Cooperation between ETH Zurich and the Swiss Climate Foundation
40% of the climate problem is caused by buildings. To counter this, two competent players from research and industry are joining forces. The Department of Building Technology and Construction at ETH Zurich ("BUK ETHZ") and the Swiss Climate Foundation are working together to promote climate-friendly building materials and methods.
As part of the cooperation, the lectureship supports the Swiss Climate Foundation in the technical and scientific assessment of funding applications for projects in the area of building materials and methods. In addition, the funded projects are made more visible to the market. This is important because pilot projects for new building materials are very costly. Sharing know-how is an important contribution to the dissemination of solutions. This will increase awareness of the Swiss Climate Foundation's funding opportunities for this type of project. "This is a classic win-win situation," says Vincent Eckert, Managing Director of the Swiss Climate Foundation.
"Initial applications in the construction sector are always a difficult and risky phase for new products and methods in the construction sector," say Daniel Studer and Daniel Mettler from BUK ETHZ. "With this cooperation, we can make an important contribution to the transformation of the construction industry. This is demonstrated by spin-offs such as FenX or Oxara from the ETH environment, which were funded by the Swiss Climate Foundation." FenX transforms mineral waste into high-performance and sustainable insulating materials for the construction industry, while Oxara develops cement-free admixtures and binder technology that enables the upcycling of construction waste and excavated materials into a variety of concrete and block applications.
New climate-friendly materials and construction methods are necessary for the climate adaptation of the real estate sector in order to achieve the Net Zero goals. Demonstrators are fundamental to making these innovative solutions marketable and known. In the construction industry, piloting means testing on a real building. Using something for the first time is associated with a residual risk and also increased effort, because contractors are not yet experienced in the production and processing of new materials. In addition, clients are justifiably skeptical about innovations. However, this can be mitigated by the cooperation between BUK ETHZ and the Swiss Climate Foundation: BUK ETHZ can assess the practicability of innovations in addition to the Swiss Climate Foundation and thus help to reduce the residual risk. The foundation can also compensate for financial weaknesses in innovative methods and materials.
The cooperation concerns the assessment of funding applications, as well as publicizing the funding opportunities and the funded innovations in order to support market establishment.
Source: www.klimastiftung.ch
