Land of Opportunity

With its rich engineering expertise and a centuries-old manufacturing traditions, Austria has long been at the forefront of green technology – and it is proud to demonstrate these successes.

About 90 per cent of the country’s electricity, for example, comes from renewable sources. Both the nation and its businesses are increasingly confident in their pursuit of climate neutrality by 2040. Notably, about 11 per cent of Austria’s goods exports come from the green technology sector.

Encouragingly, this transition is being spearheaded by some of Austria’s largest and most established companies, such as Andritz, which began its journey as an iron foundry in 1852 near Graz, the country’s second city. Alongside the metal production, Andritz has evolved into a global market leader in hydropower and pulp processing, supplying plants, equipment and services for hydropower stations as well as the pulp and paper industries.

According to Andritz chairman Joachim Schönbeck, this success is partly due to the country’s natural assets. “The geographical structure of Austria, with high mountains, large rivers, enough rain and snow, has fostered the use of hydropower in storage, run-of-river and pumped-storage power plants,” he says. But the most crucial aspect, adds Schönbeck, is Austria’s “solid educational structure” and the wealth of research institutes that consistently produce highly skilled professionals: inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla studied in Graz.

Andritz’s headquarters in the city is a key part of what has been known, since its inception in 2005, as the Green Tech Valley – a cluster of about 300 eco-minded companies in Austria’s southern provinces of Styria and Carinthia. While many of the Green Tech Valley firms only emerged in the 1990s and 2000s, making them younger than Andritz, they have already had a significant impact on the industry. Notable companies include KWB Energiesysteme, which has evolved from a manufacturer of wood-based boilers into a comprehensive energy provider across solar and other renewables, and BDI-BioEnergy, a specialist in biodiesel.

Collectively, Green Tech Valley companies generate annual sales of €7.6bn ($8.2bn) and employ about 26,500 people, with vacancies continuing to multiply. A study from last year predicted a surge of up to 100,000 new green jobs across Austria by 2028 in sectors such as digital software, machine learning, biomass, wind and solar technology, recycling systems and e-mobility. New research areas such as carbon capture – a process that traps industrial CO2 emissions for use in fuels and building materials – are also gaining ground.

While the Green Tech Valley has a strong local presence, its influence extends globally. The companies within the cluster boast an export quota of about 90 per cent (compared to 72 per cent for green companies across Austria), with many running international outposts. Andritz alone is present in more than 80 countries, employing more people abroad than it does at home in Graz. This means that Austrian green-technology talent plays a central role in global initiatives such as the European Green Deal and helps to ensure a greener and fairer future for the world.