Eco-territoires
As part of this push, both the business park Opera Parcs and the old steel works of St Chamond have been awarded status as green developments, under the label ‘eco-territoires’.
Eco-territoires was established in 2008 and is a collaborative effort by various regions and sub-regions in France, including Loire in Rhone-Alpes. The mission of Eco-territoires is to facilitate the financial engineering for green investment projects through the means of funds from public and/or private institutions. The organisation supports companies primarily in the sectors of renewable energy and Eco-construction/sustainable construction, but also other kinds of green industries and services.
Loire aims to encourage green business, especially in fields where the region is already a key player: Water treatment and solar energy.
The Region
St. Etienne is the capital of the Loire region, and together with Lyon forms the second biggest metropolitan area in France, with a population of 2.5 million. The Loire is therefore at the heart of one of the most attractive investment areas in the country, second only to the metropolitan area of Paris. 38% of all investment in France in the solar energy market is already in this region.
Loire has an industrial legacy and expertise in many specialised fields: Greentech and water treatment, mechanical engineering, optics and green building. The area is host to a number of businesses, 36 of which employ more than 200 people. The St. Etienne conurbation is a booming investment area in its own right and is home both to Design City (Cité de Design) and the Châteaucreux business district.
In addition, the area is home to a number of important institutions of higher education such as PRES: Centre for Research and Higher Education in Lyon and Saint Etienne (university network), Mines ParisTech of St Etienne (graduate engineering university), the INSA of Lyon, the ENISE (National School of Engineering of Saint-Etienne), Ecole centrale de Lyon (graduate engineering university), Telecom Saint Etienne and ESC of Saint-Etienne.
Among the resource centres available to businesses are Cité Internationale du Design, Pôle Eco-Conception, Centre International de Recherche et d’Innovation sur le Développement Durable / International Centre for Research and Innovation in Sustainable Development (CIRIDD) and CETIM.
Greentech companies already established in Loire include names like SNF Floërger, OSSABOIS, Pramac Lifter France, FORGITAL, CARCHI, Bernard et Bonnefond, Rheinzink, Barriquand, HEF, Cellux and Elifrance. The region of Rhône-Alpes of which the department of Loire is part is also home to several leading companies, such as Photowatt, Tenesol, Total, and IFP.
The Parks
Opera Parcs is an industrial park dedicated to greentech. It covers more than 500 hectares and is host to several leading companies in the fields of water treatment and surface engineering. Opera Parcs is currently the workplace for over 6000 employees.
The park is divided into two main areas, the International Business Park and the 'Les Plaines' park, with 72 and 74 hectares of available land respectively. The size of the plots ranges from 5 to 50 hectares or from 2 000 sq. m. to 10 hectares depending on the area.
SNF Floërger, the world leader in flocculants for waste-water treatment, is currently established at Opera Parcs. Other companies include Nestlé Purina Petcare, Badoit, Freudenberg, Haubtmann and the SIFCOR group. This serviced park is also home to a resource centre for businesses.
The old steel works of Saint Chamond is ideally situated between Lyon and Saint-Etienne, and benefits from excellent road and rail links. The current conversion project is both ambitious in scale and involves a strong environmental approach to urban planning. The aim is to turn the property into an industrial eco-site, in keeping with the needs of the 21st century.
The western part of the site encompasses a total of 14 hectares dedicated to production, in mechanical sectors, energy and green building. 38 000 sq. m. of general work space and 5 000 sq. m. of office space is currently available. In the other two parts, next to the A47 and around what is known as Hall 01, construction is still in progress.
For more information on development opportunities in Loire, please see the following listing on the department's investment agency: ADEL.
