Join the Conversation on Sustainability and Competitiveness

Roundtable: Product and process innovation generating positive business cases (VITO)

Roundtable hosted by Karolien Vanbroekhoven, Research Manager Sustainable Chemistry at VITO

With the energy transition, renewable energy is on the rise and that inevitably results in wind turbines showing up on & offshore.

The current installed capacity of 255 GW is foreseen to grow by 70% by 2030. This means a lot of materials will be needed on the one hand, since wind turbine blades are primarily composed of composite materials – on average between 5 -20 ton material per blade. To bind the fibers of these composites together, resins are used, and specific coatings are applied to protect them. These resins are specifically designed to provide strength, durability, but are currently composed of chemicals of concern. Weather conditions can significantly impact the lifespan of wind turbine blades. On the other hand, at their end of life after 20 years on average, significant recycling challenges exist for which solutions are needed.

Roundtable: Advancing Circularity as a key differentiator to remain competitive (ETEX)

Roundtable hosted by Patrick Balemans, Chief Sustainability & CSR Officer at ETEX

In today's market, industries are under immense pressure to maintain their competitive edge on a global scale. The building materials sector, known for its fierce competition and traditionally low margins, faces unique challenges. Embracing circularity is not just an environmental imperative but a strategic business move. This approach demonstrates how broader sustainability goals can seamlessly align with financial objectives, offering a compelling business case for innovation and efficiency.

The roundtable will delve into the concrete pioneering project within ETEX to improve capabilities of recycling own products , leading to a material reduction of waste and a substantial reduction of carbon emissions throughout the value chain

Roundtable: Lean Qualification Program to accelerate results by empowering the shopfloor & leadership (Kostal)

Roundtable hosted by Dr. Stefan Schröder, Global Director Operational Excellence & Production Technologies at Kostal

For sustainable success and to ensure competitiveness in the global automotive industry, it is imperative that all employees of the company are part of a global team that gives the company strength and speed. The entire automotive industry finds itself in a highly volatile environment and is facing major challenges that 1st-tier suppliers in particular have to master in order to be able to act successfully and sustainably on the market. This requires the support of all employees, because everyone is key to improving the team as a whole. Only a solid team gets better and better every day.

For this reason, it is important that EVERYONE participates. Employees on the Shopfloor know better than anyone else where the losses, waste, quality issues and inefficient use of resources occur. With this in mind, we have focused the last four years on empowering employees as part of a global Operational Excellence initiative to recognize these problems, improve work processes and ultimately make a significant contribution to the company's competitiveness. With our global qualification and training program, which includes various modules, we have been able to achieve a mindset change and create a culture of intrinsically motivated continuous improvement at a global level in more than 20 production plants.

The roundtable will focus on how empowerment and leadership coaching can set new standards in teamwork, help managers to lead their teams effectively and ultimately achieve visible improvements in the results.

Roundtable: Decarbonizing our Supply Chain: from insights to actions (SLB)

Roundtable hosted by Mikki Corcoran, VP Digital Customer Experience SLB

In this roundtable, we will explore innovative strategies to address the pressing issue of supply chain decarbonization. Discover how we’ve been able to achieve a deeper understanding of our Scope 3 upstream emissions and how we can reduce emissions while navigating the growing energy market.

We will reflect on :

• The challenges and opportunities in reducing upstream emissions
• Emissions baselining - how to ​gather and map reliable emissions data consistently
• Improving data quality for identifying abatement levers – how to leverage product carbon footprint methodology for high emitting commodities from cross-industries
• Supplier collaboration– how to support and drive targeted engagement with suppliers at varying levels of climate maturity
• Key success factors and challenges - aligning decarbonization efforts with business KPIs, stakeholder management and identifying low carbon low cost business models across the value chain