Partnerships with purpose

The Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich is an interdisciplinary scientific research group aiming to generate a better understanding of global ecology to inform and address biodiversity loss and climate change. The Crowther lab has supported the Bühler Networking Days in 2019 and 2022. Prof. Dr. Tom Crowther also advises Bühler to ensure our actions and programs, such as the Environmental Quantification Program, have a positive impact and consider all elements of sustainability (for example, biodiversity, land use, etc.). Prof. Dr. Crowther has been a member of Bühler’s Sustainability Committee since 2021.

Bühler and Vyncke announced their partnership in March 2021 to offer Vyncke’s solutions for burning biomass by-products to provide clean energy for Bühler’s food and feed customers. Today, energy is becoming one of the most critical levers for business success. By combining our solutions with Vyncke’s expertise, sustainability, and economic criteria go hand in hand: the circular system using steam boilers enables customers to significantly reduce their CO₂e emissions and save costs.

The biggest project so far resulted in savings of 250 tonnes of fuel oil per day, which brings a reduction of CO₂e emissions in a parboiler plant of 60%. By adding Vyncke’s energy recovery processes to Bühler’s portfolio, customers can achieve low- to zero-carbon food solutions. Bühler and Vyncke aim at equipping 20% of Bühler’s relevant installed base and 80% of new greenfield rice/oat plants with Vyncke solutions to reduce CO₂e emissions.

In July 2022, the partnership was extended. At its headquarters, Bühler has invested in reducing its CO₂e emissions by building the Energy Recovery Center together with Vyncke. Bühler operates many research and training centers to test and develop new processes and recipes for end products together with customers. These facilities produce about 550 tonnes of biomass annually at the Uzwil site. Bühler and Vyncke use this biomass, which includes, for example, wheat bran and cocoa shells, to generate CO₂e-neutral energy and heat offices in winter. Together with other measures already implemented at the site – such as switching to wood pellets – it is estimated that the Energy Recovery Center will reduce CO₂e emissions for heating energy by over 60% (reference year 2015). The facility has been successfully in operation already and is providing the savings described in the winter period. Moreover, the facility is open to customers for demonstration and testing purposes to further develop integrated energy efficiency solutions.

Bühler and the Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e.V. (DIL), a research institute focusing on food technology and food science, teamed up in 2020 to develop new production technologies for alternative protein products. New sustainable plant-based proteins have a significantly lower environmental impact and a lower CO₂e footprint than the animal meat value chain. It is therefore essential to explore and identify alternative and underused sources of protein and develop efficient technologies to convert these into attractive, marketable products. A key technology to unlock this opportunity is extrusion. High moisture extrusion enables the conversion of plant proteins into food products with textures similar to meat. It is a technology in which Bühler leads the market. 

The DIL campus in Quakenbrück, Germany, provides state-of-the-art food safety labs, pilot plants, and research capabilities. With DIL, Bühler has a partner that can provide food grade tests and production labs combined with extensive analytical services. In 2021, Bühler and DIL opened the Technology Center Proteins of the Future to make a vital contribution to closing the protein gap. At this facility, customers and start-ups prototype new products and upscale to full production capacity in a full-scale extrusion plan while benefiting from comprehensive consultancy services.

Bühler has been present on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) since 2015. The Bühler Innovation office was established at the EPFL Innovation Park to foster collaborations with EPFL centers (for example, Swiss Data Science Center, Integrative Food & Nutrition Center, Center of MicroNanoTechnology), research laboratories, start-ups, and spin-offs. The collaborations, including joint student internships and master projects, have also been key to ensuring continuous access to future talents for Bühler in all engineering fields taught at EPFL.

In 2024, eight EPFL students completed their Industrial Master thesis and Master internship at Bühler Innovation office. They worked on innovation projects in the field of data science, energy optimization, and pulsed electric field for bioprocessing. In parallel, Bühler strengthened its collaborations with laboratories in the field of granular materials and energy efficiency, while developing a new partnership in the field of Bioprocessing. 

Bühler data scientists have also been embedded on the campus since 2018 to collaborate closely with the Swiss Data Science Center. In 2024, the team continued developing new digital services aiming at optimizing the efficiency of the processing plants and equipment of Bühler’s customers, while investigating the potential of new AI algorithms (e.g. Large Language Models).

As a founding partner of the World Food System Centre at ETH Zurich, Bühler and Migros funded the assistant Professorship in Sustainable Food Processing. In 2022, Alex Mathys received his full professorship in the field of food process engineering and nutrition for this role.

Since 2019, Bühler, Givaudan, and Nestlé have supported ETH Zurich with CHF 5 million to advance research and teaching in food technology and nutrition. The Future Food Initiative supported a postdoctoral program for outstanding young researchers focusing on future food challenges. The program is co-managed by the World Food System Center and the Integrative Food Science and Nutrition Center at EPFL. In 2024 three new projects were funded and started. The program has so far supported twelve fellows working on diverse topics. The funding also includes a new professorship at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D- HEST) at ETH Zurich. It will be used to enable scientific work at the doctoral or postdoctoral level and to fund research projects in the newly created research group.

Bühler is a founding industry partner with ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Ashesi University in Ghana offering a master’s program in mechatronics engineering since 2020. The program aims to promote the next generation of leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa who will take responsibility for sustainable development in the region. Swiss companies such as ABB, Barry Callebaut, Lafarge Holcim, and Nestlé are also partners in this project, supporting through funding and scholarships. All partners offer internships at their African branches, equipping the students with the skills needed in the labor market. The respective students are absorbed in the partnering companies to strengthen their African skill-base.   

The three-year program equips students with specialist competencies and a wide range of skills to pursue careers in production and automation. Each year, 25 to 30 students join the master's program from all over Sub-Saharan Africa; candidates are selected based on their knowledge, skills, motivation, and leadership potential.

In 2024, the first cohort of students finished the course, three of whom were sponsored by Bühler. 

Bühler and Jiangnan University founded the Future Food Center in 2020, which is equipped with Bühler’s twin screw extruders PolyCool 50 and BCTM-30 for small-scale and pilot-scale research on plant-based foods.

Jiangnan University and Bühler established the Protein Industry Alliance (IPIA) and held the Future Food Summit in May 2021 with industry partners such as Givaudan, Glanbia, Wufangzhai, Haidilao Research Institute, Dongsheng Biotech, and Jinnong Biologicals. In October 2022, the IPIA launched the Innovative Protein Challenge. The goal of the challenge was to promote the development of the innovative protein industry, helping Chinese start-ups in the field of innovative protein to solve the challenge of large-scale production. Start-ups Megameat, Xland, and CellX were announced as winners in July 2023. Co-hosted by Jiangnan University and IPIA, the second IPIA Summit – "Alternative Protein Technology Innovation and Industry Development Forum" – was held in January 2024.

One Young World (OYW) was the catalyst for the Generation B movement in 2016 and continues to be a source of inspiration and a valuable partner. One Young World is a non-profit organization that convenes young leaders from around the world to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Bühler sends delegates to the summit every year to inspire members of the organization to drive change. One of these change vehicles is Generation B.

In 2019 Bühler and Generation B hosted their first OYW Caucus, a local version of the OYW Summit, with founder Kate Robertson attending in person in the CUBIC. In 2021, Bühler and Generation B held their second OYW Caucus, this time in partnership with Arosa Tourismus, where 300 young leaders from companies and universities across Europe came together to contribute to the OYW Switzerland Caucus in Uzwil and Arosa and online, on June 19 and 20. The Caucus tackled three questions; how we can create start-ups with sustainability at their core, how we can evolve corporations to be sustainable, and how we can make entire industries more sustainable, using tourism as an example.

In 2022, Bühler hosted the first official OYW Switzerland Caucus, following Switzerland founding One Young World’s first National Board. This event brought together 100 young leaders, with 15 different organizations in Switzerland officially partnering to support the event and truly enabling the vision of the Swiss National Board to identify, connect and promote Switzerland’s most impactful young leaders. Since then, One Young World Switzerland has continued to grow and support the work of impactful young leaders. The National Board has reached over 700 young leaders across Switzerland, and the 2024 National Congress was supported by over 20 official partners.

Founded in 2000, UNITECH seeks to strengthen ties between academia and industry by preparing talented young engineers to address future challenges in the global marketplace. Bühler has been a committed partner since 2014, employing more than 33 UNITECH graduates. Sandra Lutz, Head of Bühler’s Wafer business unit, is a member of the UNITECH board, and Jay O’Nien, Bühler’s Environmental Impact Services Lead, serves as president of the UNITECH Alumni Association.

The UNITECH Diploma is awarded to students who complete an academic exchange at a partner university, engage in a collaborative case study, and complete an internship with a corporate partner. Additionally, they participate in coaching modules, guided by dedicated coaches such as Saliya Gunaratne from Bühler UK and Natascha Chiodin from Bühler Switzerland. Each year, Bühler hosts UNITECH interns to contribute to projects in Switzerland, Germany, and the UK related to the Environmental Quantification Program, R&D, automation and digitalization, data science, and product development.

Bühler started its partnership with Big Idea Ventures in 2020 to accelerate the success of promising start-ups creating sustainable food alternatives. Big Idea Ventures is a global hybrid venture capital firm focused on solving the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs in the fields of alternative proteins. Through their “New Protein Fund I”, the company has invested in and accelerated 105 alternative protein companies globally. These companies are aligned with Bühler’s focus areas and provide the Group with new technologies and access to future customers. Their new fund, the “Global Food Innovation Fund II” extends its investment thesis to fats, ingredients, sweeteners, flavorings, and monocrops. In November 2024, together with MARS and AAK we supported Big Idea Ventures to run the Next Generation Pet Food Program, focused on driving innovation in pet food and engaging with the start-up ecosystem to develop more sustainable solutions. Big Idea Ventures runs accelerator programs in New York, Singapore, and Paris.

Icos is a venture capital firm working at the intersection of digital and sustainable industry. By bringing corporations and start-ups together and facilitating strong partnerships with investors, Icos aims to build an ecosystem that helps to accelerate and scale up sustainable solutions. Bühler has worked closely with ICOS since 2014 developing an impactful and promising investment portfolio.

Bühler has been a partner of this cross-industry start-up accelerator since 2014 and joined MassChallenge Switzerland as a founding partner in 2016. Since 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has been a leader in helping start-ups across Europe grow their businesses. It has accelerated 950 start-ups across multiple industries that have raised more than USD 2 billion in funding and generated over 59,000 direct and indirect jobs. In 2024, over 1,000 start-ups from over 112 countries applied for the early-stage Startup Accelerator, and over 500 for the later-stage Sustainable Food Solutions Challenge.

The Scale It Up! innovation challenge helps start-ups to accelerate and scale their project, product, or solution from a first version to a scalable product ready to be launched. Bühler, Cargill, Givaudan, and Puris, all leaders within the food system value chain, support the start-ups on their journey with their expertise and access to their network and first-class facilities. The first Scale It Up! challenge was held in 2021, and subsequent programs have run in Europe, Singapore, and China.

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) is a not-for-profit association that aims to unleash the potential of the Swiss food ecosystem and share what Switzerland has to offer food innovators on the global stage. The Valley’s 150 partners range from large enterprises such as ADM, Bühler, dsm-firmenich, Givaudan, Nestlé, and Tetra Pak to government institutions, start-ups, SMEs, and leading academic institutions including ETH Zurich, EPFL and HES-SO. The community is united by a shared commitment to collaborate to develop the most impactful solutions to shape healthier food systems that benefit people and planet.

A new strategic partnership with German engineering company endeco was formed in June 2022 to drive forward pulse processing, meet growing demand for alternative sources of protein, and develop pulse processing solutions with a significantly lower CO₂e footprint. Endeco is specialized in the design and construction of starch and protein plants. Bühler and endeco have built a new Protein Application Center at Bühler’s headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, to offer customers end-to-end solutions, from field to meat and dairy substitutes, as well as intermediate ingredients, including all wet and dry processing. This research center is recognized as the best-in-class research and training center in the world for this type of processing.

A joint venture with Austrian pharmaceutical and biotechnology EPCM (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management) company ZETA was announced in June 2022. ERIDIA, serves established players and start-ups along the food value chain leveraging cellular agriculture and precision and biomass fermentation. ERIDIA offers support from early-stage consultancy through all stages of engineering, design, and execution management. ZETA is a leader in aseptic processing with international experience in scaling up industrial cell culture and fermentation processes. Bühler is a market leader in providing technology and processing expertise along the food value chain with, among others, expertise in the transformation of biomass into food and feed. ERIDIA, headquartered in Leobendorf, Austria, is a 50/50 joint venture that will develop solutions to meet the rising global demand for sustainable food and feed production.

Bühler and Hosokawa Alpine Group from Germany have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to accelerate and strengthen the production of healthier and sustainable plant protein solutions. It will provide customers with the most efficient value chain for pulses that are processed into protein ingredients.

As the leading solution provider in pulses processing, Bühler offers solutions for the intake, cleaning, dehulling, and grinding of pulses, and further food processing with its extrusion technology, which texturizes plant-based proteins into products with fibrous texture similar to meat. Hosokawa Alpine complements the production process by adding its leading technology for the dry separation of pulses’ protein: fine grinding and air classification.

The combination of Bühler’s upstream pulses process and Hosokawa’s process for size reduction and classification produces the highest yields of high value protein concentrates. The partnership will offer customers process technology and expertise along the complete field-to-fork pulses protein chain.

A joint venture with IMDHER S.A. de C.V., a leading player in the animal nutrition market in Mexico, will drive process efficiency, quality, and sustainability in the feed industry. Animal protein remains an important part of human nutrition and global meat consumption is rising. It is therefore essential to ensure that the animal protein value chain is as efficient and sustainable as possible.

The joint company, called IMDHER Bühler, is offering Bühler’s core machines as well as IMDHER’s expertise to IMDHER’s customers, providing solutions that will help them to improve the capacity and efficiency of their operations. IMDHER brings four decades of experience building plants to produce animal feed, including pet food and aqua. The family-owned business is a turnkey supplier to the Mexican feed market, with 20% market share. Bühler has a minority stake of 49% in the joint venture.

Bühler and MMS AG in Urdorf, Zurich, formed an innovation and technology partnership in June 2022 to drive the development of high functionality ingredients for sustainable meat and dairy analogues. MMS’s expertise in membrane technology enables the separation of valuable components with superior functionality, sensory, and nutritional benefits. In combination with Bühler’s processing expertise and upstream and downstream technologies for the plant-based protein market, the partnership serves the next generation of meat and dairy analogues.

Premier Tech and Bühler established a fifty-fifty joint venture called Bühler Premier Tech to create new cost-effective packaging solutions and achieve greater success in the global market.

Bühler and Premier Tech entered this strategic partnership in August 2019. Both companies are proud to have in the meantime successfully introduced the products to the market, for both granular and powder products, which are fully developed in the joint venture based on technologies transferred from Premier Tech. This strategy to jointly develop industrial flexible packaging solutions destined for the food and feed markets in China, but also for emerging markets, paid off very well for both companies.

In October 2022, Bühler joined Upcell, an alliance of European players from industry and universities along the value chain of lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The aim of the Alliance is to scale up development of the battery cell manufacturing ecosystem in Europe by providing one networking platform between equipment and machine builders and battery manufacturers.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global community of over 225 of the world’s leading driving systems transformation for a better world in which 9+ billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries, by mid-century. The member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies.