Frequently Asked Questions

The Lufthansa Group takes its responsibility for effective climate protection seriously - with a clearly defined path to CO₂ neutrality by 2050. With the Lufthansa Group CleanTech Hub, the company has launched a new competence center for tomorrow's climate protection technologies.

The CleanTech Hub is an important part of the Lufthansa Group corporate responsibility department and is focusing on significantly reducing CO₂ emissions, non-CO₂ emissions, waste and noise in the Lufthansa Group's flight operations within the next 2-4 years.

To reach these ambitious goals the CleanTech Hub bundles & boosts the internal airline know-how with impulses from the global start-up & science scene, and strategic partnerships with other larger corporates.

We focus on green tech initiatives that have at least an MVP status or a product status (technological readiness level =>6) & that can be scaled to make the Lufthansa Group flight ops greener. The focus areas are:

• Sustainable Aviation Fuels & Emissions: Sustainable fuels for carbon-neutral flying and research to reduce non-CO₂ effects
• Aircraft related Hardware: The aim is to improve all aspects of aircraft that have a positive impact on fuel consumption, aerodynamics and noise emissions.
• Digital Solutions & Procedures: Building software that offers smart solutions for climate sensitive decision-making and planning
• Waste & Circular Economy: Building tech solutions that enable waste minimization along all operational process steps
• Between & Beyond Technologies: The focus here is on the future, on trend-setting green tech topics that envisage a market launch in the next few years or require further research and development activities like electric powertrains & hydrogen fuel cells.

Do you have an innovative tech-driven concept that will make the aviation industry more sustainable? Are you looking for your first customer implementation, to complete a proof-of-concept, or to exchange on how your product could fit into an airline operation? If so, the CleanTech Hub wants to hear from you. Each quarter, we offer a one-day pitch event where 8 companies and startups have the opportunity to present their concept to our Lufthansa Group leadership jury.

We offer 8 initiatives a 5-minute slot to present their concept, ambitions, and sustainability impact to our dedicated jury consisting of top decision makers from the Lufthansa Group. International guests are welcome to dial in remotely. Our jury will then have 10 minutes to ask questions and understand what sort of acceleration your business needs. After clarifying your business needs, the jury will deliberate which projects can create the most impact for Lufthansa Group, deliberate our potential offerings to pitch participants, and determine how to proceed at the end of the day.

We are looking for technology concepts that have at least an MVP status or product status (Technological readiness level 6 or above), are able to push to market latest within the next two to four years and can potentially scale to serve the Lufthansa Group Airlines. Your solution must pay into one of our four sustainability goals:

• Reduction of CO₂ emissions
• Reduction of non-CO₂ emissions
• Reduction of Waste
• Reduction of Noise

• The Lufthansa Group CleanTech Hub strives to help you to accelerate your innovative clean-technology. 
• We offer the opportunity to receive a commitment of boosters: e.g. we could serve as a launch customer, build a strategic partnership with you, connect you with the right players to realize your potential, or provide seed funding. 
• At a potential later stage, further boosters could also be offered: intensifying partnerships with us, receiving a senior sponsor to steer your project within Lufthansa Group to success. 

The Lufthansa Group CleanTech Hub has seed funding available which can be allocated at the discretion of the management jury. For larger strategic investments, the CleanTech Hub can access further funds through normal corporate processes with additional approvals.

We offer different collaboration-possibilities to make projects fly:

• „The Hangar“-Co-Working Space
• Hackathons 
• Labs
• Young Tech Gen
• Pitches

To explore some highlights of our green tech projects & partnerships have a look at our focus areas.

The CleanTech Hub was launched in summer 2021 and is part of the Lufthansa Group Corporate Responsibility department.

The CleanTech Hub has 6 focus area champions:

• Jan Pechstein, Alternative Fuels & Emissions
• Andrew Muirhead, Aircraft related Hardware
• Olivier Krueger & Jörn Messner, Digital Solutions & Procedures
• Klaus Berger, Waste & Circular Economy
• Christian Popp, Between & Beyond
   

The CleanTech Hub core team consists of 7 Lufthansa Group members:

• Erin Beilharz, Head of the CleanTech Hub
• Anna-Lena Drewitz, Strategy & Concept of CleanTech Hub
• Birgit Wenz, Portfolio Management of CleanTech Hub
• Karin Scheibner, Project Management of CleanTech Hub
• Robert Heigl, Tech Lead & Project Management of CleanTech Hub
• Katrin Schreiber, Communication & Marketing Manager of the CleanTech Hub

The CleanTech Hub Steering Committee consists of C-level employees of the Lufthansa Group.

To reach the sustainability targets in the aviation industry is not easy, therefore we see the need to create more awareness and exchange industry-wide and inter-industry.

Internally: The CleanTech Hub fosters a Lufthansa Group clean tech community at grass roots level via different internal education & exchange formats.

Externally: To foster exchange with (potential) partners, research institutes and the general public, we communicate & engage regularly via various channels:

• CleanTech Hub Website
• Lufthansa Group Social Media Channels 
• Press Releases
• Video & TV documentations
• Conferences
• Master Classes
• Panel discussions
• Podcasts

We invite everyone to support us and share our mission with internal and external interested parties. If you have further ideas, please reach out: lhg.cleantechhub@dlh.de 

Please reach out via Email:

lhg.cleantechhub(at)dlh.de