Parc industriel de la plaine de l'Ain (PIPA), France
Activity: Industrial estate
EMAS: F-000039
NACE: 75.1 A
PIPA is a 900 hectares-wide industrial estate located between Lyons and Geneva, in a meander of the river Ain (which has high-quality waters).
It is also adjacent to numerous natural habitats and to a few classified areas, which are home to a variety of species (e.g. beavers, orchids and kingfishers). The estate regroups 70 companies (including high-risk factories) and employs 3500 people.
Since the 1970s, one of the main strategic aims of the estate managers has been to protect the environment. PIPA was the first European industrial estate to obtain ISO 14001 certification, in 2000, and to be EMAS-registered (with the help of LIFE), in 2001.
Some major environmental achievements concern
- water management (joint water treatment facility, strict controls to prevent contamination,…), and
- integration into the natural surroundings (buildings made of renewable or recycled materials, 320000 trees and shrubs planted, picnic tables and benches with free access for everybody, traffic management).
It also focuses on transparency (towards the estate companies, the local population and the administration) as well as prevention (to gain mastery over technological hazards), but also has a crisis management programme.
All in all, the global and consistent management and efficient communication implied by EMAS have proved very useful to the estate.
In 2002 PIPA participated in a French pilot project to adapt the ecomapping methodology to industrial estates. The outcome of this project resulted in a step-by-step guide for environmental management for industrial estates based on the ecomapping partipatory approach.
Contact:
Syndicat mixte de la Plaine de l'Ain
Mr. Hugues de Beaupuy
Director
Ms. Claudine Lacôte
Environmental Manager
Tel.: +33-4-7461-5378
Fax: +33-4-7461-5101
Email: courrier@plainedelain.fr
Website: http://www.plainedelain.fr
Ecomapping for industrial estates website: http://www.ecocartes-za.org
