Our ambitious project has already reached its halfway point, and we could not be any more proud, happy, and full of ideas for the rest of our four-year lifespan. In fact, our latest annual meeting has made it all clear. A couple of days of good companionship, coffee breaks, talks, questions, comments, presentations… and good wishes for the near future in beautiful Stavanger (Norway). Now is the moment for the implementation on our pilot sites, time to translate every idea and proposal to the real day to day work in quarries. Reporting period one has almost finished.

To achieve this vital goal good collaboration & coordination between partners is a must. Without this teamwork, nothing would work out as planned. Also, we must not forget the solutions, even if applicable and tested in the pilot sites, must be replicable in other sites across EU. Early alarm for new risks & deviations to be able to react as soon as possible.

On the first day, the leaders of several work packages (9, 2, 3, 8, 4, 5, 7) presented their latest developments and opened new lines of action. The second day started with a follow-up by the leaders of working package 6 and a workshop conducted by one of the members of the consortium, Gate2Growth. During this activity, all the members of Rotate had the chance to present the results of their research and studies in a business-oriented exercise centered around some of the goals of the project such as sustainability, efficiency, and reducing the carbon footprint. After this much needed effort the whole team headed to Velde Industri quarry in Sandnes, only a short drive from Stavanger. Velde extracts and processes granite for concrete and asphalt. They also operate a recycling plant with an extraordinarily shallow footprint because they don’t need to use a crusher, only cleaning and screening, and all the water they use is re-used inside their own circular system. Velde is the pilot site for biodiversity and water usage.