Water & Environment
Naturally flowing expertise
Limoges Métropole harbors significant expertise in the Water field. Such globally-focused leaders as IOWater have sprung from there and a specialist training scheme found nowhere else in France was also developed there. Active research programs on the subject have their source in the local laboratories too. The presence of the sector’s flagship stakeholder, SOLTENA, at ESTER is cementing the leadership of this field of excellence at a regional level.
A Science Park awash with innovation
ESTER brings together laboratories, dedicated training providers and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Environment Cluster. Right from the outset, the Science Park has hosted myriad cutting-edge players, who all share the same goal: harness technology for the benefit of managing the urban water cycle, green chemistry and waste management.
Thanks to their joint efforts, Water & Environment has become a widely recognized field grounded in long-standing, local expertise.
Foremost startups have emerged at the Science Park. As network members and winners of a raft of national awards, they are shoring up the field’s innovative flow. Aquassay, which specializes in the water efficiency of industrial sites, designs wholly unique solutions for the real-time analysis of industrial facility operations. At Pearl, the “Cleantech Biosorb” process is addressing the major challenge of water decontamination.
50 YEARS of expertise in the water specialism
In the early 1970s, University of Limoges was the first in France to develop a curriculum focusing on water. These days, there are Bachelor through to Master’s level courses available in the specialism. The engineering school ENSIL- ENSCI, based at ESTER, also teaches a nationally-recognized “Water and Environment” major.
13% of today’s workforce in the water sector in France were trained in Limoges.
Back in 1978, the City was already helping, via its University, to set up the Water Foundation which, after merging with other organizations, would ultimately become the International Office for Water (OIWater) in 1991.
SOLTENA, a prominent stakeholder
Since 1 January 2021, SOLTENA (which stands for Solutions for the ecological transition in Nouvelle-Aquitaine) has been the only network of environmental professionals in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The fruit of the merger between the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Environment Cluster and SOLTENA, it is headquartered at the ESTER Science Park.
The cluster brings together regional Water and Environment professionals who work jointly on providing solutions which factor in sustainable development. Today, more than 200 members represent the field, including eco-companies, researchers, training providers, manufacturers and eco-responsible authorities.
Committed to innovation and competitiveness, they are all experts right across the water cycle as well as on complementary environmental themes (including biodiversity, the circular economy, polluted soil and sites and adaptation to climate change).
They naturally benefit from ESTER’s networking and scaling-up capabilities, through which they can generate eco-innovation at local level and leverage the mechanisms for breaking down barriers between the region’s eco-stakeholders.
Odéys: accelerator of a green energy transition
The regional cluster for sustainable construction and development Odeys operates region-wide via its branches in Anglet, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Limoges and Poitiers. It aspires to catalyze and scale up a green energy, digital and social transition in the construction sector.
Crucial to its purpose is the development of competitiveness, the facilitation of corporate innovation and greater consideration of sustainable development in construction and development projects.
With nearly 400 members, some of whom are based within the Science Park – the engineering firm Eco Save and companies Be Energethik and Encis Environnement among them – Odeys is rallying all of the sector’s stakeholders together in a bid to build a brighter future.