On June 27, Chemport Europe won the Dutch final of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2024. in the category "supporting the sustainable transition. And as the Dutch winner, Chemport is also competing in the European finals in Budapest this November. There it will put the cooperation in the Northern Netherlands, the TopDutch region, to green the chemical industry on the European map.
The European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) is an initiative from the European Commission. The award has now existed for more than 15 years and is presented to the most successful public initiatives and public-private partnerships that support entrepreneurship at the national or regional level. Each participating country may select up to two projects to compete at the European level. Chemport Europe was represented last Thursday by communications consultant Amarenske Klatter and program manager Maaike van Heeren.
Concrete results
'We are delighted with the award, because it is fantastic recognition for everyone working together within the Chemport region to green the chemical industry,' says van Heeren. 'We do that together, by formulating concrete and ambitious goals and by jointly investing time and money to achieve those ambitions. And that is really not always easy, because you have to set up a long-term and very concrete cooperation with many parties with different interests.'
According to van Heeren, that very concreteness was one of the jury's most important criteria: "And of course we were able to demonstrate those tangible results. We were also able to convince the jury that what we do is much more widely applicable than just in the chemical industry. There are plenty of other sectors where green transitions are hard to get going. Setting up a long-term collaboration, with a recognizable ecosystem with short lines of communication is just as important and applicable to other sectors.'
European final
Winning the Dutch finals, Chemport Europe will now compete on the European stage. And that final will take place on Nov. 20 in Budapest. 'So the Dutch final is just a preliminary round,' van Heeren said. 'So the Dutch jury is actually looking to see which concept could go the highest in Europe. We are really extremely proud that we got that trust from them.'
'For many people, chemistry feels like something far away from them,' Klatter says. 'But chemistry is everywhere, from your toothpaste to the case of your smartphone, to the paint on the wall of your house. It's a vital industry, and that's why it's important that we can tell this story to people. That we can create change in a good way. And more importantly, it is of course a great opportunity for us to show the rest of Europe what great things we are doing here in the Northern Netherlands.