SPIE announces award winners of Innovation Day 2024

Cergy, 22 March 2024 – SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in energy and communications, is proud to announce the winners of its 2024 Innovation Day Awards, the Group's internal event showcasing the ingenuity of its teams. In addition to the awards, the 2024 edition in Rotterdam on 21 March 2024 brought together more than 600 people to explore and share the most innovative solutions developed by employees and partners.

The SPIE group follows an open innovation approach involving all its stakeholders, customers, partners and employees. The approach is driven by six European committees and innovation departments within each subsidiary. The six strategic committees—Building Technology, Industry, City Networks, Technical Facility Management, Information & Communication Services and Digital—support the pooling of knowledge and expertise and help build bridges thanks to their cross-cutting approach. The innovation departments in each subsidiary contribute to finding, developing and disseminating innovations on the ground.

More than sixty projects were submitted this year, highlighting the pioneering talent and forward-thinking curiosity in the SPIE teams in areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, circular economy and energy management. The strategic committees selected the winners using stringent criteria: relevance to the Group, feasibility, innovation and environmental impact.

At SPIE, innovation goes beyond technology; it must align with ethical and sustainable practices. That's why Innovation Day saw the first Sustainability Award presented for innovation with strong societal or environmental impact.

And the Innovation Day 2024 winners are:

Jury’s Special Prize: One SPIE Innovation & Digitalisation team. This team was recognised for its innovative approach of bringing together employees from different subsidiaries with different areas of expertise to work on four projects simultaneously. As part of the Tech FM committee, the team's cross-disciplinary approach was a major asset in addressing issues related to predictive maintenance, IoT applied to facility management, optimised contract commencement processes and environmental reporting.

Building Tech Award: Alexander Mihatsch and Jens Oliver Lechner (SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa, Germany), awarded for their mobile electric vehicle charging station that has been successfully deployed on construction sites, effectively addressing sustainable mobility challenges on temporary worksites.

Health & Safety Award as well as City networks - Transmission & Distribution Award: Mario Mitschke and Jürgen Vieregge (SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa), winners for developing an emergency response equipment for high-voltage line operations, reflecting continuous improvement in safety and efficiency on high-risk sites.

City networks - Smart City Award: Wojciech Szemiel (SPIE Elbud Gdańsk, Poland), honoured for designing a pedestrian crossing that illuminates at night, increasing safety and visibility in urban spaces.

Information & Communication Services Award: Blerim Rudhani (SPIE Switzerland), recognised for developing a service for the sustainable and secure management of unused IT hardware.

Industry Award: Fuqiang Zhuang (SPIE France), awarded for an energy management system designed to optimise the use of solar energy and reduce the use of diesel generators on isolated production sites.

Tech FM Award: One SPIE Innovation & Digitalisation. This team received another award this year for its holistic approach and the development of a comprehensive solution for predictive maintenance of air handling units.

Digital Award: Fabian Didion, Daven Röttger and Carsten Ruffer (SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa), recognised for creating a chatbot based on generative artificial intelligence, which improves the IT support provided to SPIE employees.

Sustainability Award: Thida Dumoulin (SPIE France), winner for developing an easy-to-use calculator for sharing with SPIE’s customers the carbon footprint associated with each of its offerings. SPIE will use this tool to make it easier for customers to calculate their Scope 3 emissions when determining their own environmental impact.

Daniel Cadet, Head of Business Process & Innovation, SPIE Group, commented, "I congratulate the winners and participants for their achievements, which illustrate the Group's commitment to innovation, service excellence and a more sustainable future. We are so proud of the concrete results that have been delivered through a powerful collaborative process focused on sharing ideas and developing solutions together."