Decarbonisation Summer School
🗓️ September 9–11, 2025
📍 BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany
First Decarbonisation Summer School – Shaping the Future of Industry
The Decarbonisation Summer School 2025 was an intensive 3-day programme that brought together young talents from science, industry and society to develop innovative solutions for the industrial decarbonization challenge.
Through hands-on workshops, industry case studies and site visits, the participants collaborated with top experts to solve real-world challenges. The results were presented at the prestigious CDI Summer Summit (September 9–11).
Our mission:
Participants and Methodology
17 motivated students and young professionals from Germany, Poland and Belgium spent three days working on real-life decarbonisation cases from Sonocrete, ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt and the DLR Institute for CO₂-Low-Emission Industrial Processes. Using the Design Thinking method, and with expert guidance, they developed practical technology and business model innovations.
The participants came from engineering, environmental management and business studies. They gained in-depth insights into the challenges of industrial transformation, built valuable contacts and explored potential career fields.
Case Studies
The case studies included:
🟦 CO₂ capture and utilisation for emissions from lime kilns
🟦 Development of decarbonisation concepts for the ceramics industry
🟦 Circular supply chains for climate-friendly concrete
Timeline:
Day 1, Tuesday Sep 9th
10:30 – 5 pm
- Warming Up & Getting to know each other
- Briefing with Challenge-Givers
- Case Analysis
- First Brainstorming
Day 2, Wednesday Sep 10th
9 am – 5 pm
- Excursion to Challenge partners (local companies or research institutes)
- Solution Brainstorming
- Prototyping
- Summer Summit Dinner
Day 3, Thursday Sep 11th
9am – 5pm
- Testing & Iteration
- Presentations to Industry experts on Summer Summit
Moderation by Karl Hosang, Design Thinking expert & BTU decarbonisation program manager
Presentation of Results
At the CDI Summer Summit, the teams presented their results to a professional audience – from power-to-X applications and CCUS strategies (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage) through to digitised energy-efficiency solutions. Both the young professionals and the industry representatives emphasised the high added value of this exchange.
Our Partners
- Lausitz Science Network e.V. (LSN)
- BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
- Cluster Dekarbonisierung der Industrie (CDI)
- DLR – Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes
- ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt
- Sonocrete