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Resources in the cycle

Our standard of living is associated with far too high a consumption of natural resources. In order to enable us and our children to live well in an intact environment in the future, we must massively reduce this consumption. At the same time, this is also the key to the transformation to a climate-neutral future by 2040.

In addition to the more efficient use of energy, raw materials, goods and so on, the circular economy is the most important lever for turning Austria into a future-proof, resource-efficient and even more competitive economy in line with the European Green Deal. If materials, goods and products are used several times and kept in circulation for longer, large quantities of primary resources (and therefore emissions) can be saved.

Nature shows us how it's done: products made from renewable raw materials can usually be easily returned to natural cycles. The economic concept that replaces finite fossil raw materials such as coal, oil and natural gas with renewable raw materials from nature is known as the bioeconomy. This includes processes, goods, services and, of course, energy. The bioeconomy offers a great opportunity to tackle global challenges such as advancing climate change and strengthen economic development at the same time.

The circular economy is a global challenge

Using scarce resources efficiently is an economic necessity. Increasingly clean, sustainable and renewable energy is also being demanded by society - not just here in Austria, but worldwide. The global challenges of a circular economy are therefore:

  • Replace fossil energy with renewable energy
  • Increase the reuse of goods
  • Enforce recycling processes
  • Increase the use of secondary raw materials

We provide answers for the circular and climate-friendly Austria of tomorrow

In order to holistically reduce resource consumption and thus climate-damaging emissions, we need independent expertise and a view of the "big picture". As a scientific association, we use our life cycle assessment software to analyze processes, regions, products, services, energy technologies and various related issues holistically - i.e. across the entire life cycle. This enables us to respond flexibly to customer requirements and address a wide range of problems in a scientifically sound manner. Together with our customers from business, interest groups, politics and administration, we find tailor-made solutions to reduce their CO2 emissions and/or their resource consumption.

Contact person

Employee Picture of Lorenz Strimitzer

Head of Center Renewable Materials & Resources | Head of Service Point Renewable Gases

DI Lorenz Strimitzer

Email addresslorenz.strimitzer@energyagency.at

Interesting links on the topic

Projects

WAVETAILOR

Modular laser sources for the sustainable production of short, personalised production series

to the project

Overview

WAVETAILOR looks at two use cases that are manufactured using two different laser-based additive manufacturing (LBAM) processes. In the first application, a drone is manufactured using powder bed fusion (PBF), while in the second case, parts of a flow aid for a hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft are produced using directed energy deposition (DED).