Talking About... How Sustainability Is Driving Innovation

 

Part 2

 

Universities are places of innovation and Germany is in an excellent position when it comes to incremental innovations – i.e. the optimization and further development of what already exists – thanks in part to its universities. However, the context for innovation is changing significantly. Alongside digitization, sustainability is one of the major "make or break" issues for Europe as a business location. For the European Green Deal to succeed and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations to be achieved, innovations in radically different technologies are needed instead of further developing unsustainable technologies.

 

This requires a fundamental shift in perspective: away from classifying sustainability as an additional burden and toward understanding sustainability as an innovation driver.

• What does this mean for the innovation processes and ecosystems of universities?
• What course must universities set (in teaching, in research, in transfer, but also in their own operations) in order to continue to contribute to sustainability, competitiveness, and prosperity?
• How can we shape the future world of work, technological change, and digitalization in a socially just way all at the same time?

We will discuss these questions in the second edition of "The New Fiction of Good Science – Talking About...".

 

Discussants

 

©Siemens AG Jenny Bofinger-Schuster SVP Sustainability & Operational Excellence, Siemens AGBofinger-Schuster, Jenny	©Andreas Schmitter Prof. Dr. Kathrin Greiff Rector's Delegate for Sustainability, RWTHGreiff, Kathrin	©everwave Marcella Hansch Founder and CEO, everwave; SDG AmbassadorHansch, Marcella
©Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge Tim Minshall Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation and Head of the Institute for Manufacturing, University of CambridgeMinshall, Tim	©Steffen Kugler Dr. Georg Schütte Secretary General, Volkswagen FoundationSchütte, Georg	©Britta Leuermann Carolin Silbernagl Managing Director, zukunft zweiSilbernagl, Carolin

 

Hosts

 

©Martin Braun Prof. Dr. Frank Piller Department of Finance, esp. Technology and Innovation Management at RWTH Aachen UniversityPiller, Frank

©Matthias Piket Dr. Anne Schreiter Managing Director, German Scholars Organization e.V.Schreiter, Anne

 

In cooperation with: