Whitsun Dialogue Styria 2022

The Whitsun Dialogue "The spirit & the present" have been held every two years at castle “Seggau” since 2005 and are a series of events organized by “Club Alpbach Styria”. Within the scope of these dialogues, current challenges and problems in Europe are discussed.

Titled "Green Europe. Deal or no deal?", this year's dialogues were all about sustainability. The focus was not only on the importance of a sustainable climate and energy policy for a resilient and future-oriented society but also on the green transformation of Europe.

Green transformation of the economy

Univ.-Prof. Dr.techn. Christian Ramsauer and Mag. Andreas Schuster (Orasis Industries) participated in a group discussion on the topic of "Green transformation of the economy" during the dialogues and reported on the main results of the joint project "Transform.industry: Guiding the green transformation for Styrian SMEs". The results of the project show that through a targeted analysis and measurement of energy flows and energy consumption and the implementation of measures in manufacturing companies, energy consumption can be significantly reduced. This leads not only to a reduction of energy costs, but also to a reduction of associated greenhouse gas emissions. The main objective of this project is to develop a procedure model for practitioners, with the help of which companies can evaluate and reduce their CO2 emissions independently.

In order to consider both internal company conditions and the general economic conditions, the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management is cooperating with the Wegener Center of the University Graz within the framework of this project.

Seminar program for scholarship holders

Also, at this year's dialogue, a scholarship program was offered for young people under the age of 35 in the form of various workshops. For this purpose, the IIM set up the LEAD Factory in the castle in Seggau. During the workshop, the scholarship holders were able to assemble the IIM scooter and, together with the trainers, conduct an energy flow analysis and discuss possible measures to reduce greenhouse gases.

Energy flow analyses at the LEAD Factory

The IIM has recently started offering a specially developed teaching module for conducting energy flow analyses as part of various courses and workshops. Students and industry partners have the opportunity to examine workplaces and machines with respect to energy consumption, to identify measures for the reduction of energy consumption and finally to implement these measures. This teaching module will be expanded step by step. In the next step, greenhouse gas emissions will be included in order to prepare both, students and employers, for current challenges in industry.