Cretan Entrepreneurship VS Sustainable Cities
How Cretan entrepreneurship can make a practical contribution to improving the quality of life
Green cities, sustainable development, energy saving, reducing the environmental footprint are not empty, politically shallow and business-indifferent concepts. The question is, how are they effectively integrated into everyday life and the modern urban environment? The question is answered by municipalities across the country with vision and a technocratic approach of substance. Companies with innovative product development are also responding.
A large and pioneering sustainable development project in Greece is now underway in the Municipality of Agioi Anargyroi - Kamaterou in Attica. It is the first project in Greece in which advanced sustainable paving products are applied by installing concrete blocks and slabs with "cooling" and "photocatalytic" properties embedded in the mass of the product and not as a coating or spreading product as currently applied and "foreseen" in the contractual tender documents of public works.
The technical department of this municipality, cleverly and far-sightedly "thinking", decided to incorporate this technology in its projects, as it presents many important benefits such as energy savings, CO2 emission reduction, reduction of the urban heat island phenomenon but mainly, continuous degradation of air pollutants and car exhausts. Last but not least, in a country where the maintenance and cleaning of public spaces are a "headache", self-cleaning properties!
It is worth noting that the advanced structural paving products used in this project, are the "fruit" of the cooperation of two Cretan companies based in Heraklion Crete Greece! Tsmentodomi SA started in 2011 the R&D trials for the integration of this technology in its products. Since 2018, in cooperation with PCN Materials, a spin-off company of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), it has developed and started production of the advanced products of the series EcoActive® containing "photocatalytic" materials embedded in their mass. Thus, these products absorb light energy from the sun and produce free oxygen radicals that bind the air pollutants NO, NOx, cleaning the atmosphere! In addition, they exhibit self-cleaning properties by preventing pollutants from adhering to their surface, making it easy to remove them with clean water!
The technology of "cool" materials is not new. It has made its appearance in recent years with several applications in Greece and in various municipalities in Crete (municipality of Archanes - Asterousia, municipality of Malevizi, municipality of Rethymnon, municipality of Chania, etc.) with the application of the product series CoolPave® & CoolMat®.
Of course, for this technology to be effective in reducing the heat island effect, a key requirement is good maintenance to keep the surfaces clean to deliver the performance they promise. This essential requirement is met by photocatalysis technology with self-cleaning materials that additionally break down air pollutants and contribute to a cleaner atmosphere!
Although the technology of photocatalysis is not new either, today it has many applications and can be determined with measurable indicators as, as is well known, "quality that cannot be measured is not quality". This technology was particularly developed in the 1970s in countries with high levels of environmental pollution, such as Japan. In Europe, a number of projects using photocatalytic concrete blocks have been carried out in countries such as Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Germany , Poland, etc. Indicatively, in the Amerikalei / Italielei area in Antwerp, Borgo Palazzo Street in Bergamo, Settemetri Street in Rome, Lambruschini Cathedral School in Rome, Maharishi Sathyananda Yoga Academy in Brescia, Montichiarello Sports Center in Montichiari. Architectural projects whose beauty is preserved thanks to the self-cleaning properties of photocatalytic concrete such as the domes of the Misericordia church in Rome, the new Air France headquarters at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the city of music and fine arts in Chambéry, the Hôtel de Police in Bordeaux, Saint John's Court Montecarlo Bay residence in the Principality of Monaco, the NeckarPark in Stuttgart. Today this technology is applied to water purification systems and hydrogen production by electrolysis of water with light energy for use as a clean alternative fuel.
Of course, "no prophet in his own place" comes to confirm the rule here too: in Heraklion, the headquarters of these innovative companies as well as of FORTH, where these innovative products have been presented. (Innodays 2022),the technical department continues to select for the municipality's projects imported products that do not promote innovation and do not help the local economy.
This fact, however, does not act as an obstacle for Tsimentododi, which, apart from the necessary standard laboratory measurements and production control, goes even further: in situ monitoring of the performance of EcoActive® products after their application and use, in order to confirm their suitability and effectiveness through measurements! Thus, from the analysis of the data, useful and potentially actionable conclusions are drawn for the continuous improvement of the application, installation and good practice instructions of these advanced products. Indicative are the thermal imaging photos from the project in the municipality of Agioi Anargyroi - Kamatero where the temperature differences between EcoActive® products and other adjacent paving elements are compared (EcoActive® paving blocks of grey colour compared to conventional tile paving blocks of parking areas and asphalted roads). Also, the qualitative purity of EcoActive® products compared to their neighbouring paving elements is evident as a result of photocatalysis.
The next "sustainable" steps of Tsimentodomi SA, include, in cooperation with Greek universities and research institutions and foreign counterparts, the development of on-site measurement systems of pollutant degradation and quantitative measurements. All this, combined with the development of other innovative products such as the EcoDrain® series, builds the vision of a bioclimatically sustainable and environmentally active city!
