News and events published on the Eco-innovation Community Platform

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LRM is an investment company with a remit to promote innovation-based economic growth in the northeastern Belgian province of Limburg, on the border with the Netherlands. Among the core areas for LRM is “sustainable societies”: providing investment for low-cost sustainable production or the efficient management of essential primary products with a reduced impact on the environment. LRM Head of Sustainable Societies Roeland Engelen discussed LRM's work and highlighted some success stories.

Large companies are increasingly required to report on their greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. But a new law – an amendment to France's Energy Transition Law – makes France the first country to introduce mandatory climate reporting for investors, though similar ideas have also been considered in Sweden. The French requirement applies to investors with a balance sheet of €500 million or more. Investors must deliver their first reports, which should cover 2016, by June 2017.

Capturing kinetic energy, or the energy generated by an object in motion, could prove to be an alternative to energy from traditional sources, such as fossil fuels, in energy efficient systems. Kinetic energy recovery is already used in, for example, Formula 1 motor racing, where the energy generated by racing cars when they brake can be stored and subsequently used for acceleration.