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The Emilia-Romagna companies are seizing the opportunities offered by the Green Economy. This is what the ERVET survey on Green Economy in Emilia-Romagna brings out. Companies belonging to the Green Economy universe can be characterised either by “how” (Green Production) or by “what” (Green Business) they produce.

As regards Green Production, whose main tool is voluntary environmental certification, the survey shows very good performances by the Emilia-Romagna businesses as to product and process certification, that appears to be largely widespread: Emilia-Romagna is placed first in Italy as to the number of EMAS certificates and EPD labels, second as to the number of Eco-label marks, and third as to the number of ISO 14001 certificates. Qualified energy performance auditors in Emilia-Romagna, free-lance professionals and private companies providing energy performance certificates, are more than 3,500.

Green Business gathers about 2,000 companies in Emilia-Romagna. 647 of them operate in typical environmental markets, whereas a larger group - 1,345 companies - addresses various target markets including the “green” ones. The first group employs approximately 25,000 persons and deals with integrated waste and water cycle management, renewable energy sources, sustainable mobility, tyre retreading and remoulding, botanic garden management and natural heritage management. The second one - employing nearly 205,000 persons)- focuses on green building, organic and biodynamic food products, energetic efficiency, environmental technologies, as well as on traditional “green” sectors such as renewable energy sources and integrated waste and water cycle management.

With respect to the region’s economic drivers, we can find a remarkable concentration of businesses in the housing industry, focussing on green building and on the environmental conversion of the ceramic business; in the food industry, where we can find organic farming as well as waste recycling and the use of “green” technologies; in the mechanics industry, where we find most of the regional companies that have achieved environmental certification.