Grant programs for sustainable and scalable industrial zones

And these places are unfortunately often petrified and therefore susceptible to flooding and heat stress and therefore not climate resistant. If nothing changes, it is expected that in thirty years the average wind chill on a summer day in a business park will reach 40.8 degrees Celsius. So not really pleasant to stay. We can do something about that with greening. It also makes the sites more attractive to employees because a green environment ensures better health and helps to fight against stress.

The potential for energy saving and sustainable energy production in industrial areas is significant; higher than that of all households combined. For example, by generating sustainable energy, in order to get rid of natural gas more quickly. Individual companies are already taking measures to save energy, but it is precisely in industrial areas that there is an opportunity to join forces and work with other companies. For example, for intelligent energy sharing via an energy network.

Provincial grant schemes

The province of South Holland encourages sustainable and future-proof business parks and facilitates this through grant schemes, among others. For example, to make good plans there is the town planning grant. To jointly invest in measures, there is sustainability grant. There is also grant for owners of roofs, water basins and car parks, to equip them with solar panels.

In addition, the province supports the establishment of (new) partnerships on business parks by deploying ambassadors.

Practical example

Schiebroek in Rotterdam is one of the industrial areas that has made use of the sustainability grant. This business park has about 160 companies. Edwin Markus, Park Manager Schiebroek: “We applied for the grant as the Business Investment Zone Foundation (BIZ) on behalf of the entrepreneurs. We started the project with an energy scan scanning the buildings of contractors who were interested in it. Such an energy analysis gives insight into how much energy you can save. This year, companies are investing around €800,000. About €160,000 of this amount was provided as a grant by the province. This subsidy includes the purchase of solar panels and insulation measures. Queues with provincial authority employees are short, which made it easy for me to jump from question to question. Wouter Bosch works at Hoftijzer, one of Schiebroek’s companies, and considers the permit application simple: “It was a clear and smooth process that went without any problems.”