The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Alexandra Decker (Chief Officer Corporate Affairs) from CEMEX, as well as Dr. Chiara Iurato (Think Tank Consultant at the Competence Center on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries/KEI) as guest speakers and panelists.

Ms. Alexandra Decker has extensive academic as well as industry experience relating to public affairs, corporate communications, and corporate marketing. In her current role at CEMEX, she is primarily responsible for the strategic development of stakeholder relationships concerning relevant political and socio-economic issues. Besides advocating for the decarbonization of the company’s cement production, she also addresses future trends in sustainable construction. In her talk “Applying the STEEP Framework to Industrial Decarbonization: The Case of CCUS in the Cement Sector”, she will provide the industry’s perspective on the goals and challenges for decarbonization technologies. In particularly, through the STEEP lens (Social, Technological, Economic, Ecological, Political), she will explore the strategic role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries, using the cement sector as a case study. Ms. Decker holds a Master’s degree from University of Tübingen and has been working at CEMEX since 2017.

Dr Chiara Iurato is a Think Tank Consultant at KEI – the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries which provides support and funding for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions especially for energy-intensive industries in Germany. KEI is a division of Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH, a federal company and specialized project management agency for topics relating to environmental protection, conservation and climate action which works on behalf of several federal ministries to develop and support a wide range of funding programs and strategic projects at both national and international levels. Dr. Iurato’s career has developed around the theme of socio-economic changes towards ecological modernization. At KEI, her current role focuses on the development of standards and labels for climate-friendly basic materials. In her talk “The role of industrial policy in the transformation to a climate-neutral industry”, she will take the different working areas of KEI as a starting point to reflect on the role of industry policy and the opportunities of different policy instruments in Germany for the country’s transition towards a climate-neutral industry. Dr. Iurato holds a Master of Science in Environmental Governance and a PhD from the University of Freiburg (with a focus on the transformation of industrial sectors towards a circular bio-economy). In her work, she adopts a systemic and sociological perspective on markets as manifest structures shaped by a multitude of interconnected actors, including industry, science, politics and the media.

Following the two guest lectures, Prof. Roh Pin Lee will moderate a panel discussion with Ms. Decker and Dr. Iurato to gain deeper insights into the multidimensional opportunities and challenges which are associated with the decarbonization and sustainability transformation of carbon-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors in Germany. Students (and participants) are warmly welcome to engage the panelists in dialogue during the panel discussion.  

This session - incorporating the guest lectures by CEMEX and KEI as well as the panel discussion – is offered as part of the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” by DTI in the summer semester. As Ms. Decker and Dr. Iurato will be sharing multidimensional perspectives on industrial decarbonization and the transformation towards climate-neutral industry, their talks may be of potential interest for other BTU students and staff who are active in this area. As such, this session is open to all interested participants from BTU.