ORESA

Sustainability and profitability are often considered conflicting values within the blue economy, creating a challenge in adoption of sustainable practices. However, designing solutions in a sustainable way is increasingly recognised as a source of competitive advantage. 

In multiple EU policies a resilient renewable energy mix has been linked to biodiversity and sustainability challenges. This together with a new market drive to ensure environmental impacts minimization (dictated by offshore wind tenders) makes sustainability a crucial aspect for a future-proof economy. Most projects on offshore renewable energy innovations display a shortcoming in considering sustainability in the early stage. 

The Offshore Renewable Energy Sustainability Alliance (ORESA) is a consortium of diverse partners from industry, government and research institutes, from 5 NWE countries aiming to address this challenge. In transnational collaboration ORESA partners: 

1. Develop an accelerator strategy to help innovators address the growing demand for sustainability in their roll-out
2. Pilot the sustainability accelerator for 25 SMEs, to improve their competitive innovation capacity. 
3. Leverage ORESA’s expertise and diversity in 30 capacity building activities (deep-dives, university & school training, staff exchange programs & videos) to reach relevant stakeholders and engage future work force in offshore sustainability, to ensure a lasting change in the perception of sustainability.