wasteland between Esch-sur-Alzette and Schifflange; RoutLëns (with developer IKO) on 10.5 hectares in Esch-sur-Alzette; Verona (with CODIC) on 3.3 hectares in the Cloche d’Or district in Luxembourg City; and the new Elmen village being developed in Olm, in the west of the country, with the National Society for Affordable Housing (SNHBM), which plans 375 houses and 375 apartments on 27 hectares to eventually accommodate around 2,000 inhabitants.
“As today’s event shows, solutions exist. However, there are also significant systemic problems that can only be resolved if we succeed in uniting our forces, collaborating on concrete cases, and undertaking pilot projects that can solve complex problems but also serve as examples beyond our borders. Of course, some will always find missing elements, but it is only by starting to realise such joint projects that we learn and improve.”
