Edge of a revolution

Sir Stelios on the left presented a big cheque to Epyon

It is the third time this event has been organised by Innovator Capital with the Monaco Chamber of Economic Development (CDE – Chambre de Développement Economique) as host.

New for this year, to add to the other awards, was a 10,000 euro “Award for Young Clean-Tech Entrepreneur” presented by Easyjet founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, through his new Stelios Philanthropic Foundation. The winner was the Dutch company Epyon set up in 2006 with a system for petrol stations to recharge batteries ultra-quickly for electric vehicles.

There was an air of real optimism at this year’s event which has attracted some big names to its list of collaborators. They include Arup, a world leader in building design and construction whose Director Peter Head told a press conference that he believes the world “is on the edge of an ecological revolution”, and spoke of a “paradigm shift” in the built environment. “India and Africa have the opportunity to take advantage of this shift, as they have not gone too far down the industrial revolution road, unlike China,” he added.

Another feather in the cap is the Singapore Economic Development Board which according to Mungo Park, Chairman of Innovator Capital, has a programme to “retrofit buildings” with green technologies as a way of creating jobs to lift it out of recession, rather than building new ones. He believes the construction industry is key to countries being in a position to cut their CO2 emissions, hence the significance of Arup being on board, “We identify the technologies and then Arup can take them forward to government level.”

Asked by The Riviera Times to be specific on what had been achieved, both he and Peter Head said that a lot of work was being done behind the scenes. “There’s no one project as yet but we have a whole team here to take the initiative forward,” commented Mr Head.

Mr Park had the last word on what the future holds for clean technologies: “If all our leaders had the passion and commitment of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II we would be much further down the line.” CL