Green in Med : Summary of the event on water and energy management solutions for tourist accommodations

On Monday 26th October, more than 30 people, including SMEs providing innovative technologies in the field of water and energy management and managers of small-middle sized tourist accommodations in Region South of France, gathered at the Palais du Commerce et de la Mer in Toulon for the first GreenInMed public conference in France. The objective was straightforward: to present the opportunities the project may provide to tourist accommodations’ managers and innovative solution providers, to enable the latter to present their offer to and match with final beneficiaries and to facilitate the match. The conference was organised by Capenergies, leading the project in the Region South of France and Corse, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Var.

Speeding up the MED SMEs’ uptaking of eco-innovative solutions in energy and water management

The European project Green In Med aims at supporting hospitality industry in the MED region to adopt innovative solutions for a more efficient management of its water and energy consumption. An energy-intensive sector, particularly because of the high level of comfort offered and the not always very virtuous uses made by guests, the hotel industry has a large reservoir of energy and water savings.

Presentation material : GreenInMed Project (FR)

In her introduction, Anne-Marie Perez, director of the Capenergies Cluster, recalled the singular context that SMEs in the tourism sector are currently facing. A key sector for the regional economy, which represents 13% of the regional GDP, 25,000 establishments and 7.5% of jobs in the region (including 120,000 employees).

Targeted innovative solutions for water and energy management

Renewable energy production, seawater air conditioning (SWAC), thermal storage, intelligent lighting, water purification and recycling, smart metering, IoT … many proven innovative solutions are available on the EU market. Implemented in various sectors of activity, their efficiency is a competitive advantage for SMEs.

During this event, 5 SMEs expert in energy management solutions and 3 SMEs active in the field of water management pitched their offers:

	Specialist in thermodynamic machines based on Mechanical Vapor Compression. Expertise in Process heating and cooling & Waste water treatment.	Karino KANG CEO
	Storing heat in the form of sensible energy using water. Simple storage construction for buffering of seasonal thermal heat (STES).	Rico DEN OUDEN President
	Uses soil to produce and store heat by installing a water loop as a means of transport and distribution. Use the Earth to store, water to transport and the sun to heat.	Armand MENARGUES President / Co-founder
	Smart +: an innovative tool to manage energy demand breaking down consumption by use. Knowing its energy uses in order to optimise them.	Mitsuko CORDASSO BtoB data services manager
	Interface to manage and control equipment at any time and remotely to generate savings both in time and money.	Guillaume Leveque Director
	Autonomous systems to produce green energy and water while optimizing costs. Combine software, storage and smart project management.	Cédric Tollu Renewable Energy Development Manager
	Organic and natural swimming pool made of local wood. Built with organic, connected and smart filtration.	William VIARD Technical Sales Engineer
	A controlled process for grey water recycling. Circular system of membrane processes and technologies that both recycles greywater and saves energy.	Pierre MAGNES Development Director

	Presentation material : Pitch Energy (FR)
	Presentation material : Pitch Water (FR)

Tourist accommodations discovered the benchmark of solutions for the hospitality industry, that was produced by the work of GreenInMed consortium’s technical experts. This catalogue examines the main solutions available on the European market for energy and water efficiency.

Presentation material : Overview of the benchmark of solutions (FR/EN)

Specific regional financial opportunities supporting the sustainability of tourist accommodations

Several financial mechanisms to support the tourism sector in this process were presented.

Presentation material : Financial opportunities (FR)

Finally, the incoming call for “Innovation Vouchers” was presented. This call, that will be publicly launched in November, envisages to allocate at least 10 vouchers, each one of them having a value of about €2k to small-medium sized tourist accommodations willing to receive advice and technical support in choosing and adopting the best solution for energy and/or water efficiency in their premises. This scheme is a first step of a two-phased approach within GreenInMed Project: the voucher is supposed to analyze the needs of tourist accommodations and create synergies between them and SMEs providing the best solutions. The step 2 consists in launching a call for subgrants (up to €50k with at least 10% of co-financing from the beneficiary) that will finance the installation of the pre-identified solutions. This call will open in April/May 2021 and the project will roll-out between June 2021 and June 2022.

Presentation material : Innovation Vouchers call (FR)

At the end of the event, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Var took the opportunity to present a new EU-funded project (Interreg Marittimo Programme), the “Smart Tourism” project that share with GreenInMed the target: hospitality industry.

Presentation material : Smart Tourism project (FR)