On Wednesday, April 25 there was the presentation of Ukrainian and Norwegian training program Cleaner Production and Energy Efficiency (CPEE) held in the city of Mykolayiv at the premises of Mykolayiv Regional State Administration. The event was organized by Mykolaiv Regional State Administration and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mykolayiv region in close cooperation with the Kherson CCI.
CPEE program representing a post graduate training course for engineers working at industrial and municipal enterprises has been running in Ukraine since 2007. It started in Kherson region, in 2009 it was disseminated to Dnipropetrovsk, and this year it will hopefully continue to Mykolayiv region. The program is implemented by common efforts of TEKNA – the Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (Oslo, Norway) and the Ukrainian CCI on the basis of regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Principal aim of the Program is to involve the Ukrainian engineers into solving the urgent issues of raw materials-, water- and energy conservation resulting into reduction of wastes production and environmental pollution prevention.

The head CPEE lecturer Mr. Leiv L. Bjerke (TEKNA) spoke about a Norwegian contribution to green economy by means of introduction of CPEE practices and methods to the Ukrainian industry. "The most important thing is to begin immediately, to work step by step but systematically, rather than to wait for investments doing nothing," - he said.

President of the Kherson CCI Mrs. Viktoriya Ostroumova told about the current status of Cleaner Production in the former "pilot" Kherson region. Representatives of most leading companies of Kherson region like Kherson City Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant, CME; Kherson Oil Refinery, JSC; Kherson Shipyard, JSC; Chumak, JSC etc. (93 Kherson engineers in total) have successfully graduated from the training course and obtained the relevant Certificates of international standard. According to Mrs. Ostroumova, the Program is well-treated by representatives of the business environment because it is aimed for those who count their money and are focused on real economic results. President of the CCI shared the experience of training the heads of several Kherson Apartment Blocks Joint Owners Associations according to the methodology of Cleaner production.  This training course was initiated by the Kherson CCI and carried out in 2010 under support of East Europe Foundation.

Professor Grigoriy Shmatkov Doctor of Biological Sciences who is one of the national lecturers of the Program spoke about the experience of Cleaner Production realization in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. Besides, it is worth saying that Professor Shmatkov is the first Vice-president of the Public Organization “Energy Alliance” (Dnipropetrovsk), whose mission is to change the people’s attitude towards the problem of inefficient utilization of energy resources, hereby we are speaking about the society as a whole and each citizen of our country, in particular.
In order to present the available opportunities of energy efficiency projects financing, Consultant of The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) Mr. Andriy Katashov took part in the presentation of the Program. By means of Cleaner Production lending program NEFCO provides soft loans (3 – 6% per annum) to both private and state enterprises. Loan repayment schedule takes into account the efficiency of direct investment. “Business plans developed within the Cleaner Production training course are always prepared at high, I would say European, level. One can apply to any bank, using them", – said Andriy Katashov.

According to Ms. Alla Chernomorchenko, Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mykolayiv region, the main advantage of the Cleaner Production program is the development of bankable projects aimed at costs of raw material and energy reduction, wastes formation decrease. In conclusion, the Vice-President accented on the fact that successful experience of the Program implementation in several Ukrainian regions can hold out a hope of the same effect in Mykolayiv.