Oliver Clark talks to Dublin Airport's Ronan Furlong about its part in Ireland's first 'green' economic corridor
In the shadow of one of the worst financial crises Ireland has ever faced, government, academic and business leaders have launched an ambitious plan to create the country's first green economic zone centred on Dublin Airport.
Running from Dublin City Centre, through Ballymun to the south, of the airport and onwards to the town of Swords to the north the An tSli Ghlas or "The Green Way" , is a proposal to create a home for a new generation of industries based on emerging green or 'clean' technologies.
Drafted by an alliance that includes Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and the North Dublin Chamber of Commerce, the corridor will boast business clusters, laboratories and high tech industry, supported by dedicated inter-modal connections.
"Ireland has the most open economy in Europe, perhaps even the world, but having said that we now need to move the next generation of investment and R&D opportunities and focus on high technologies such as nanotechnology, and new clean tech industries to remain competitive," says Ronan Furlong, senior development manager for DAA and a lead member of the project.
"Over the next six months we will be working on a detailed business plan with jobs at the centre of it, there is an excellent opportunity there to encourage investment and growth, but right now its early days," he adds.
The corridor will be anchored by Dublin Airport, its international connections and ease of access making it an ideal centrepiece to attract global companies and investment.
Green technologies are seen as a key industrial sector that will continue to grow globally. Indeed, in December 2009 the Irish Government's High Level Action Group on Green Enterprise made detailed proposals for job creation within the sector with a key proposal being the establishment of a specific 'green zone' for enterprise.
In line with this, the Green Way will benefit from Dublin Airport's planned 250,000sqm International Cleantech Services Centre (ICSC), designed to house next generation companies that will research, prototype and market emerging clean technologies.
Just as Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) was a major engine for Ireland's economic growth in the 1980s and 90s, so the ICSC will help underpin the country's efforts to ensure Dublin remains a competitive business and investment destination over the coming decades.
As well as the ICSC, the Green Way will include a Green International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Dublin's dockyards, two major academic institutions boasting 60,000 students and education programmes in collaboration with DAA.
Other assets include cleantech business parks, incubator operations, wet lab test facilities, facilities to bring technologies to market and support infrastructure such as offices, hotels and even conferencing venues.
Much of this development will take place around Dublin Airport, where 140 hectares of Greenfield land has been set aside for commercial development.
The whole development will be anchored by Metro North; an automated people mover (APM) connecting North Dublin, DCU and the airport's T1 and T2.
But as Furlong notes the corridor will have several other benefits for the community.
"The main concern at the beginning was the social and economic regeneration of Ballyman town, but the focus is now also on green investment and development, we want to encourage a major R+D programme in environmental technologies between manufacturers such as IBM, Facebook, Intel and Wyatt and the students at DCU," he says.
Not only will the economic corridor promote cleantech companies, it could also be described as a 'green' project in its own right.
Planners hope to reduce energy use during construction by incorporating renewable energy sources, new or existing buildings will be retrofitted, recycling and waster management goals will be set, and the team hope to draft a general charter to manage sustainable development.
The success of An tSli Ghlas will hinge on the global connectivity offered by Dublin Airport and the gateway's existing expansion plans dovetail perfectly with the project's objectives.
On Friday Dublin Airport unveiled its €395 million, 75,000sqm state-of-the-art Terminal 2, the centre piece of its €2.2 billion Transforming Dublin Airport programme.
Capable of accommodating 15 million passengers per year, T2 boasts the only US pre-clearance centre in Europe outside Shannon Airport and this, together with its modern facilities, will entice new carriers to Dublin Airport DAA hopes.
"Air India is already looking at Dublin as a future hub, flying from the east and transferring in Dublin for forward journeys into Europe or North America, T2 gives us flexibility and potentially airlines could be enticed from China and elsewhere in Asia," enthuses Furlong.
Thanks to the airport and its business friendly environment, Ireland could act as an "honest broker" between east and west, says Furlong, both facilitating trade and enticing big name firms from the USA and clean tech companies from the emerging economies to locate at the Green Way.
Indeed with clean tech companies burgeoning, especially in the BRIC countries of India and China, Dublin could become a gateway of trade between them and the West, a situation that would bring trade and new route development to the city and its airport.
The green corridor being advocated mirrors similar global sustainability initiatives such as the Copenhagen clean tech cluster and California's East Bay Green Economic Corridor, anchored by Oakland International Airport.
Indeed prior to its launch the Green Way's planners were advised by Dr Stephen Chu, who before being appointed by President Barak Obama as US Energy Secretary, was one of the founders of the East Bay corridor.
Stating Chu's advice has been a great help Furlong says the partnership is actively looking to "twin" An tSli Ghlas with other economic corridors in a state of mutual but careful or "co-opatiton" as he calls it.
But with Ireland's current financial woes and the country in the full swing of government austerity measures are they worried that essential projects, like the Metro North, could be threatened?
Furlong does not think so.
"Ultimately it is a government decision but in terms of the Metro North project it is a PPP, construction is carried out by private companies and the government pays for it for 25-30 years, it won't be operational until 2018, the government is not going to save any money by not going ahead with it and they are not going to get it any cheaper," he says.
With the official launch of The Green Way now over, the partners must begin the task of moving from ideas to reality but Furlong believes a roadmap will be in place by the end of 2011 and the corridor will begin to take shape in 2014-2018.
"We anticipate that we will have a CEO in place by Christmas and operational staff drawn from the four organisations completed at roughly the same time. I hope during the course of 2011 we will have achieved self-financing, gained access to EU grants and become part of official government policy."
