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The current issue of the Green Economy Start-up Monitor (GEMO) of the Borderstep Institute reports for the first time on questions of financing green start-ups (special pages Green Start-up Investment Monitor). This special evaluation is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the National Climate Initiative as part of the Green Start-Up Investment Alliance – GreenUpInvest project.

Cooperation with German Startup Monitor (DSM)

In cooperation with the German Startup Monitor (DSM) 2017 of the Bundesverband Deutsche Startups (BVDS) data on financing conditions and challenges of green and non-green innovative start-ups were evaluated. The green start-ups include all start-ups that have indicated “GreenTech” as a field of activity in the DSM survey. The results show that the future financing requirements of green start-ups (an average of 200,000 euros) are higher than those of non-green start-ups (an average of 35,000 euros). This also explains why GreenTech start-ups regard capital generation as a greater challenge than non-green start-ups.

Green start-ups want political support

Against this background, it is not surprising that the Cleantech start-up respondents hope for greater support in the procurement of funds from policy and the public sector. In contrast, the other start-ups hope to see the removal of regulatory and bureaucratic obstacles above all else. Furthermore, what becomes apparent is that the Cleantech start-ups wish to improve the exchange with politicians much more than other start-ups do.

The Green Economy Start-up Monitor 2017 shows that green start-ups in Germany must network with politics and business in order to be successful – and vice versa. Green start-ups are an indispensable transformation engine for Germany as a business location. Tapping the environmental and economic potential of green start-ups should therefore be a key objective of future start-up support. Green start-ups do a lot for Germany as a business location and its environmental, climate and sustainability policy objectives.

Green Startups Network of the Federal Association of German Startups

The German Start-ups Association has already taken an important step in this direction in 2017 and, at the suggestion of the Borderstep Institute, founded a new specialist group on green startups. The Green Startups Network sees itself as a platform for start-ups, young and established companies, investors and important players from the green economy, i.e. in particular from the fields of renewable energies, mobility, cleantech, environmental services, resource efficiency, IT, software, agriculture and food. With various activities such as networking events, communication campaigns and digital projects, the platform supports members in successfully anchoring new ideas and innovations in the market, networking industry and start-ups and enabling attractive financing options for investors.

Startups, companies and investors who are interested in the platform and would like to stay informed about the numerous activities, please register in this registration form to become part of the platform and receive a regular newsletter.

Borderstep is invited to give a presentation on innovation alliances for sustainable ICT at the ICT4S conference in Toronto (Canada).

The ICT4S conferences bring together leading researchers in ICT for Sustainability with government and industry representatives, including decision-makers with an interest in using ICT for sustainability, researchers focusing on ICT effects on sustainability and developers of sustainable ICT systems or applications.

Dr. Ralph Hintemann, Senior Researcher at Borderstep, and Simon Hinterholzer, Researcher at Borderstep, prepared and submitted the presentation. Simon Hinterholzer will present it in Toronto. The paper will be published after the conference.

Abstract:

Digitalization is driving the increasing energy and resource needs of ICT. In Germany, ICT accounts for eight percent of electricity consumption. Data centers alone currently consume 2.3 % of the electricity in Germany, with an upward trend. Although the ICT sector is generally considered to be very innovative and new solutions are often implemented very quickly, deployment of energy- and resource-efficient innovations is frequently confronted with considerable obstacles and barriers. Innovation alliances of companies are a promising instrument of governmental support for new environmental technologies in the fast-paced ICT sector. In the past ten years, several initiatives of this kind have been launched, e.g., the consortium GreenIT Amsterdam, the Innovationsallianz Rechenzentren (Innovation Alliance Data Centers) in Hesse, Germany, and the Netzwerk energieeffiziente Rechenzentren (Network Energy-Efficient Data Centers). Some of these initiatives have achieved remarkable successes. The present paper analyzes such innovation alliances using the example of energy efficiency in data centers as the field of application. Three good-practice examples from Germany are presented. The paper shows what these innovation alliances can achieve and analyzes the factors contributing to their successful implementation. It concludes with concrete recommendations for practical implementation of such initiatives.

You can find more information about the program here.

The data experts from Data Science for Social Good Berlin (DSSG) are supporting the Borderstep Institute and its Green Economy Startup Monitor with their third “Datathon” from April 20 to 22, 2018. The aim is to optimize the data analysis of the Green Economy startup monitor and thus to save time and costs in the search of data.

DSSG alerts social service charities to the value of their data and brings them together with volunteers from the data science community. Special data events are then used to create tailor-made solutions to the identified data problems.

The “Datathon” takes place in DB mindbox Berlin. Volunteers with relevant knowledge are still being sought.

More information about the program and the process can be found here.

Linda Bergset, senior researcher at the Borderstep Institute, was one of the reviewers for the Climate Fellowship 2018 of Echoing Green. The Fellowship promotes green talents from around the world and their innovative ideas on topics such as water, waste and energy.

Echoing Green identifies tomorrow’s transformational leaders today. Through its Fellowships and other innovative leadership initiatives, Echoing Green spots emerging leaders and invests deeply in their success to accelerate their impact.

Echoing Green has been ahead of the curve for more than 30 years, supporting visionaries around the world who are transforming economies, and pursuing racial and gender equity, environmental sustainability, and more. Echoing Green’s unparalleled community of talent consists of nearly 800 innovators who have launched Teach For America, City Year, One Acre Fund, SKS Microfinance, Public Allies, and more. The organization provides seed-funding and leadership development to a new class of Fellows every year and welcomes them into its lifelong community of leaders. For more on how Echoing Green accelerates talent that will change the world for the better, visit echoinggreen.org.

Two victorious startups from the 2017 StartGreen Award and winners of the German preselection for the Cleantech Open Global Ideas Competition succeeded again in California.

The Cleantech Open Global Ideas program is on a global lookout for the most promising ideas in the field of environmental technologies and takes place during the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) in Los Angeles and San Francisco each year.

After a busy week of appointments in LA and San Francisco followed by a complex selection process including competitors from over a dozen countries, the German startups came out on top. Matteco scored second place in the “Seed Track” category (1 of 3 categories), while Ineratec, a spin-off company of KIT, won in the “Scale Track” category.

All competitors in the 2017 StartGreen Award categories “Founding Concept”, “Startup” and “Young Business” were given the opportunity to take part in the Cleantech Open Ideas Challenge. In the end three startups were selected by the Borderstep Institute and nominated for the international competition. The nominees then got to travel to San Francisco, expenses paid, and received intensive coaching and mentoring before the big contest.

Winners of the German Preselection:

INERATEC: INERATEC are developing a chemical reactor technology that allows gas to be transformed into liquid fuel. The technology helps to reduce CO2 emissions and supports CO2 neutral mobility.

Matteco: By creating rubber products out of recycled tires, matteco contributes to a resource efficient circular economy.

Solmove: Solmove produces photovoltaics that can be installed on road surfaces, thus producing clean energy and promoting E-Mobility.

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

Linda Bergset, Senior Researcher of Borderstep Institute, has published an article with the title „Green start-up finance – where do particular challenges lie?“.

The purpose of this paper is to shed some new light on the entrepreneurial finance of green start-ups, for which there has been little quantitative empirical evidence thus far. It explores what challenges green start-ups might experience when it comes to financial access.

The article can be obtained from the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research