The main issue was the implementation of the best available technologies

Source: Business Russia

On September 16, the Committee on the Chemical Industry of the All Russia Public Organization “Business Russia” held an expert strategic session “Implementation of the best available technologies to decrease the pressure on the environment by industrial enterprises” at the III international specialised exhibition ChemiCos-2020.

Director of the Department of Chemical Technological Complex and Bioengineering Technologies of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Orlov, Deputy Director of the Environmental Industrial Policy Centre Arina Volosatova, First Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Ecology of Omsk Oblast Aleksandr Matnenko, Executive Director of the Centre of Collective Usage of Saint Petersburg Mining University Aleksandr Danilov, experts of the committee in the sphere of ecology, representatives of industrial enterprises and business associations took part in the session.

Member of the General Council of “Business Russia”, general director of “EcoStandard” Group of Companies Nikolay Krivozertsev acted as the moderator of the session. In his welcome address he noted that the conference was dedicated not only to the best modern technologies, but also to their implementation practices, as well as to separate interesting cases. Nikolay Krivozertsev assured that these aspects were especially important for the industry.

“We fully understand the influence of any industrial activity on the environment. At the same time one should remember that industry is one of the foundations of the economy and that industrial enterprises are the key employer on a number of territories. That is why it is very important to answer the question – how to unlock the industrial potential of Russia on the one hand and to minimize ecological consequences on the other hand,” – said President of “Business Russia” Pavel Titov, outlining the topic of the session. He also expressed the hope that following the results of the discussion, proposals for the implementation of the ecological standard on the territory of the pilot regions shall be formulated and accepted, and that the road map for its promotion shall be prepared.

Chairperson of the Committee on the Chemical Industry of the All Russia Public Organization “Business Russia” Mikhail Sutyaginsky noted that industrial enterprises in the regions and their influence of the environment are at the centre of public attention in the past few years. According to him, the enterprises are forced to become more open, although a significant part of such issues and ecological responsibilities should not be solved without the participation of government bodies. “The national project provides for the fact that the ecological pressure should be decreased by 22% by 2024. This is an ambitious and important task. All of us would like for industrial manufactures to be more “green”. The Committee on the Chemical Industry of “Business Russia” has chosen ecologization as one of its priorities; and we realize that the issues of decreasing the ecological pressure should not be solved by the enterprises alone. This is a complex decision”, - he said.

In their presentations the participants have touched upon the assessment of the efficiency of events to decrease the influence on the environment, enforcement practices in the sphere of ecological legislation, shared their experience and the results of implementing the best available technologies that decrease the ecological pressure.

The Committee on the Chemical Industry of “Business Russia” will prepare a document following the results of the session which it will distribute to all industrial enterprises and regional government bodies. “We understand that the implementation of the best available technologies is not a tool to lift the “ecologically hazardous” marking from the enterprises. Although the complex of events which we have heard about today may lead to the common denominator – the so-called ecological standard of territories which could be adopted by all those who specialize in industrial safety and the reduction of the environmental pressure. The ecological standard is a system. As a rule, only a system yields results”, - summed up Mikhail Sutyaginsky.