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The format “Strengthening Green Start-ups” is intended to convey knowledge about the framework conditions, significance, trends and hurdles for green start-ups.

With a total of 12 events from the Ruhr area to the Black Forest, Borderstep will be exploring the green start-up scene in Germany from February 2019. The partner for the entire dialogue series is the Bundesverband Deutsche Startups e.V. (BVDS). The events are sponsored by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU).

The Green Startup Monitor will be presented by Dr. Yasmin Olteanu, researcher at Borderstep, at the launch event for the new dialogue format at E-World Essen. The Green Startup Monitor 2018 highlights the importance of green start-ups in the German start-up process, identifies specific challenges and needs and recommends measures to improve the start-up environment. Data from over 1,000 innovative and/or growth-oriented start-ups were examined for the Monitor.

The winners of the StartGreen Award 2018 have been announced. The award ceremony took place for the fourth time in a row as part of “Gründerwoche Deutschland” at the Federal Environment Ministry. The StartGreen Award is given to innovative start-up concepts, start-ups and companies whose services and products contribute to climate protection and sustainability.

The awards went to ME Energy from Berlin (category start-up concept), Nuventura from Berlin (category start-up) and Solmove from Potsdam, Brandenburg (category energy of the future). The Clean River Project association from Winningen (Rhineland-Palatinate) received the special “New Perspectives” prize.

During the event, the StartGreen@School Award was presented for the second time in a row, honouring outstanding green student companies. The prizes went to Schmids Druck Studio, Carlo-Schmid-Oberschule Berlin-Spandau (1st place), Fair Plant-Gruppe, Maristenkolleg Mindelheim, Bavaria (2nd place), SPEED, Werdenbergschule, Trochtelfingen, Baden-Württemberg (3rd place).

The special prize SDG Investments with a value of 5000 Euro each was won by the start-ups BLAUHERZ. from Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg, Manyfolds UG from Munich, Bavaria, ME Energy from Berlin, Nuventura from Berlin and Solmove GmbH from Potsdam, Brandenburg.

“We are delighted that the StartGreen Award has been so well received by the founding teams and start-ups and that we have had a consistently high number of applicants since the first award ceremony in 2015,” explains Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter, Head of the StartGreen Award and Director of the Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, initiator of the competition. The quality of the applications and the innovativeness of the submitted start-up and business concepts had even increased. “We are observing a professionalisation of the green start-up scene, which is also reflected in the presentation of our own projects”

With StartGreen Award 2018 to San Francisco

All applications in the “Start-up” category also had the opportunity to qualify for the Cleantech Open Ideas Challenge in California. And the winners of the German preliminary round of the Cleantech Open Ideas Challenge (California) proved to be professionals in the art of presentation. They pitched their project prior to the award ceremony.

In cooperation with the StartGreen Award, the RKW Competence Center selected the start-ups paprfloor, Manyfolds UG and Nuventura. In addition to travel expenses, the start-ups will receive intensive pitch and PR training in advance and a supporting programme in California.

The candidates who have competed for Germany in recent years have been very successful internationally. The start-ups interpanel, Intrapore and INERATEC won in the categories “Scale Track” and “Growth Track”, the start-up Matteco achieved the 2nd place in the category “Seed Track”.

The StartGreen Award 2018 goes into the semifinals. From October 4 to October 30, 2018, one favourite in each of the three categories can be voted for online. Who convinces in the public voting with their own founding idea? There are five companies to choose from in each of the following categories: foundation concept (not yet founded), start-up (up to 5 years) and energy of the future – powered by EWE (foundations in the energy sector up to 15 years).

Three finalists per category will be selected from the voting and the points achieved in the previous assessment. They can pitch their idea in front of the expert jury and fight for victory in their category.

A total of 167 projects from the green start-up scene submitted their ideas this year for consideration at the awards ceremony in the Federal Ministry for the Environment in Berlin on 15 November 2018. There are cash and non-cash prizes worth a total of 60,000 euros to be won.

As the Green Economy Start-up Monitor published by the Borderstep Institute shows, 17 percent of all economically important start-ups in Germany already have green products or services in their portfolio. These are those that make a clearly recognisable contribution to environmental and climate protection.

The StartGreen Award aims to support this development. It is organised by the Borderstep Institute and specifically promotes the networking of green start-ups, companies, investors, funding institutions and political pioneers for a green economy. The patron is Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze.

The award ceremony will include a network forum on all aspects of green entrepreneurship. In addition, investors and start-up teams will discuss the topic of financing options for green economy start-ups on a panel.

The winners of the German Cleantech Open Global Ideas Challenge will then present their projects in a pitch. They are allowed to travel to California for the finals of this international competition.

The entire event in Berlin is open to the public and free of charge. Registrations are now possible.

To the Voting: Public Voting StartGreen Award 2018

The 24th International Technology Management Conference is a place where research, science and innovation is called for original ideas, papers, debates, initiatives and projects. Researchers, innovators, industrialists, engineers and practitioners are invited to share their expertise in this year’s conference topic: Era of Connectedness: The Future of Technology, Engineering & Innovation in a Digital Society.

Dr. Severin Beucker representing the Borderstep Institute and Prof. Lang-Koetz from Pforzheim University will be co-chairs of the session on “Sustainability in Innovation & Entrepreneurship“:

Sustainability has evolved into a guiding principle for business in the last years. Considering an integrated economic, environmental and social perspective can trigger new ideas for R&D and innovation and thus support the creation of environmentally sound products and solutions.

However, from both theoretical and practical perspectives, many questions arise on the implementation of sustainability principles, such as:

• How can sustainability aspects be integrated into traditional innovation management concepts?
• Which methods and tools are required to foster innovations contributing to sustainability goals or enabling a circular economy?
• How can social innovations be designed which are also economically viable and environmentally friendly?
• How does the triple-bottom line concept of sustainability relate to or change the existing perception of entrepreneurship?

Innovation and entrepreneurship researchers could address these questions and where practitioners can give valuable insights from their experience. Contributions should address all management levels from business strategy over processes, methods and tools.

You will find the detailed description of the session here.

The call for papers is open until March 15th 2018.

The current edition of the Journal of Cleaner Production published an article by Professor Klaus Fichter, founder and director of the Borderstep Institute. Together with co-author Dr. Irina Tiemann, a researcher at the University of Oldenburg in the department of innovation management and sustainability, Dr. Fichter addresses factors that influence university support for sustainable entrepreneurship and presents the current state of research in the area. The title of the article is, Factors influencing university support for sustainable entrepreneurship.

 You can view an abstract of the article here.

The Journal of Cleaner Production is an international, transdisciplinary journal that focuses on research and practice in the areas of cleaner production, environmental policy, and sustainability.

The International Resource Panel of the UNEP published its report “Green Technology Choices: The Environmental and Resource Implications of Low-Carbon Technologies“.

This report, the first international assessment of this type, investigates the life-cycle environmental and natural resource implications of large-scale deployment of energy efficiency technologies. The report examines more than 30 demand-side energy efficiency technologies across different technological clusters, including lighting, buildings, information and communication technology, efficient metals processing, high-efficiency co-generation, and transportation. In addition, the combined effects of low-carbon energy supply and deployment of efficient demand-side technologies under the 2 degree and 6 degree Celsius scenarios are assessed.

The report includes essential findings of Dr. Severin Beucker’s article about decentralized energy management in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Please find the report here

Dr. Jens Clausen has published the article Sticky Transformation. How path dependencies in socio-technical regimes are impeding the transformation to a Green Economy in the Journal of Innovation Management.

Abstract:

Many works in innovation research use path dependencies to explain the fact that change is often difficult to achieve. With regard to a transition to a green economy specific path dependencies are identified in the sectors of energy, mobility, housing and food in Germany.  The paper looks into technological, economical, organizational, user-specific and legal path dependencies. For a successful transition to a green economy, the role of the state seems to be central. In many areas of transition, transitional regulation is full of loopholes and does not work. Activity of lobby groups prevents society from setting path-changing regulation.

You can read the article here: Clausen, J., Göll, E. & Tappeser, V. (2017). Sticky Transformation. How path dependencies in socio-technical regimes are impeding the transformation to a Green Economy. Journal of Innovation Management, 5 (2), 110-137

From the 14th to the 17th of June the XXVI ISPIM Innovation Conference will take place in Budapest, Hungary.

Borderstep Institute representatives Klaus Fichter and Linda Bergset will present fresh empirical results from the EU research project SHIFT on the topic of sustainable entrepreneurship.

The title of the Special Session, which is dedicated to the project, is “Support systems for sustainable entrepreneurship and eco-innovation”. Here, empirical evidence on “green” incubators and “green” entrepreneurial finance will be presented and discussed.

In another format (the so-called “hot topic discussion circle”) the topic of „green“ entrepreneurial support at universities will be discussed.

From the 10th to the 13th of June the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference is taking place in Wellesley close to Boston in the US.

At Babson Conference 2015, Linda Bergset, researcher at the Borderstep Institute, will present fresh empirical research from the EU project SHIFT on the topic of financing green start-ups. The title of the presentation is “Access to finance in green start-ups and young green companies – a three country study”.

The conference, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, is considered to be the “premier entrepreneurship research conference in the world”.

A new report by the Borderstep Institute for Innovation & Sustainability for the first time provides a coherent overview of German products and services in the area of international climate technology transfer and climate-related technologies.

The publication, funded by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy (Germany), is now available not only in German, but in English, in French, and in Spanish as well.

You are invited to download the publication free of charge.

This publication provides an overview of the supply and the demand of climate technologies and services in Germany.

It includes information about technologies and services to protect the climate and their suppliers from Germany; technologies and services for adaptation to climate change and their suppliers from Germany, cooperation activities with the participation of German partners in these areas, and activities to monitor climate change with German participation.