Today at the Future Cleantech Festival, participants explored how innovation, circularity, and policy can work together to transform some of Europe’s most emissions-intensive value chains: steel production and construction.
At KNDS, participants saw how electric arc furnaces transform scrap into high-quality steel, reducing the need for primary production and highlighting the growing role of material reuse in Europe’s industrial future.
At the Structural Efficiency Hub, participants explored how smarter design can dramatically reduce the amount of material required in buildings, while maintaining the same performance.
Improving how we use materials may prove just as important as how much primary materials we extract.
A common theme emerged throughout Day 1 of the Festival: Technology alone is not enough. Scaling low-carbon steel, cement, concrete, and construction solutions will require demand-side measures such as public procurement quotas, green standards, and lead markets that reward lower-emission products.
Affordable clean electricity, resource efficiency, circularity, and supportive policy frameworks are all part of the same transition.
