connected-clusters-report-energy

University of Birmingham | Climate-KIC 41
Development of the Cluster
Creation
The Frankfurt cluster builds on the long
heritage of chemical innovation at the
Höchst site. Founded in 1863, the site
initially developed dyes from coal tar,
and later – when it was discovered that
many of the compounds used to create
dyes were also effective in fighting diseases
– pharmaceuticals.
Over time, the industrial site grew to
encompass chemical manufacture for
the production of not only dyes and
pharmaceuticals, but also plastics
and life sciences. The site now covers
460 hectares, with 22,000 people employed
and over 90 companies based on the site.
The ownership and management of the
park has an interesting history. The story
is one of individual firms ultimately joining
forces under the auspices of the leviathan
German chemicals conglomerate IG Farben,
before later being broken up again into
smaller companies.
The interests of the different companies on site
are managed by the industrial park operator
Infraserv Höchst. As park manager, Infraserv
produces the energy needed in the park. It is
responsible for waste management, facility
management, safety and security and also has
a logistics company.
Provadis School bundles its low-carbon
innovation projects together at the Centre for
Industry and Sustainability (ZIN). The ZIN is
manager of the rhein-main-cluster chemie
& pharma, a cluster organisation focusing on
chemical and pharmaceutical companies in
the region. It supports them to improve their
operational excellence via knowledge
exchange and to organise exchange
opportunities between the industry
and civil society.
This cluster was established 10 years ago,
but does not explicitly focus on low-carbon
innovation and transition topics. However,
the low-carbon innovation element of the
activities now form the basis of the Sustainable
Innovation Cluster FrankfurtRheinMain.
The driver for the development of the cluster
came from the Centre for Industry and
Sustainability (ZIN). In parallel, the service
provider of the industrial park, Infraserv,
set up an Ideation Lab with agile collaboration
methods and infrastructure. ZIN and
Infraserv wanted to join forces due to their
complementary approaches. This took place
via the Ideation Lab, where its first campaign
was ‘Zero-Waste’, which aligned with
circular economy.
This grew to become a Sustainable
Innovation Hub. Through the inclusion of
other stakeholders the eventual target is the
development of a regional sustainability cluster.
The ZIN has a large network and significant
experience with the setting up of a cluster in
the chemical area (rhein-main-cluster chemie
& pharma). It was also planned that the
Infraserv Ideation Lab would be further
developed after a first testing phase by
Infraserv. Through this agglomeration of
resources and the development of the
collaboration, the idea of a regional cluster
was born. In many ways, the current
incarnation of the cluster is a reactivation and
reframing of the cluster that was founded
ten years ago (rhein-main-cluster chemie &
pharma). However, even though there is a
long-established record of collaborative
working, there remain many challenges
common to all of the clusters, such as how
to create a cluster that will have sound
financing beyond public funding.