On 16 October 2015 Vice-Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs Reinhold Mitterlehner, Minister for the Environment Andrä Rupprecht and Minister for Technology and Innovation Alois Stöger jointly awarded the highest award for the Austrian environmental technology sector, the “State Prize2015 for environmental and energy technology”.
The award ceremony took place in the framework of the envietech conference on resource efficiency and environmental technology, which had already made its successful debut in 2008 and was dominated by successful companies and promising start-ups in 2015. Together with international experts such as Univ.-Prof. Dr. Markus Hengstschläger, geneticist and member of the Council for Research and Technology Development, FH-Prof. Dr. Georg Jungwirth, an expert on Hidden Champions and DIin Dr. Sabine Herlitschka, MBA Chief Executive Officer of Infineon Technologies Austria AG, participant sdiscussed how a vision becomes a business model and what it needs to be a successful market leader in resource and environmental technology.
The combination of an international conference and award ceremony on the same day is unique and aims to put the “green” growth market in the spotlight with its win-win situation for the environment, the economy and society.
In addition to the state prize, the special prize 2015 “Start-Up Resource Efficiency” was again awarded to an Austrian young company which, with creative and innovative project ideas, that makes a significant and measurable contribution to increasing resource efficiency. In addition, for the first time, the Hans Roth Environmental Prize and the Daphne Environmental Technology Special Prize were handed over as part of the state award.
After awarding the prize, the participants were also given the opportunity to exchange their ideas for the start-ups and selected prizes on the “innovator matchmaking powered by Eco World Styria”. A separate section for participants was available as a get-together.