Posts tagged: sustainability

The consequences of global crises in the form of supply chain problems and rising energy prices are a major challenge, especially in the high-tech sector. Recruitment is increasingly becoming a management problem at national level. These are the results of IVAM's annual survey of economic data from companies and research institutions in the field of microtechnology and related key technologies in Europe. The economic situation of the sector as well as trends and challenges were determined.

Sustainability in applications and industries has been steadily increasing in importance over the last decade, and this growth will only accelerate in the foreseeable future. Sustainable packaging, locomotion, construction, manufacturing, and food, to name a few, is a value in itself for a large portion of consumers in any market segment. Salcon International has been working with TactoTek in Finland since 2015 to change the world of electronic production in a very disruptive way.

How sustainable is microtechnology in 2022? What are the expectations to the new German government? And what are the biggest uncertainty factors facing the branch? These questions were the focus of the IVAM survey 2022. As in previous years, the survey was conducted among several thousand European companies and institutes in the fields of microtechnology, MEMS, nanotechnology, advanced materials and related key enabling technologies.

Building a circular economy is one of the biggest aims to achieve sustainability and fight climate change. But what if cycles cannot be closed easily? Then it’s time to apply rougher measures and – literally – smash everything to pieces. Some material cycles can be closed relatively easily, and appropriate systems have been in place for years: Glass, steel, but also certain types of plastics as long as they are homogeneous. But what about the giant amounts of municipal waste containing mixed and often soiled plastics?

Climate change and the increasing shortage of raw materials require urgent adjustments to society‘s way of working and living. Micro- and nanotechnology and technologies based on this, such as microfluidics, photonics or sensor technology, offer enormous potential in the development of solutions to these global problems.

Was ist Ihr Vorsatz für das neue Jahr? Vielleicht auch mehr Aktivität in Sachen "Nachhaltigkeit"? Das Thema ist immerhin in aller Munde. Überall wird darüber geredet, dass wir „nachhaltiger“ Leben und Arbeiten müssen, um unsere Umwelt zu erhalten, den Klimawandel zu bremsen und unsere endlichen Ressourcen zu schonen. Aber: Was ist eigentlich genau unter „Nachhaltigkeit“ zu verstehen?

There are still people, including some high-ranking politicians, who are denying the human-induced climate change caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions. However, science agrees quite well on the mechanisms that have led to a warming of the atmosphere and continue to heat it up.