vilisto scoops German Innovation Award for Climate and the Environment

Backed by EIT InnoEnergy, Europe’s largest sustainable energy accelerator, vilisto designs smart, self-learning radiator thermostats for commercial and public buildings, which have integrated presence detection, learning algorithms and room climate sensors. vilisto’s technology, together with their online platform, can save companies and municipalities up to 32% on heating costs while reducing CO₂ emissions. Founded in 2016, the company launched its first beta series of thermostats with pilot customer RheinEnergie in the same year to then go to market with full scale production in 2018.

From over 140 applicants, seven companies were awarded across a range of categories. The Innovation Award is granted every two years by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI) to solutions that demonstrate innovation and progress in the field of climate and environmental protection.

Svenja Schulze, the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Holger Lösch, Deputy Managing Director of BDI and juror Nico Peterschmidt congratulated all laureates via video messages.

Due to the Corona epidemic, the award ceremony planned to be held in Berlin on March 26^th had to be cancelled. Therefore, the prestigious award which comes with a price money of €25k was sent to all laureates via mail. That however did no harm to the vilisto team’s excitement leading them to organise a virtual team get-together to celebrate this outstanding recognition.

vilisto CEO, Christoph Berger, said: “We are incredibly happy and proud to be honoured with this award because it recognises the work of the entire team and underlines that we are on the right track with our climate mission. It is an absolute privilege to be recognised by BMU and BDI for the work we are doing, and our plan is to expand our technology distribution across Europe to make an even bigger impact on climate change.”

Christian Müller, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy Germany added: “Huge congratulations to the entire vilisto team for this outstanding recognition! Since their inception in 2016, vilisto have been true digital pioneers with their heat management solution creating both great economic and environmental impact for their customers in the building sector.”