Cras s.r.l. – Centre for Applied research on Sustainable development – born in 1998 from a fruitful synergy among experts in environmental issues – is a private engineering company working mainly in the fields of environment, territorial planning, and sustainable development, with the mission to promote the integration of environmental concerns into policies, programs, plans and projects, as well as in the everyday life of citizens and communities.
More specifically, Cras works in the following areas of expertise:
- Assistance and support to public authorities in the integration of environmental issues into the different governance levels.
Cras provides public authorities with continuous support and highly qualified expertise in all environmental sectors (evaluation and assessment procedures, information and capacity building, research and scientific analysis, management, planning and design), covering a wide range of activities: fund raising, development of project ideas, project design and implementation. Due to its multi-disciplinary background, Cras is able to provide support and assistance to the coordination and management of complex projects, integrating all aspects of territorial development.
- Environmental monitoring and reporting
Starting from important past experiences in local Agenda 21 processes, Cras has become highly skilled in environmental reporting and in the use of sustainability indicators, especially as regards the Ecological Footprint assessment. Cras has also broad experience in the environmental monitoring of plans and programs such as the Lazio Region ROP ERDF, also by designing and implementing georeferenced databases. In recent years, Cras has been orienting part of its activities towards environmental assessments based on GHG emissions balances, in connection with local sustainable energy planning, acquiring broad expertise in the monitoring and evaluation of sustainable mobility plans and measures, as well as in the preparation of research papers on GHG emissions caused by specific human activities.
- Environmental planning and project design
Cras can boast strong experience in environmental planning and project design: from the drafting of management plans for natural protected areas, to local energy planning (assisting Municipalities in the preparation of SEAPs – Sustainable Energy Action Plans within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors); from the design and implementation of sustainable mobility plans (SUMP) and measures in various Italian Municipalities, to the preparation of environmental rehabilitation plans, as well as mitigation and landscape integration projects.
- Environmental evaluation and Environmental Impact Studies
Cras provides public authorities and private promoters with high quality expertise and know-how for the preparation of all technical reports required by environmental regulations at all levels (Environmental Impact Studies for Environmental Impact Assessments – EIA, Environmental Reports for Strategic Environmental Assessments – SEA, Incidence Assessments, Landscape Reports, etc.) and assists its clients in the management of the related procedures.
- Environmental communication and participation
Cras puts its multi-annual experience in environmental information and awareness-raising at the clients’ disposal. Cras expertise covers all stages of the communication process, addressing both the general public and specific target groups: from the design of targeted communication strategies and awareness-raising campaigns, to the production of multimedia information materials, until the organization and implementation of events to promote sustainable development (conferences, seminars, expositions…). Cras believes in the importance of integrating different communication levels – from scientific to educational – to ensure the achievement of environmental promotion objectives.
- European projects design
Since more than 15 years, Cras has been working in the field of EU projects, dealing with fund raising, partners search, preparation of project proposals, and implementation of funded activities. Within this framework, Cras has been acting both as a partner and as a sub-contractor (depending on each Programme’s specific features and requirements), dealing with LIFE, EQUAL, INTERREG, IEE, H2020 programmes.
A flexible and dynamic organization, Cras is part of a wide, multidisciplinary and multi-level collaboration network, including both public and private actors, that often engages the company in important partnerships for the implementation of projects at international, national and local level, focusing on environmental and energy issues.
Competence and efficiency are Cras’ distinctive features, together with a solid experience in the management of relational databases, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and other relevant ICT applications, supported by a considerable Hardware and Software equipment. Moreover, Cras is able to design and manage online publication of websites for the dissemination of environmental information and the promotion of participatory processes, including interactive crowdsourcing functions for data collection.