Bringing together companies that offer products, services, and technologies that will be part of our future lifestyle, that is the vocation of “Living Tomorrow 3.” Living Tomorrow 3 is the general public’s meeting place in Vilvoorde, Belgium for the home of the future. SUEZ is one of the lead sponsors of this operation, where, through its businesses, it presents tomorrow’s innovations.
A project welcoming 5 million visitors
Nearly five years after the opening of Living Tomorrow 2 in Belgium, in January 2006 work on building the Living Tomorrow 3 complex began at Vilvoorde (Brussels). This project will soon open its doors where it projects offering 300 events a year and to welcome some 1 million visitors for five years.
There are several different areas where innovative companies will be offering visitors everything to enhance their quality of life: “the home of the future,” “the office of the future,” “creative activities and industries of the future.” The Vilvoorde demonstration platform will also include an information complex with an auditorium, business reception areas, and an exposition hall, all together covering nearly 50,000 square feet.
An inter-company partnership including the Flemish government
The principal initiators of the project are the Flemish government, SUEZ, and the Delhaize Stores. Thirty other companies, all specialists in their fields, are participating. The SUEZ Group was selected to present products and services that will represent the force of tomorrow’s company.
Social, economic, and technological changes will be observed, then translated into realistic, readily identifiable applications. These changes will give SUEZ the chance to present its vision of the future, its business strategy, and the new services it will be offering customers in the near future.
For SUEZ, Living Tomorrow 3 is an opportunity to demonstrate the Group’s commitment to sustainable development and its innovative approach to the challenge of responsible energy consumption for the future.
On January 9 2006, at the laying of Living Tomorrow 3’s foundation stone, Gérard Mestrallet, SUEZ CEO, expressed this idea in saying: “We see this opportunity in environmental standards, in energy questions, in the choice of energy technologies and energy supply. What won us over to this very fine project is the opportunity to show how we can save energy, preserve resources, and live lives that exemplify sustainable development.”
Innovation serving sustainable development
Among the innovations presented by SUEZ: photovoltaic cell developments (solar energy), a real-time energy consumption control system (baptized “Kronos”), research into means of producing energy from household waste and efficient recycling and water treatment systems for household wastewater.
“Let’s imagine a home that produces more energy than it consumes. Let’s imagine a world more united, more responsible. This world exists. We are working together to bring it into being. We must acquire a taste for the future, have faith in innovation, and give concrete expression to sustainable development,” explained Gérard Mestrallet, summarizing the Group’s commitment to Living Tomorrow.
www.livtom.com
