Innovation Advisory Council sees great potential for the circular economy in Saxony

We are currently consuming and overexploiting the resources of our earth and changing them massively with unforeseeable consequences for people and nature.

The construction industry is intensively involved in these developments. In 2018, it accounted for 5.3 % of nominal gross value added in Germany, but causes around 25 % of CO2 emissions and consumes around 40 % of the energy generated. This discrepancy alone should lead to enormous productive activities. However, research is receiving a severely below-average level of funding. As the world population continues to grow, we will not build less, but more. Contrary to this, we must radically limit resource consumption and CO2 emissions. It is therefore obvious that in the future, building will have to be completely different, not just marginally, but fundamentally.

Because of the enormous leverage effect, a significant intensification of research in the building sector is therefore one of the most important tasks, both nationally and internationally, with extremely great significance for society as a whole in the future.

© Stefan Gröschel

Prof. Manfred Curbach from the Institute of Solid Construction at the TU Dresden once again promoted the urgently needed paradigm shift in the building industry at the 7th meeting of the Innovation Advisory Council of Saxony on 22 March 2023 in Freiberg, where he met with Minister President Michael Kretschmer and Regional Development Minister Thomas Schmidt, among others. The main topic of the two-day consultations of the Innovation Advisory Council was the circular economy in the context of structural development in the Free State.

On the occasion of the advisory board meeting, Minister President Michael Kretschmer and Regional Development Minister Thomas Schmidt opened a poster exhibition "Circular Economy in Saxony from the Perspective of Science and Research". Both members of the state government are patrons of the poster show, which will in future be on display as a travelling exhibition at schools, vocational schools and extracurricular institutions as part of the Structure in Change initiative and in the context of Education for Sustainable Development.

© Stefan Gröschel

"The travelling exhibition opened today for schools, vocational schools and extracurricular institutions on the potential of the circular economy in Saxony can make an important contribution to sensitising the young generation at an early stage to the importance and prospects of circular economy in Saxony on the way to climate neutrality in Europe by 2050," said the chairman of the Saxony Innovation Advisory Board, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang A. Herrmann.

© Stefan Gröschel

In addition to the Institute for Solid Construction of the TU Dresden, ten other companies and research institutions from Saxony presented their progress on the way to an age of circular economy to the members of the advisory board.