In recognition of the size of Europe’s green-tech opportunity and the challenges ahead in realizing that potential, Win Green & Grow: The McKinsey Business Building and Decarbonization Summit in Berlin—a follow-up to the 2024 Green Business Building Summit in the same city—brought together about 150 senior executive–level participants, including founders, innovators, leaders in tech, and sustainability investors, from various industries.
In a number of engaging breakout sessions—covering topics such as renewable energy, electrified mobility, industrial decarbonization, and carbon-negative solutions—panelists shared valuable insights on the latest trends and discussed creating value in sustainability as a path to strong overall business growth. Attendees discussed that sustainability and green technologies can be drivers for European competitiveness, growth, and innovation. This post lays out a high-level summary of the summit’s key themes, including Europe’s green-tech potential and how it can compete with other major global players.
Unlocking Europe’s green-tech potential amid global competition
One of the summit’s key themes was the potential for green tech to bolster Europe’s competitiveness. As sustainability shifts from being a mandate or mission to becoming an opportunity, Europe is entering a new era for green business building.
In their presentation, McKinsey Senior Partners Daniel Rexhausen and Stefan Helmcke stressed that European companies would need to compete on critical factors related to cost and performance. Rexhausen remarked, “We have entered a new phase in which sustainability investments are now judged in the same way as any other investment: They need to pay out.” To build a long-term competitive advantage, European companies will need to achieve the same or better quality, solution cost parity, and the efficient scaling of production. A necessary first step will be to understand the transformative operating model—as well as the cost and performance curves—of disruptors.
To thrive in a very competitive global landscape, Europe must leverage its strengths across clean energy, e-mobility, green materials, and carbon-negative solutions. “In Europe, we have the opportunity to improve the use of renewable energy by leveraging AI. By combining the expertise of our scientific community with that of skilled practitioners from both incumbents and new entrants, we can enhance execution power significantly. In that way, we can scale renewables more effectively with commercially attractive value propositions,” said McKinsey Partner Holger Klärner, summarizing the tenor of an executive panel he and Anna Littmann moderated on how to drive value in sustainability.
Important questions discussed at the summit included how European companies can sharpen their competitiveness and increase speed to market in the face of rising global competition, as well as how to create solutions that perform highly across three key metrics—performance, price competitiveness, and environmental sustainability—and could therefore kick-start a world-leading green-tech ecosystem in Europe.
Strategies to compete with US and Chinese disruptors
Several participants highlighted the increasing presence of US and Chinese disruptors in the European market, especially within the zero-emission-vehicle sector. According to McKinsey Senior Partners Markus Forsgren and Tomas Nauclér, these disruptors’ leadership in cost, agility, and performance have fueled their market share gains. In particular, they have outperformed European companies in bringing down the cost of key technologies, such as batteries and hydrogen, without compromising vehicle performance.1 Forsgren and Nauclér emphasized that strong and decisive leadership is one core part of this new operating model for industrial businesses. They shared how leaders could encourage and reward a culture of innovation and experimentation while developing a sense of—and capitalizing upon—their unique competitive advantages. As Forsgren said, “Building successful businesses in the green-tech space is, among other things, a leadership challenge. The companies with leaders that are committed to stepping up on execution are those that will thrive.”
Making the necessary changes will require significant effort and discipline across a number of important areas related to the transformation. These include, for example, more-agile governance, deep and intimate partnerships across supply chains, and a mindset that encourages reasoning from first principles (rather than accepting conventional wisdom). In addition, access to advantageous long-term financing options—a topic covered in detail in the summit’s panel session on securing funding for sustainable ventures—will be critical.
Creating triple-win scenarios
Market-beating solutions in the green-tech space will need to score highly across three areas: performance, price competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. Such triple-win solutions will also ideally address challenges such as misaligned supply-and-demand dynamics and linear value chains.
One initiative described at the summit that received significant interest from attendees was a cross-sectoral McKinsey effort focused on advancing circular petrochemical production from waste. The showcase reimagined how petrochemicals and packaging plastics could be produced—aiming to transform the existing value chain into one that is more sustainable, less reliant on fossil feedstocks, and economically viable in the long term. By combining complementary technologies across industries, the initiative demonstrated how innovation, sustainability, and scalability can be fostered together, creating the right conditions for triple-win solutions.
In his keynote, McKinsey Senior Partner Georg Winkler highlighted the importance of innovation and collaboration along the value chain in driving sustainability: “We need to create ecosystems along the value chain, bringing together manufacturers, technology players, investors, off-takers, and other stakeholders; combining technologies that benefit one another; and creating ecosystems that balance the risk and the opportunity.”
Looking forward: Driving value together on sustainability
The energy and enthusiasm throughout the summit were a testament to the attendees’ collective commitment to sustainability and innovation. And ideas and initiatives discussed throughout the day—including in the start-up pitches, which showcased innovative solutions that could drive the green transition forward—showed Europe’s considerable potential to lead in this space.
The summit concluded with a strong call to action from McKinsey Senior Partner Markus Berger-de León, who urged participants to drive value together on sustainability. The connections made and ideas shared over the two days are just the beginning of what promises to be a transformative journey. We look forward to continuing the conversation.
Anna Littmann is a partner in McKinsey’s Frankfurt office; Daniel Rexhausen is a senior partner in the Stuttgart office; Georg Winkler is a senior partner in the Berlin office, where Holger Klärner is a partner and Markus Berger-de León is a senior partner; and Stefan Helmcke is a senior partner in the Vienna office.
The authors wish to thank Anna Granskog, Eric Hannon, Markus Forsgren, Pol van der Pluijm, Stefan Kemmer, and Tomas Nauclér for their contributions to the event and this article.
1 “Europe’s economic potential in the shift to electric vehicles,” McKinsey, October 3, 2024.