Renewable resources, alternative fuels, care for livestock and landscape, a responsible future, meaningful local development. This is what sustainability looks like in the Pilsen Region.
Sustainability. A commonly used, sometimes not very specific term, which also has the reputation of an attractive but empty word – a buzzword. But this is not so in the Pilsen Region.
What is the best way to explain everything that the term sustainability can stand for?
One can, of course, ask ChatGPT, and get the answer that it is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It’s about balancing environmental, social, and economic factors to ensure long-term well-being.”
Google adds that the UN General Assembly has declared November 26th as World Sustainable Transport Day.
However, it would be better to present sustainability in concrete terms, for example, through some of the activities or projects that are already in place, and have proven effective. In doing so, we can keep to the areas mentioned by AI. There is certainly plenty to choose from and to be inspired by.
Energy
In the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Pilsen Region, sustainability is addressed, for example, in the Modern Energy domain. The mission? By collaborating in research, development, and innovation “to ensure affordable energy through reliable, flexible, low-emission, and sustainable energy industry”. What might this mean in practice?
The Pilsen Region is fortunate to have a dense network of companies involved in the energy sector, as well as the research potential of the University of West Bohemia (UWB) in Pilsen. For example, the company Pinflow Energy Storage, which was founded as a start-up by scientists from the NTC Research Centre of the UWB of Pilsen and the University of Chemical Technology in Prague, shows how research turns into practice. Their redox flow batteries allow electricity to be stored for non-mobile applications, so that the cost per kWh per cycle is as low as possible. They boast a quarter-century lifespan, are non-flammable and explosion-proof, and have already won numerous awards for the scientists.
DOOSAN Škoda Power is also no stranger to renewable energy sources, and in addition to the traditional use of fossil fuels and nuclear power, it is also involved in the energetic use of biomass and waste, and the use of solar and geothermal energy. For the use of geothermal energy, DOOSAN offers a specific steam turbine. “Our solution enables installations worldwide, including in areas of high seismicity,” its portfolio reads.
As for the use of solar energy, the Pilsen Region can even claim one Czech record, as of this year. The largest photovoltaic project in the Czech Republic is producing energy on the roof of the CTPark Bor industrial park near the town of Tachov. One roof has a capacity of 4 MWp, the other 4.1 MWp, both of which together will produce electricity equivalent to the consumption of 3,000 households in one year. CTP invested CZK 230 million in the project, as part of its support for the transition to clean energy, and sells the energy to its tenants and to ČEZ ESCO (Energy Service COmpany)
Mobility
Another domain of the Regional Innovation Strategy that may be of interest to us is Smart Mobility, with the aim to “support research, development, and innovation activities in the Pilsen Region, in relation to transport as an integrating element of society, with a significant socio-economic effect, especially in terms of sustainable development, increasing safety, efficiency, and fluidity of transport”.
The focus of this domain is electromobility, which has already been the subject of a separate article. However, as the search is on for new concepts for vehicles, drives, and propulsion, and systems in general, we mustn’t omit hydrogen.
The Škoda Group in Pilsen knows this well, and its Škoda H’CITY hydrogen bus has been in test operation in Prague’s public transport since July 2023. To develop hydrogen technology further, the company signed a memorandum with Hyundai Motor Company in September this year. “We are convinced that hydrogen, together with energy-efficient solutions, will play a crucial role in the transformation of mobility for a more sustainable future,” Škoda Group CEO Petr Novotný said.
However, when you say Pilsen and hydrogen, you should also mention the University of West Bohemia, where the Hydromun project has started this year at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In co-operation with the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, the University of Regensburg, and Es geht!, a Bavarian company focused on sustainable energy, a platform of universities, research organizations, and other actors involved in the use of hydrogen technologies in the Czech-Bavarian region is being formed. The platform will serve primarily for knowledge transfer towards representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises. It should be added that Professor Ludmila Kučerová, who leads an international scientific team from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Japan, which is developing a material for hydrogen storage, also works at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Agriculture and Landscape Management
However, in the Pilsen Region, agriculture, for example, is sustainable as well.
The Czech Technology Platform for Organic Agriculture, which brings together actors from science, research and education, agricultural and food production and trade, and NGOs, highlights the fact that organic farms in the Pilsen Region breed the most horses in the country. They are second in the number of beef cattle. “You will find farms with their own slaughter and direct sale of meat. In organic crop production, cereals and forage crops predominate, but you can also find organic fruit or juices.
Many organic farms also offer accommodation,” says a regional information leaflet.
The Report on the State of the Environment in the Pilsen Region, which was last published by the Ministry of the Environment in 2022, adds that the region is among those with a high proportion of organically managed land in the total area of agricultural land: “In 2022, this proportion was 22.3%, the area of organically managed land in the Pilsen Region reached 73.3 thousand ha. In the Pilsen Region, permanent grassland, which is used for grazing cattle, sheep, and horses in the organic farming regime, is significantly predominant.”
Along with agriculture, it’s necessary to mention the management of the landscape, for example in the form of the Healthy Landscape Project Partner label, which the Pilsen Region has started to award this year. The regional government has decided to engage companies based in the region in environmental care. Thanks to the sponsorship of Plzeňská teplárenská, for example, an artificial island for nesting birds was created in the Zbynické rybníky nature reserve near Hrádek, in the Klatovy district, and thanks to the company IDEAL Automotive Bor, a grazing area for wild horses was expanded in the Janovský Wetland nature reserve near Nýřany, north of Pilsen.
Education
Being considerate of the environment and the future that is sustainability, according to the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, which is focusing on this topic in the current academic year. In the streets of Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, and Cheb, people have come across a campaign that introduced them to experts in physics, business, mechanical engineering, medical rescue service, teacher education, law, mathematics, the energy industry… On the website udrzitelnost.zcu.cz, each of the faculties demonstrates their approach to sustainability.
Apart from the projects of the technical faculties, sustainable activities of those focused on the humanities are interesting too.
The Faculty of Health Care Studies, for example, focuses on educating the public not only on first aid, but also on the prevention of civilisation diseases. For the Faculty of Education, the key to a sustainable future is education, which involves “using new technologies, using resources efficiently, creating a safe environment, and supporting our region”. The Faculty of Arts teaches about sustainability, engages in projects that promote the sustainability of social services and public transport, educates future professionals in the humanities and social sciences, researches the needs of socially disadvantaged groups, and uses the results of its research to plan social services and projects in the region.
The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art teaches courses such as Environmental Design for Architecture, and also concentrates on environmental protection, while the Faculty of Law contributes to sustainability with courses focused on social responsibility, that the society needs in the process of change – for example, Nature and Landscape Protection Law, Agriculture, Breeding and Hunting Law, Public Law Regulation of Industrial Activities, Water Law, and Environmental Law.
Local Development
This year, Pilsen City Councillors have approved a new Smart City Strategy for the years 2024 to 2028. The document builds on the previous one, which has guided the city since 2019, and its goal remains the same – a sustainable smart city development.
“Innovative approaches referred to as SMART solutions represent a specific form that relies on the use of modern technological tools, procedures, and services, but not only that. Nowadays, they are constantly being improved, updated, and extended with new findings and approaches using the latest technology. At the same time, our strategic plan responds to societal trends, such as urbanization, migration, destabilization of society and inequalities between regions, housing shortages and digitalization, artificial intelligence, automation, and much more,” said Daniel Kůs, Pilsen City Councillor for Smart Cities and Business Support.
However, smaller municipalities are no strangers to sustainable development either, with the Town of Tachov being a fine example. The town, known for its industrial zones, has developed Principles for Co-operation with Investors in the Development of Public Infrastructure. In the comprehensive document, it declares, for example, that “it is obliged to take care of the sustainable development of its territory, the needs of its citizens, and to protect the public interest in the performance of its tasks”.
When developing public infrastructure, Tachov “prefers sustainable solutions that are in line with the principle of sustainable development, and aim to protect the climate”, and the objective of these principles is also “to motivate investors to co-operate on ensuring the sustainable development of the town, and to support its compact development and subsequent efficient administration”.
