Industry Solutions

Making the Product Carbon Footprint transparent and optimizing it

Companies are faced with the challenge of making their products and production processes more environmentally friendly. The CO2ptiMat project is developing smart software for plastics processing companies so that they can precisely calculate and, in a further step, optimize the carbon footprint of their products. The software makes it possible to precisely measure the product-related carbon footprint and other key production performance indicators using a company's specific data.

The software connected to the IT systems in production and is designed to scale with the company's level of digitalization. The software collects, analyzes, and visualizes all relevant data. Changes in material and process parameters and their effects on the carbon footprint can be seen immediately. This provides a reliable basis for how a company can sustainably optimize its production.

Meraxis is working closely with the four research partners to develop the best concepts for collecting and evaluating data. 

Along with REHAU Industries and three other partners, Meraxis has received funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Economy and Climate (BMWi) to implement this groundbreaking project. CO2ptiMat is one of 21 projects funded under the GreenTech innovation competition.

Carbon-neutral plastics industry

Meraxis is the practitioner partner in the four-year Zeropol project – Towards a NetZero Plastics Industry – which is funded by Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. The goal? Reducing CO₂ emissions in the plastics industry through a circular economy. Digital solutions and innovative materials should improve the sustainability of the entire value chain and advance a system change in the plastics industry. 

The production of plastics accounts for 3.4% of global CO₂ emissions. Over 390 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year. "Zeropol" takes a holistic approach to reducing CO₂ emissions in the plastics industry. As part of the project, the team will set up an online platform that will serve as an innovation ecosystem for the plastics industry. The solutions developed will be published on this platform so that they can be widely publicized and implemented in the industry.  We are providing our expertise in the digital transformation of the polymer industry and are developing suitable business models, marketing strategies, and more.

The project will run for four years and has an overall budget of eight million Swiss francs. The interdisciplinary project team comprises universities, plastics producers, and processors as well as start-ups, among other things. They include the University of St. Gallen and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Meraxis is the only plastics distributor involved. The knowledge acquired will be directly implemented by the 18 participating companies in new value chains and production processes – initially on the Swiss market.