Industry multiplies impact for successful and sustainable businesses

Speaking at the event, Bühler Group CEO Stefan Scheiber described the power of collaboration and cooperation to multiply the impact of innovation. “Every breakthrough, partnership, and bold decision has the potential to create ripples – spreading knowledge, inspiring action, and driving progress,” he said. “But their true power lies in the multiplier effect: when these ripples connect, they create waves of change. By working together, businesses and industries don’t just add incrementally to progress – they accelerate it by compounding their influence and scaling solutions far beyond what any single effort could achieve.” 

Ian Roberts, Bühler Group CTO said: “It is so clear now that we must act with focus and collaboration to bring the impact necessary to preserve the healthy state of our planet. I am energized by the potential and willingness shown by our 1,200 guests – not to simply talk, but to build concrete actions and to share what they have already achieved to accelerate group learning and impact multiplication.”

The Networking Days 2025 was the fourth Bühler Group Networking Days event. The Swiss-based technology group has convened leaders from the industries it serves once every three years since 2016. Attendees at this year's event traveled from 90 countries and six continents. 
 

Big change needs bold leadership

Speaking directly to the many food industry leaders attending the event, Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestlé, emphasized the sector’s responsibility to find ways to feed a growing global population sustainably. 

“Climate change is a reality, but there is leadership and there are science-based solutions, so I am very, very hopeful that together we can make a collective impact,” Freixe said. “As the key players in the food system, we collectively have power. We have the ability to address many issues the planet is facing, and we should be taking the responsibility that comes with it very seriously.”

In a year marked by political and economic turbulence, keynote speakers emphasized the urgent role of industry in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges. In such times, it is easy for business leaders to retreat into caution, but building resilient, future-ready businesses requires courage and decisive action. “The currency to survive in an era of uncertainty is courage,” said Ranjay Gulati, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, in his keynote address. “Uncertainty causes fear, and fear can be paralyzing. But to survive and thrive, you must be bold and take action.” Gulati explained that in unpredictable environments, companies cannot eliminate uncertainty. Instead of resisting it, he urged leaders to adopt an agile mindset, one that allows for experimentation and learning to navigate the path forward.
 

Sustainable business success

The key message at the event was that sustainability is a sound business strategy that drives profitable growth and long-term resilience, and is the outcome of strong leadership. Professor Johan Rockström, a leading expert on global sustainability and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, highlighted the urgent need for industry to operate within Earth’s safe limits. As the architect of the Planetary Boundaries framework, he stressed that sustainability is no longer optional – it is essential to resilience, competitiveness, and future success. He encouraged leaders to speak openly about the business value of sustainability: “We must think of sustainability as central to competitiveness, security, stability, and health,” he said. “When a decision improves your performance, attracts talent, opens new markets, or enhances resilience, communicate that clearly: show that sustainability is not a burden – it’s a competitive advantage.” 

Speakers throughout the event echoed the magnitude and urgency of the challenge, calling for accelerated innovation – in digital tools, process technologies, and business models – to deliver more value with fewer resources. 

Johan Westman, CEO of plant-based oils producer AAK, shared his company’s journey toward sustainability leadership. Since 2019, AAK has transformed its palm oil supply chain, prioritizing sources verified as deforestation-free. By 2024, 91% of its palm oil supply met this standard – a shift that coincided with a significant increase in profitability. AAK believes that there should be more focus on producing sustainable palm oil. “Palm oil offers yields per hectare 4 to 10 times greater than any other plant-based oil,” says Westman. “That’s important when you need to feed the world.”
 

Transformation through collaboration

Thomas Zurbuchen, Leader of ETH Zurich | Space, and former Head of Science at NASA, spoke about the importance of collaboration between science and industry in addressing climate and environment-related challenges. “Industry has the ability to take scientific ideas and transform them into innovative solutions that make a real difference,” he said. “Sometimes the future is already here, you just need to scale it.” As an example, Zurbuchen highlighted recent developments in satellite imaging technology: “We can now use new technologies to analyze data from space with a resolution of millimeters and make it useful to inform decisions on the ground,” he said. “A farmer can use satellite images to decide exactly which fields need fertilizer and which do not.”

Many speakers echoed the message about the power of collaboration to drive sustainable business success, mitigate climate change, protect and restore nature, create jobs, and ensure food security.

Julia Binder, Professor at IMD, encouraged guests to think about the circular economy as “a means to unite profitability, growth, and sustainability.” She asked them to take a bold approach to rethinking their business models by following circular principles. “The circular economy is an ecosystem play – it’s very customer-centric, it’s extremely collaborative,” she said. “The companies that really make money in the future will be those that use the license to innovate. I encourage you to start from the future back: envision one or two transformational innovations that could redefine your business, then define the steps you need to take to get there.”

Michele Andriani, CEO of Andriani S.p.A., gave a compelling example of the power of circularity to unlock new markets. His company set out to find alternative uses for all the side-streams generated by its core food production business. That led to the development of entirely new product lines – from pet food to nutritional supplements – with support from Bühler and other partners. Any material that cannot be transformed into a valuable product is instead used to generate energy for manufacturing. “Sustainability is not a goal, but a way of acting and doing business,” said Andriani. “For us, circularity is not just a sustainability concept – it’s an engine for innovation and growth that has opened doors to entirely new sectors.” 

Building on this theme of waste valorization, Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffè S.p.A. and Co-Chair of the Regenerative Society Foundation, shared how his company has applied similar principles. By repurposing coffee byproducts as bioactive ingredients for the cosmetics sector, illycaffè has created a new business stream. The company is also working closely with its growers to advance regenerative farming practices. “We started with just two demonstration sites in 2019. Now 90% of our growers have adopted at least 70% of those regenerative practices,” he said. “We all need to move away from businesses that depend on the destruction of natural capital and towards a new model where you turn a vicious circle into a virtuous one in which you regenerate the biosphere as you grow the economy.”
 

Delivering on promises: grow business, lower footprint

At the 2019 Networking Days, Bühler promised to have solutions ready to multiply by 2025 to reduce energy, waste, and water in its customers' value chains by 50%. Since then, Bühler has invested nearly CHF 500 million in research and development to deliver on that promise. It has analyzed the savings potential of 15 key value chains and developed new technologies and solutions. 

“Reflecting the urgency with which we need to act, our efforts go beyond simple compliance, drawing on partnerships, innovation, and a focus on building businesses that deliver measurable reductions in environmental footprint, while supporting profitable growth for both our customers and our company,” said Ian Roberts, Bühler Group CTO. “This work not only benefits the environment but also drives operational efficiency, creates jobs, and builds long-term resilience. We are helping our customers achieve significant reductions in energy consumption, waste generation, and water usage – delivering real impact up and down the value chain.” 

Multiplying these approaches across companies and industries requires solutions and services that support business growth while lowering footprint. This means enabling sales, profitability, job creation, and long-term resilience to address the needs of society while reducing emissions, land use, water use, and impacts on land and nature. 

Bühler supports its customers in growing their businesses while lowering their footprint in many ways. From offering new state-of-the-art solutions to optimizing current systems through services, including machinery refurbishment, digital process control, and predictive maintenance. These services lead to higher productivity and yields, resulting in better returns on investment alongside positive environmental impacts. 

As a result, Bühler is delivering on its promise to multiply solutions that reduce energy consumption, waste, and water use in its customers' value chains by 50%. According to Bühler’s value chain analysis, when combined with other technologies and solutions beyond Bühler’s portfolio, peak savings potential exceeds 80% in some value chains. The CO2e reduction potential is 71% for processing aluminum into finished products, 77% for transforming cocoa beans into chocolate, and 65% for processing rice. 
 

Trade, grain, and data flows

On the second day of the event, attention turned to challenges and opportunities beyond sustainability. Stefan Legge, Vice Director and Head of Tax & Trade Policy at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, urged guests to remain skeptical of claims that globalization is reversing. “Deglobalization is not yet showing in the data,” he said. “Global trade is still growing, just at a slower rate.” Legge predicted a period of slower global growth and rising volatility, underscoring the importance of trust: “There’s a shortage of trust in the global economy, which makes it all the more important to find reliable partners.”

Vito Martielli, Senior Analyst for Grains & Oilseeds at Rabobank, shared research showing continued growth in global grain trade, driven by rising demand in China and Africa. He noted that these shifts are reshaping global flows and may spur investment in infrastructure such as ports and storage, particularly in Brazil and Southeast Europe.

Neil Barua, CEO of software company PTC identified digitalization as key to managing supply chain risks. “AI is going to help organizations handle supply chain disruptions more effectively,” he said. “But you need robust data on your supply chain to make that happen.” 
 

Safe, healthy, affordable food that tastes good

A panel discussion focused on the challenge of providing safe, healthy, and affordable food to a growing global population. Abigail Stevenson, Chief Science Officer at Mars, described the rising importance of nutritional density in packaged food products, with manufacturers adding more whole grains, nuts, and legumes to their products. She also emphasized the value of collaboration across sectors: “Looking beyond our industry is critical for broadening perspectives and for really thinking differently. By coming together with people from different parts of the industry and the ecosystem, we find novel ways to think about how to address the challenges we all face.”

Florian Schattenmann, Chief Technology Officer at Cargill Incorporated, underscored the complexity of this task and noted that efforts to improve nutrient density required companies to achieve four simultaneous objectives. “Products need to offer the right taste, the right nutrition profile, the right sustainability profile, and the right cost,” he said. “And of those, taste is king.”

Operating robust food systems in Africa comes with its own challenges, including limited infrastructure and difficulties securing expertise and capital: “You need successful businesses to feed the world,” said Simon Tecleab, Chief Executive Officer at Naval Group. He described how his company had expanded from its roots in Eritrea to develop a network of processing and production sites across neighboring countries. The Group has set up its own logistics company to move products from farms to processing sites and is now partnering with Bühler to build a state-of-the-art food park in Angola.

Mandla Nkomo, Chief Executive Officer at Partners in Food Solutions, is another supporter of the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to resolve challenges in Africa’s food systems. His organization connects experts from world-class food companies with farmers and food processors in countries across Africa. “Talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity isn’t,” he said. “Let’s create an opportunity superhighway to transform Africa’s food systems, one factory at a time.”
 

Sustainable mobility and materials

As always, the Networking Days was not just about food. Experts held deep-dive discussions on a range of topics around sustainable mobility and materials, including vehicle weight reduction and the development of a European advanced battery industry.

Bühler announced that it had recently reached a new milestone with the order of its 50th Carat megacasting solution, underscoring its role as a key enabler of megacasting for large structural components in the automotive industry. As megacasting reshapes the industry, global carmakers are accelerating its adoption and rethinking their manufacturing strategies.  
 

Innovation in action

Leaders attending the event also had the opportunity to see innovative technologies at work in Bühler's extensive research and training center facilities in Uzwil. Technologies on display included new solutions for milling, AI process optimization tools, digitally-controlled die casting, and energy-efficient technologies for grain puffing, food extrusion, and the production of plant-based proteins. 

In the final Networking Days session, the topic returned to bold leadership. Francois Pienaar, on the 30th anniversary of his historic Rugby World Cup victory as captain of the Springboks, recalled the significance of that event in the history of post-Apartheid South Africa. His sporting career, he told guests, gave him the chance to witness the effect of great leaders. “They embody the spirit of perseverance, understanding the pressure of competition and thriving under it. From them, I have learned that great leaders make decisions grounded in strong principles. They balance critical thinking with a resistance to groupthink, fearlessly embracing risks and maintaining their integrity,” he said. “At the heart of all is a profound care for society and a commitment to leaving the communities within their home, their school, their village, or the country in a better state. Imagine the impact we could have if we cultivate a generation of young leaders with integrity.”

Bühler Networking Days 2025 set a new benchmark, bringing together the largest number of industry leaders and the broadest range of sectors in the event’s history. Guests left Uzwil with fresh insights, new strategic connections, and a strengthened commitment to driving progress within their organizations. In his closing remarks, CEO Stefan Scheiber thanked participants their ideas and active engagement, urging them to act boldly: “We need the courage to take decisive action – action that accelerates growth and drives the sustainable transformation of businesses, value chains, and entire industries. By doing this, we will shape a better future for our businesses and our societies, and truly multiply impact together.”