Material sample on display pedestal, 2010, ca. 9.0 × 5.5 × 5.5 cm, cement and aluminum. KIT Archives 28506/38.
In recent years, sustainable and environmentally friendly materials have become a significant focus in the construction sector. Celitement cement is one of KIT’s responses to the enormous ecological footprint of modern construction. Celitement is a climate-friendly cement developed at KIT. Compared to conventional cements, its production reduces CO2 emissions by around 25 %. Its further development toward market readiness is being carried out in a spin-off collaboration with the industrial partner Schwenk Zement KG. The Celitement cube serves as an example of the intersection between research in engineering and systems analysis at the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), based at KIT. The development of the cement was supported by a comprehensive study by ITAS on sustainability aspects. Scientific and technological progress not only improves our lives but also brings about unforeseen and often undesirable consequences as well. ITAS’s mission is, to harness the potential of progress while minimizing its risks. Assessing the impact of technologies requires as many points of view as possible. The results of these assessments provide a knowledge base for industry, politics, and society to tackle global challenges, such as sustainable restructuring of energy systems, resilience against the consequences of climate change, or controlling the digital transformation, and is one of the leading institutes of its kind in the world. as
We propose this object because it is an example of a rather rare cooperative research practice outside of KIT: a close intermeshing of engineering research, on one hand, and systems analysis and assessment of the consequences of technology, on the other. Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at KIT