At a ceremony in Aachen's Krönungssaal, PAPSTAR Solutions GmbH from Kall in the district of Euskirchen was recently awarded the "AC² Innovation Prize Aachen Region 2023". With service modules covering consulting, products, communication, recycling and the closed-loop economy, the company has developed a comprehensive "Zero Waste" sustainability concept for catering tableware and cutlery used at events.

This concept enables sustainable catering at events, without creating large amounts of waste from crockery and cutlery. The required services are closely coordinated: using a container and communication system for its collection, the event waste is separated into residual waste and products made from renewable raw materials. In cooperation with the firm of Schönmackers, the fibre of the used disposable tableware is processed using an organic converter. Cardboard for use in industry is then produced from the secondary raw material which is obtained in this way.

"An outstanding example"

The chairman of this year's jury, District Administrator Stephan Pusch of the Heinsberg district, presented the Innovation Award sculpture to PAPSTAR Solutions. In his award speech he said: "The Sustainable Development Goals, the so-called SDGs, mark the central global challenges of our time. Actively meeting these challenges is the task of all stakeholders in our society - and therefore also the task of business enterprises.  PAPSTAR Solutions GmbH is an outstanding example of the pursuit of these goals and, with its innovative concept, a worthy winner of the 2023 Innovation Award. On behalf of the jury I wish you continued success."

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Among other matters Sven Pennings, Managing Director of AGIT (Aachener Gesellschaft für Innovation und Technologietransfer mbH), addressed the topic of sustainability in a short talk: "In recent years we have noticed a tendency towards sustainability among the proposed Innovation Award candidates. More and more often the innovations are directly related to this subject. Since last year we have also been evaluating the proposed innovations in terms of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and what influence the individual innovations have on the SDGs."

Five candidates

A total of five candidates had impressed the Innovation Award jury in advance with their outstanding innovations. In addition to the award winner, the nominees were fka, ModuleWorks and Voltfang, all based in Aachen, as well as Trailer Dynamics from Eschweiler. The AC² award ceremony was held under the patronage of Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Henriette Frädrich, businesswoman and start-up founder among other achievements, inspired the participants with her keynote address "The first principle: sustainably innovative and successful!"

The AC² Innovation Award Aachen Region is sponsored by the City of Aachen, Aachen CityRegion and the districts of Düren, Euskirchen and Heinsberg.

During the event prizes were also awarded within the scope of "AC² - the start-up competition" and of "AC² - the growth initiative". The first prize in the start-up competition went to CubeFarm from Monschau, while the first prize in the growth initiative went to AES Autonome Energiesysteme GmbH from Merzenich.