alcemy receives startup award for sustainability innovation
Using AI-supported software to create cement and concrete with lower shares of CO2 economically – with this solution, the young company alcemy has won the Startup Award Mechanical Engineering Summit 2022 for “Sustainability”.
Creating and running a sustainable business is one of the biggest and most important challenges facing our society. As a technology integrator and enabler of manufacturing, mechanical engineering plays the key role in shaping a green future. Strong innovation partnerships are a prerequisite for this. For example, there is potential for mechanical and plant engineering to work in tandem with greentech startups to generate breakthrough innovations that not only contribute to the sustainable transformation of industry, but also to gain a global competitive edge.
In order to strengthen green and resource-efficient mechanical engineering, this year’s Startup Award Mechanical Engineering Summit was explicitly organized around the key topic of “Sustainability“. The prize, awarded by VDMA Startup-Machine and the trade journal “Produktion”, thus honors a startup that supports the mechanical and plant engineering sector in positioning itself in a sustainable and future-oriented manner.
Climate protection, conservation of water and marine resources, efficient use of resources and circular economy for the mechanical engineering industry – with these value propositions, five sustainability startups from the group of applicants convinced the expert jury and thus earned an invitation to the pitch duel at the 13th Mechanical Engineering Summit in Berlin on 12 October 2022. In the end, the startup alcemy won the competition. Henrik Schunk, co-juror, managing partner of Schunk GmbH & Co. KG and VDMA vice president, praised the winner: “The construction and building sector is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide, accounting for 38% of CO2 emissions. The motivation to counteract this with sustainable construction methods and materials is high – but unfortunately these are often not economical. Our winner this year, alcemy, provides a remedy here: with its AI-supported software, the company monitors production in cement and ready-mix concrete plants, making it possible to produce cements and concretes with low CO2 shares more cost-effectively.”
alcemy has won a pitch duel against four competitors:
ELISE: A connected engineering platform for the resource-efficient development of sustainable components
Fusion Bionic: Using bio-inspired laser structures to create sustainable surface processes
Normcut: An Industry 4.0 solution for CNC cutters to reduce wastage
Tanso: CO2 balancing and management for industrial companies
The prestigious Startup Award Mechanical Engineering Summit was presented for the fourth time at the leading congress of the mechanical and plant engineering industry in 2022. Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Executive Director of VDMA and co-juror said, “Mechanical and plant engineering is the backbone of the German economy for a reason. Our ability to couple engineering expertise with new technologies and approaches over decades has put us in this position. Startups can combine their innovative impulses with the implementation strength of our mechanical engineering companies, scale globally and create something new together. I am proud that with our VDMA Startup Machine and activities such as the Startup Award Mechanical Engineering Summit, we are making a significant contribution to bringing our industry and the startup world together as an innovation system. We want to be the leading hotspot for green technology innovations.”
