Recharge the Urban Environment (RUE) is a newly formed venture, aimed at combining the sustainable application of innovating solutions and operational infrastructures with funding from available EU resources and financing programmes, to various EU-based beneficiary bodies and organisations  and, in particular, local governments and municipalities.

RUE is an offshoot of two well established private companies each of which has been leaders in their respective field of activities: Paralos S.A. (an engineering firm) and Business Knowhow S.A. (an operations & management consultancy firm).

Through the expertise and demonstrable success of its parent companies in their own field of activity, RUE is in a position to identify, research and develop successful solutions and applications, formulate well-documented application files and bring together the required funding for the implementation of successful EU programmes on behalf of its participating clientele.

Although not limited in scope, the focus of RUE’s activity will be on the implementation of programmes which concern environmentally-related products, operational processes, services and applications.

RUE’s guaranteed recipe for success is based upon the contributions of its constituent parts. These tangible contributions are along the following five axes:

1. human resources, from a pool of successful professionals, almost entirely of engineering background, with considerable expertise and know-how of both technical and managerial nature,
2. access, familiarity and knowledge based directly into the heart of EU operational and decision making centres,
3. access and excellent working relationships with a plethora of local government institutions, bodies and organisations, as well as municipalities, based on past and present successful implementations,
4. excellent technical knowledge and engineering aptitude and expertise, as well as access to the general local and international technology providers, through a long line of successful project implementations,
5. sound consulting and project management skills and expertise and a long line of successful EU-funded programme implementations.

In more detail:

A. Paralos S.A.

Paralos S.A. (www.paralos-tech.gr) is a highly experienced engineering establishment, possessing all required skills, aptitude, experience and know-how through its highly specialised team of engineering professionals in the fields of its activities, with disciplines including Electrical, Electronic, Chemical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Paralos enjoys the respect of players in the heavy industry and energy sectors, not only within the Greek market but internationally. Since 2004 the company has been providing engineering design, construction, installation, commissioning and maintenance services in the fields of Industry, Energy and the Environment, often allocating significant amount of funds and resources for Research and Development following the international technological needs thus enriching its level of expertise. Paralos has successfully implemented challenging projects and offered turn-key solutions to well-established, large customers (Gamesa, ENEL, Lafarge Cement group, Titan Cement, THYSSENKRUPP, VIOHALCO, RWE, the Hellenic Power Corporation, the Aegean Group, Hellas Gold, M.J. Maillis, Nireus Group and many more) occasionally cooperating with a significant number of international technology providers. In the Energy Sector, Paralos is executing on a turnkey Basis, Energy Transmission & Distribution Systems, HV Substations (air-insulated and GIS types) and HV & MV transmission lines for the interconnection of industries and power plants to the HV grid, as well as wind farm EPC projects and operation and maintenance services. In the Industrial Sector Paralos is executing on a turnkey basis several projects in the Cement, Metallurgy and Mining industries and Refineries, including design and construction of custom made solutions for upgrading existing production plants. In the Environment Sector, Paralos is executing on a turnkey basis industrial waste water treatment, for clean water recovery and minimization of liquid final waste.

Further to the normal day-to-day operations, the company has designed, developed, implemented and installed prototype, innovative solutions to its heavy industry customers, such as:

• a Unique Electrical Drive Intervention for Optimizing Cement Kiln Operation (paper published in the I.E.Τ),
• a Fuel Oil Recovery system from Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) residuals,
• a System for increasing ship loading capacity for the Cement Industry (already published in the International Cement Review magazine),
• Design and Development of Industrial Robotic Systems.

B. Business Knowhow S.A. 

Business Knowhow S.A. (www.bkh.gr) is a well-established operations & management consulting firm, offering consulting services in the fields of supply chain management, production process optimization, activity-based costing, business process re-engineering and change management, implementation of IT applications, project management, quality management, business strategy, investment planning and public funding of business plans since 1998. The experience, professional background and expertise of its human resources have guaranteed an impressive track record in the successful completion of innovative, large scale and often difficult projects for clients like Heineken, Philip Morris, Toyota, Novartis, Doverie Brico, Imperial Tobacco, Diageo, IBM, the Hellenic Power Corporation etc. and at the same time in formulating successful application files and participation in EU-funded programmes on behalf of its clients.

RUE will be managed by a leading team of experts, with considerable academic and professional background:

Gerassimos Skourtias (General Manager RUE) is a Chemical Engineer (National Technical University of Athens, NTUA) also holding an MBA (hons from Athens Laboratory of Business Administration). He speaks fluent German, English and French and this skill has facilitated him to work under big foreign exposure just at the beginning of his 30+ yr career. He has worked as Commercial / Marketing director in both Greek and multinational companies, like ABB Electro-mechanics, Robert Bosch automotive, Bayer & BASF Chemicals etc. His main professional focus has been in the fields of sales & marketing of technical products in different competitive markets and segments in most EU countries facilitating product penetration into local markets with a plethora of particularities, especially in the perception of ‘low cost’ competition products sold as more ‘profitable’ to intermediaries or end-users. He is very experienced in highly specialized technical applications as Electrical Vehicles, Analytics & Metering of Water & Waste Water Supplies as well as relative Infrastructure Projects.

George A. Christopoulos (Senior Partner RUE) is an Electrical Engineer (University of Patras), M.Sc. in Power Electronics (University of Bradford), MBA (Athens Laboratory of Business Administration) and Ph.D. in Power Electronics (University of Patras). His employment experience started as Head of the Electrical Dept. in Titan Cement Company at Kamari Plant in 1994. In 1999 he was promoted to Assistance Production Manager and a year later to Technical Manager. Since 2002 he is the Managing Director of Paralos Engineering S.A., leading the fields of Energy and Heavy Industry in Greece and Internationally.

Ioannis Zois (Senior Partner RUE) is a Chemical Engineer (NTUA) with post-graduate studies in Production Processes Design and Optimization. He’s fluent in English, French and Russian, speaking also adequately a number of other European languages. He has been a Senior Consultant and Senior Partner in a number or Management Consulting firms and started Business Knowhow S.A. in 1998 (being its President & CEO). Over the years he has managed a plethora of innovative successful re-engineering, supply chain management, IT, investment and business development projects for companies and organizations operating in most market sectors, both in Greece and in other European countries. He has also designed the Supply Chain Management software suite ‘Odyssey’ implemented by many commercial, manufacturing, transportation & forwarding companies; he has taught for years an advanced Logistics Engineering course to students of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens; finally, he has been a Consultant of ECR Greece leading a number of innovative Supply Chain projects.