Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier presented the Federal Ministry for Environment's new focus of support "Material efficiency in production" at the Hannover Messe, the international trade fair for industrial technology, today. The BMU is supporting the initiative under the Environmental Innovation Programme with a funding volume of up to 20 million euros. The objective of this focus of support is the optimisation of production processes to conserve natural resources. The Federal Environment Agency will supervise the new funding programme, and the KfW banking group will take on its administrative and financial management.
German manufacturing firms have high material costs. In 2009 average costs for raw materials and supplies accounted for more than 40 per cent of gross production value. That is twice as much as payroll costs. Raw materials are more than just a cost factor, however. Their extraction, processing and use as well as disposal have a considerable environmental impact. Modernisation of technology could save about 20 per cent of material costs. This new focus of support is aimed at exploiting this potential and is thus a contribution to the implementation of the Germany Resource Efficiency Programme (ProgRess).
Funding will be provided for innovative pilot projects which promote:
- implementation of material-efficient production processes,
- substitutes for material-intensive production processes, and
- use of residual and waste materials as secondary raw materials.
For the first time the assessment of projects will take into account processing and production processes in their entirety from raw material extraction to the finished product. Applications for funding can be submitted until 30 September 2013.
The Federal Environment Agency’s new web-based brochure Umweltinnovationsprogramm - Erfolgsgeschichten (Environmental Innovation Programme – Success Stories, in German only) features exemplary resource conservation projects which have received funding.