PRESS EVENT

South of Stuttgart on the Stuttgart-Zurich innovation axis, an extraordinary construction project with national appeal is being built. Under the name “Green Innovation Park”, the new innovation campus will become the central address for national and international companies, start-ups and scale-ups. With a holistic approach to sustainability, this will ensure innovation and a better future. The first details and plans of the construction project were presented today by the strategic partners around the family-owned company SÜLZLE during a hybrid press conference.

Joint innovation project of the family-owned company SÜLZLE with leading partners in their industry.

“Green Innovation Park” is the name of the innovative center that is now being built on the A81 at the initiative of the family-owned company SÜLZLE after years of preliminary work. The construction project is being implemented in close cooperation with strategic partners such as Drees & Sommer, a consulting and planning company specializing in construction and real estate, the architects from kadawittfeldarchitektur, the energy company E.ON and its subsidiary Bayernwerk Natur, and the system solution provider for digital infrastructures PHOENIX CONTACT. Together, they presented the Green Innovation Park to the press for the first time today. In the Green Innovation Park, future-oriented companies from the fields of energy, construction, ecology and digitalization are to find the ideal place and benefit from an ecological, networked and modular environment. The aim here is to create solutions for a sustainable future and resource-saving coexistence in a collaborative environment. “The Green Innovation Park is distinguished not only by its holistic approach to sustainability, but also by its focus on co-creation when working on innovations,” explains Heinrich Sülzle, Managing Partner of the SÜLZLE Group at today’s hybrid press conference. “The further development of our family-owned company will take place here in the Green Innovation Park. Among other things, there are already plans to locate innovative SÜLZLE start-up investments in this industrial park of the future,” adds Andreas Sülzle, Managing Partner of the SÜLZLE Group.

Sustainable building concept from A to Z

After the press representatives on site as well as the digitally connected participants were welcomed on behalf of the SÜLZLE Group and the GIP was briefly introduced, the strategic partners gave more detailed insights into the planning of the construction project. Thus, the innovation campus is being built with consideration of crade-to-cradle and green building for national and international companies on an old industrial wasteland, a so-called brownfield, which was elaborately made available again in compliance with ecological standards. With this sustainable approach and a modular construction method, the Green Innovation Park is a showcase project for future-oriented building, explains Steffen Szeidl, Member of the Executive Board of Drees & Sommer SE. “What has long been a recipe for success in the automotive industry is still quite slow in the construction sector. Modular construction not only promises efficiency and savings, but also simplifies climate protection and recyclability in buildings. The Green Innovation Park demonstrates what forward-looking cooperation between all the players in the construction project must look like: project management, planning services, modularization of planning and the selection of subsequent construction partners are all in one hand. The goal is to save time, reduce costs and eliminate unnecessary interfaces. At the Green Innovation Park, we want to establish a new, sustainable as well as digital industry standard for the construction industry to simplify the planning, engineering, production and assembly of individual buildings.”

In addition, the Green Innovation Park will focus on holistic and sustainable energy supply from the very beginning. Patrick Schneckenburger, Managing Director of E.ON Energy Solutions, explains, “The Green Innovation Park is exemplary for an innovative and integrated energy concept. The optimal use of local energy sources combines the sectors of heating, cooling, electricity as well as mobility and enables a CO2-neutral supply. The consistent focus on sustainability by all partners involved in this project shows that cooperation and joint investments to achieve climate protection goals are worthwhile.” Supplemented by battery storage, roof, façade and ground-mounted photovoltaics and combined heat and power plants, the result is a forward-looking business park that provides regional and, above all, sustainable energy for the new companies. Franco Gola, Managing Director of Bayernwerk Natur, also emphasizes the holistic sustainability claim in the energy supply of the new innovation campus: “I am pleased that we can help to shape a true future area together with the family-owned company SÜLZLE. With our know-how and years of experience in decentralized and regenerative energy generation, we have developed a balanced and, above all, sustainable concept that is ideally suited to the needs of future businesses.”

Intelligent building automation also networks the people in the GIP with each other: “With an integral smart building design, we look at the Green Innovation Park from a 360° perspective. Our focus is on developing the Green Innovation Park together with the project partners into a living space that adapts to individual needs while being adaptable as well as expandable,” explains Stefan Volgmann, managing director of PHOENIX CONTACT. His approach: “We need to rethink neighborhoods and buildings for our society and our economy!”

The architecture of the GIP is also planned to be holistic and environmentally friendly: From green building materials to open spaces that promote interaction, sustainability, innovation and collaboration are the focus in all aspects. “With its modular and recyclable construction and the all-connecting green façade band, the architecture also gives design expression to the project’s sustainability aspirations,” explains Gerhard Wittfeld, managing partner at kadawittfeldarchitektur. “Healthy, recyclable materials, green roofs, a diverse mix of uses and differentiated open spaces equip the Green Innovation Park for the future.” In addition, SÜLZLE attaches particular importance to its self-defined Core Values, which serve as a benchmark for successful coexistence for work and life, in potential project participations.

Investments and jobs for the region

The region will also benefit from the new innovation campus on the A81 motorway on the Stuttgart-Zurich innovation axis. In the first construction phase alone, up to 600 new jobs are to be created by attracting companies and start-ups. So far, the family-owned company SÜLZLE has already invested a double-digit million amount. More than 100 million euros have been budgeted for the planning and construction of Campus 1 and 2, the energy center and the data center in the Green Innovation Park. The building permit is to be applied for in spring 2022, and construction is to start in the same year. The first users are then expected to move in as early as 2024. The industrial park of the future is also open to other interested and suitable companies.

With over 1,000 employees in Germany and France, the SÜLZLE Group is active in the fields of steel, energy and the environment and is consistently pursuing its Vision 2030 with the new construction project: “With extraordinary people, SÜLZLE creates sustainable solutions for the world of the future in partnership”. In this way, the values of the family business are to be passed on to future generations of entrepreneurs and the transformation of the SÜLZLE Group into the digitalized and sustainable future is to be accomplished.