Bauma Forum’s panel discussion on ‘The Way to Zero Emission’

Nov 4, 2022 | ERA news

On 28 October, ERA and CECE, the Committee for European Construction Equipment, organised an event within the bauma Forum, dedicated to ‘The way to Zero Emission’ and moderated by ERA Manager Carole Bachmann.

The event started with a keynote speech on “The way to Zero Emission – A view from Europe” by Mrs Katharina Knapton-Vierlich, Head of Unit for Construction at the European Commission.

To watch the speech, please click here.

It was followed by a panel discussion involving 4 partners in the construction decarbonisation roadmap:

    • A customer: Nils Vidar Rystad, Assistant Project Director, City of Oslo & Big Buyers Initiative
    • An equipment manufacturer: Eugen Schobesberger, Managing Director Technology, Liebherr-EMtec GmbH, and Chair of the CECE High-Level Technical Policy Advisory Group
    • A rental company: John Smeets, Technical Director, Boels Rental, and member of the ERA Technical Committee
    • A provider of IT / telematics solutions: Clement Bénard, CEO and co-founder of Hiboo

Following Katharina Knapton-Vierlich’s presentation, Nils Rystad talked about the drivers of the cities to reduce emissions and mentioned the importance of public procurement as a key tool in the way to zero emission.

Eugen Schobesberger noted that, for CECE, the decarbonisation of the construction equipment industry in Europe consists of four pillars: optimised components can improve machinery efficiency; specially trained employees and autonomous solutions can help increase work efficiency; process efficiency can also be improved by selecting the best machine or machine combination; alternative sources of energy can be used, which he said was being hampered in particular by the heterogeneity of construction equipment, the diverse situations of European countries and the variety of jobs they have to perform.

John Smeets informed the audience about the role that companies that rent construction machinery could play in the effort to achieve zero emissions.

 “We are increasingly investing not only in digitalisation solutions like telematics and fleet management, but also in green, low-emission technology,” John Smeets said.

He continued by saying that rental is the perfect enabler for the sharing economy, providing the right machine for the right job at the right time.

How can digitalisation contribute to zero emissions in the construction industry? Clement Bénard offered a simple answer to this question at the bauma FORUM: “We cannot optimise anything if we are unable to measure our current carbon emissions.” These measurements require construction companies to collect and interpret several data from sources that range from machinery manufacturers or telematics.

If you have any questions about these events, please email the ERA team at [email protected].

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