Official opening ceremony of the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Center under the UNIDO project in Ukraine

Kyiv. January 29, 2013 official launching of the UNIDO project “Promoting the adaptation and adoption of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production through the establishment and operation of a cleaner production centre in Ukraine” and official opening of the Resource efficient and cleaner production centre took place in the Great Academic Council Hall of the NTU "KPI.

The ceremony was attended by Mykhailo Zgurovsky, the Rector of the NTUU "KPI", Wolf Dietrich HEIM, the Ambassador of the Austrian Republic to Ukraine, Christian Schoenenberger, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Ukraine, Guido Beltrani, the Country Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, Anatoly Kinakh, the President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Peoples’ Deputy of Ukraine, Heinz Leuenberger, the Director of the Environmental Management Branch of the UNIDO, the Ukrainian officials, businessmen, professors and researchers from the NTUU "KPI".

Michael Zgurovsky, the Rector of the NTUU "KPI", stressed in his speech that launching of the Resource efficient and cleaner production centre was an event of great importance not only for the NTUU "KPI", but also for the whole Ukraine, primarily for the industrial sector considering the urgent necessity of the Ukrainian economy modernization.

In 2012, the UNIDO project on resource efficient and cleaner production started its operation with financial support from the governments of Switzerland and the Republic of Austria. 20 companies in Vinnitsa, Zaporizhzhye and Kyiv regions have joined the project. The Resource efficient and cleaner production centre was created with the UNIDO support at the host institution NTUU "KPI" (Kyiv). The founders of the Centre are the NTUU "KPI", Science Park “Kyivska Polytechnika” and the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Heinz Leuenberger, the Director of the Environmental Management Branch of UNIDO stressed that the UNIDO project on resource efficient and cleaner production paved the way for Ukraine in the direction of green technology.

The purpose of the center is to enhance the competitiveness of local enterprises by reducing the loss of material and energy in production processes and reducing the anthropogenic impact on the environment.

To achieve this goal the Centre has identified the main activities:

• A comprehensive technical and technological audit of the subsequent development of technical solutions aimed at the reduction of resource consumption and improvement of the efficiency of production processes;
• Independent expertise of new technologies implementation;
• Stage by stage implementation of the methodology of resource efficient and cleaner production at the enterprises and organization of technical personnel training;
• Preparation and distribution of informational materials on resource efficient, innovative technologies and sustainable development in the industry;
• Advising on the implementation of the innovative projects /business models, in particular , chemical leasing models.