Household sponges, mattresses, car seats or insulating walls: it is hard to imagine everyday life without foams, whether hard or soft. However, the production of the petroleum-based material is not very environmentally friendly. Researchers at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences think it's time for a change: Together with partners from seven countries, the team led by polymer chemist Sergiy Grishchuk wants to make foam and composite materials more sustainable.

Almost 40% of global CO2 emissions can be attributed to the construction industry. The building sector in particular, where construction with cement still dominates, is responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases. But the industry is undergoing a transformation towards more sustainability. Visitors to the Botanical Garden at the University of Freiburg can now see for themselves how this can be done. Researchers from the universities of Freiburg and Stuttgart are presenting the livMatS pavilion here - a building constructed from flax fibers.

Smart farming solutions from a single source - that's what Bosch and BASF want to offer in the future with their joint venture Bosch BASF Smart Farming GmbH (BBSF), in which they have equal shares. The antitrust authorities worldwide have now given their approval for this. The company is headquartered in Cologne. The first markets for the Smart Spraying will be North America, South America and Europe, as the partners announced at the end of June 2021.

Whether cream or lotion: natural cosmetics are in vogue. More and more manufacturers are therefore turning to natural ingredients to respond to the growing demand. BASF Care Creations is now launching a natural ingredient for skin care products. At the end of June, the Ludwigshafen-based company announced the launch of a new biopolymer called Hydagen Clean. It is designed to replace synthetic polymers in facial care, body care and styling products. According to the company, Hydagen Clean is made from 100% natural and renewable raw materials and is biodegradable.

Elastin is one of the most important trace proteins that provide elasticity and resilience in tissues and organs of the human body. These fibers are a main component of connective tissue and can lose their elasticity with age, due to environmental influences or accidents, and thus impair wound healing. This decreasing elasticity makes healing more difficult, especially in the case of large-area and chronic wounds. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS have a solution for this.

One focus of the German sustainability strategy is the optimal use of raw materials in the sense of the circular economy. This includes the recovery of plastics made from fossil raw materials such as polypropylene (PP). Polypropylene contains the finite resource petroleum and is the second most important plastic of all. It is used primarily for packaging, but also in electronics and automotive engineering. However, PP is also a component of products such as carpets, which are made of composite materials and are difficult to recycle.

On June 23, 2021, Sebastian Seibert and Louisa Wenkemann won the fourth edition of the start-up competition "PlanB - Biobased.Business.Bavaria" with their young company "nakt" from Darmstadt. They convinced the jury with a functionalized fiber made from green waste. "nakt" has produced a reusable makeup wipe from it as its first application.

At the third edition of the Science Year discussion series "Karliczek. Impulse.", the spotlight was on industrial biotechnology and its little helpers. A free online talk entitled "Biotechnology makes it possible - innovations for greater sustainability" was held on June 16.