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RepaNet is an environmental and employment creation project based in Graz, Austria. It was part of a development partnership within the EQUAL Community Initiative, part of the European Union's Structural Funds. It is notable for the way it combines three complementary goals: the ecological goal of cutting waste by repairing and reusing things instead of throwing them away, the social goal of providing jobs for long-term unemployed people and the local economy goal of supporting small firms and building regional value. The initiative is a triangular partnership involving small firms as well as NGOs and the public sector. The co-ordinartors see this as a 'win-win-win situation': The local authority and the ministry prize the environmental benefits, the chamber of commerce sees benefits for local firms, and the labour market service sees disadvantaged people back in work. RepaNet is not just creating jobs that are sustainable in resource terms, but is also building attitudes and practices that are vital for the long-term development of the local economy. It is a training ground where consumers can learn to reuse waste, businesses can learn to co-operate and politicians can learn to think in terms of balanced growth. It thus contributes to the strategy set out in the European Commission’s ''Integrated guidelines for growth and jobs (2005-2008)'', COM(2005) 141. (). Guideline 14 encourages the adoption of environmental technologies, guideline 15 calls for local industrial clusters, and guideline 18 recommends measures to include disadvantaged people in the labour market. ==A Green way of life== A range of low buildings in a yard near Graz’s railway station is home to Ökoservice (), and the base for several different environmental services. The first is chopping, removing and composting garden waste, for the local authority environment department and for local householders. There is a steady demand. The second service hires out recycling catering equipment for events, and operates out of a warehouse full of racks of plastic tumblers, plates and cutlery, all neatly crated and shrink-wrapped. This service was born in 1999 when Graz won the football cup, and the town's stadium was left littered with disposable cups. The city’s environment department put up €140,000 to buy a large-capacity washing machine which meant reusable plastic tumblers could be used. The service now reuses over a million tumblers a year – and turnover still peaks when Graz wins at football. There are some 200 regular customers, who value guaranteed quality and predictable costs. The third Ökoservice operation is the dismantling and recycling of electrical equipment, which is done in collaboration with a private company. A fourth ecological service supports the others: a 280 kW combined heat and power (CHP) station, the result of a university research project, has been installed in a freight container opposite the warehouse, and turns 70 tons a year of used frying oil into electric power, as well as heating the premises. The service collects 200 tons of oil a year from restaurants. What is not used in the co-generation plant is sent to South Styria for processing into biodiesel. Some of it comes back as fuel for Graz's buses, lending them a distinctive smell. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RepaNet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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