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The climate crisis no longer features in the coalition agreement. The press headlines are currently prioritizing other issues and green technologies are hardly getting any attention. However, the reality of the climate crisis has not disappeared. Companies are faced with the urgent task of making their business models fit for a climate-neutral future, not just for image reasons, but also with regard to the profitability of their companies. Sustainability has gone from being a sideshow, a nice-to-have, to a competitive factor.
This has long been accepted in the industry, Mittelstand and start-up scene. Investing in sustainability today will ensure security of supply, gains in efficiency, confidence of investors and a more resilient market position tomorrow. The Hinterland of Things conference shows just how serious entrepreneurs are about this. At the various panels, visitors heard how it works: with scalable solutions, concrete partnerships and the clear goal of bringing sustainable technologies into the economic mainstream.
Sustainability does not start with the image brochure, but deep within the structures of companies: in production processes, supply chains, energy flows and data systems. The claim must be: If you’re going to do it, do it right. Companies that only see ESG criteria as fulfilling a duty are falling short. It is much more important to understand green tech as an integral part of the business strategy. This is because climate protection measures usually address several problems at the same time – for example, process optimization not only achieves climate-relevant reductions, but also saves personnel costs at the same time through greater efficiency. “I think it’s important that we successfully manage the issues that lie ahead of us. I see them as an invitation to change our perspective,” says Jochen Ziervogel, Co-Founder Enpal.
Regulation was a dominant topic at the GreenTech panels. There is hardly anywhere as much of it as in Germany, which also results in losing some motivated founders to other countries.
However, Jochen Ziervogel invites people to change their own attitude: “Of course, energy is highly regulated in Germany, but the important step here is to enter into a joint dialog. Because everyone here actually shares the interest in changing something,” says Ziervogel.
He is one of numerous founders at the Hinterland of Things conference whose start-ups demonstrate that earlier visions of the future have long since become marketable today, with added value in both directions: Companies are reducing their emissions, saving energy costs and automating regulatory obligations. All thanks to tangible technology and not as a marketing gimmick, but with great savings potential. At Fernride, for example, this is already happening at the Port of Hamburg, where one person looks after four autonomous trucks and can provide support in the event of problems: “It works 95% of the time without any errors.”
A real hook lies in the consistent implementation of the circular economy. Those who think in terms of ecological cycles not only reduce waste, but also create new business models: by reusing resources, through shared platforms and by intelligently combining production, usage and recycling.
However, this only works with genuine collaboration – between start-ups, Mittelstand, research and capital. Hinterland has shown how it works: this is where those come together who not only think ideas, but also implement them.
There is also consensus on this point: many technologies are ready. What they often lack is the leap from niche to industrial scale. This requires not only capital, but three more things: courage to standardize, political support and clear target markets. “We have to plug the energy supply gap now, but we have to think more long-term and politicians have to set the course for this. That means building decentralized systems and tackling regulation,” says Florian Hildebrand, founder of greenlyte.
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