The latest edition of the CTO-Forum of the Rudolf-Diesel-Medal was organized on 18.07.2024 around the topics sustainability and intellectual property. Sustainability is becoming in the last years an ever more important topic, which decision makers in companies need to deal with, and to become successful in green innovation also the IP aspects need to be carefully considered. Therefore, the CTO-Forum as a networking platform for CTOs organized the event together with the sustainability experts of phiyond by adelphi to present case studies of successful green innovation and to bring the topics of sustainability and IP directly to the boards of the leading technology companies. All member companies of the CTO-Forum make a revenue of more than 125 bil € and employ more than half a million employees.

The CTO-Forum was organized in Berlin in the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz and offered the participants a broad range of speakers from ministries, industry associations, research institutes, NGOs and companies. Amongst them were Dr. Florian Kammerer, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Dr. Claas Oehlmann, Circular Economy Initiative of the BDI, Dr. Adriana Neligan, IW Köln, Tim Janßen, Cradle2Cradle NGO, Sabine Nallinger, Stiftung Klimawirtschaft, Stephan Brabeck, SkySails Group, and Dr. Katharina Reuter, Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft. An important aspect of the Forum were also the slots for discussions between the participants and with the speakers to get further insights into the topics and to learn from each other. The key discussed topics revolved around the circular economy, the connection between digitalisation and green economy, decarbonisation and energy efficiency and case studies of successful green companies.

To support companies in mastering both the sustainable transformation and the associated IP challenges many new initiative are emerging, which are providing training and awareness building resources. One is the newest training initiative of the EPO and the CEIPI, which created a new distance learning program on “IP in corporate sustainability”. The creation of the training program was also supported by many lecturers from the International Institute for IP Management and specifically its Committee for SDG/ESG.