Conference, exhibition, global platform for “green”, sustainable developments: all of that is the GREENTECH FESTIVAL, which took place from June 14 to 16, 2023 on the grounds of the Urban Tech Republic. With more than 160 exhibitors, 180 speakers and a diverse program, the event was the largest sustainability festival in Europe. For three days, 11,500 visitors and participants experienced how start-ups, companies, environmental activists, politicians, researchers, and CEOs aim to drive change with sustainable technologies. Their objective is to use innovative approaches in the areas of food, mobility, energy, and infrastructure to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our generation: climate change.
Getting as many people as possible excited about green innovations and a sustainable lifestyle as well as encouraging them to take action themselves – this is the goal with which the GREENTECH FESTIVAL was launched five years ago. The initiators are the engineers and entrepreneurs Marco Voigt and Sven Krüger, as well as former Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg. Together with Voigt and Rosberg, the co-managing director of Tegel Projekt GmbH Gudrun Sack opened the festival.
Highlights of the three-day festival included the impressive opening speech by Swedish climate researcher Johan Rockström, as well as the appearance of German Economics Minister Robert Habeck at the Green Awards ceremony. As a guest speaker, Habeck pleaded for a “worldwide ‘ecological patriotism'” which can also be felt in the context of GTF 2023. “We moved the ship Germany to the right track, and now we have to accelerate.” Because even if we’ve reduced emissions by 2030, the work doesn’t stop: “then we need technology, and then we need new ideas, and then we need companies that bring climate action and sustainability and business models together.”
Gudrun Sack was a guest speaker on the Deepdive Stage. There she discussed, among others, with the freshly awarded Green Awards winner Dominik Campanella from Concular about „Net-zero construction: circularity, urban mining and new materials”. Thinking about how new technologies and innovative procedures can contribute to a sustainable (re)use of building materials, Gudrun Sack’s plea was: “For me, it starts at the very beginning. We talk about the talents that buildings have. What can a building do, what can a space do? And then I try to create the appropriate use.”
At the panel talk “Green Technology: enablers for the sustainable city of the future”, Frank Wolters, co-managing director of Tegel Projekt GmbH, discussed how green technologies and innovations can change the industry in the long term. “We want to be the blueprint for the development of the State of Berlin, but we also want to go into other municipalities to make regulation efficient and sustainable,” Wolters said.
The Urban Tech Republic thanks all participants for the successful event, the interesting discussions, and the numerous impulses for a future worthwhile.
