Three Mast Group's Ryan McHenry Moderates Final Event for Interreg's IB-Green Project
Dublin, Ireland - On Sept 15, 2026, Three Mast Group's Ryan McHenry moderated the final conference of IB-Green, an Interreg North-West Europe project focused on making existing industrial and business parks more resilient to climate change. The event was titled "Green-Blue Solutions: Transforming Industrial and Business Parks Across Europe," and it brought together local authorities, businesses, sustainability practitioners, and European partners at the Explorium National Sport and Science Center in Sandyford, located within Greater Dublin.
What Is IB-Green?
Industrial and business parks are often heavily sealed with pavement and rooftops, which makes them especially prone to flooding and overheating. The IB-Green project aims to reduce heat stress, mitigate flooding, promote biodiversity, and support citizen wellbeing in these parks by introducing green and blue infrastructure, such as unsealed parking areas, greenways, green roofs, and rainwater management.
The project is coordinated by the Climate Alliance and includes 11 partners from six countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It has a total budget of €8.9 million, of which €5.4 million comes from the European Regional Development Fund. Sandyford Business District and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) County Council are the Irish partners.
The Conference
Opening addresses were delivered by Anna Grainger (DLR County Councillor); Frank Curran (CEO, DLR County Council); Ger Corbett (CEO, Sandyford Business District); and Svenja Enke (Climate Alliance).
The program combined keynote presentations, expert discussions, and practical workshops on integrating green and blue infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and climate adaptation into existing business parks. Speakers presented examples from the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg, and the discussions returned repeatedly to how public-private partnerships and collaboration among businesses, municipalities, and communities can turn ambition into implementation.
In one example, Niek Smits of the Municipality of Leeuwarden (NL) explained that 80% of its land is privately held, meaning that effective greening measures would need to move beyond public sector land and instead focus on engaging the private sector. To accomplish this, Leeuwarden hired local landscapers to act as "green guides", tasked with helping local businesses to design climate-friendly plans to green their private properties. The municipality then made subsidies available to those who wished to bring their plans to fruition. This initiative was a winning formula for all sides: the municipality is moving toward its urban greening goals, local businesses are receiving end-to-end technical and financial support throughout the process, and local landscaping companies are seeing an uplift in business.
Workshops were also carried out during the conference, ensuring that participants had a chance to engage more deeply with a chosen topic and to develop their own ideas and plans for continued progress in their respective communities.
The conference venue, the Explorium National Sport and Science Center, provided fun breaks for participants to interact with popular science topics, such as gravity, climate change, and inertia.
A Visit to the Proposed Civic Park Site
Sandyford Business District was also able to present its vision for its own green-blue transformation, including the plans for its new Sandyford Civic Park, a 0.8-hectare plot that is currently being developed at the heart of the business district. Event participants were then able to tour the site, giving participants a concrete local case to weigh against the European examples presented during the day.
Looking Ahead
Most business parks were built for another era, and retrofitting them is now a practical question for local governments and the companies that operate in them. IB-Green's final conference offered a cross-border view of what is working and how it can be replicated.
The event also fits within Three Mast Group's broader work with Sandyford Business District and DLR County Council, from the November 2025 stakeholder event to the New York investment mission and the launch of the European Association of Business Innovation Districts.
Thank you to Sandyford Business District, Climate Alliance, and all of the speakers, partners, and participants who contributed.
