During a factory visit to the Südzucker Group in Offstein in the Palatinate, participants learnt first-hand that there is much more to a sugar beet than just a natural sweetener, but that numerous – sometimes unusual – by-products are produced and used. In cooperation with the Energy & Environment Cluster of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region, the presentations and personal discussions centred on important topics such as resource efficiency, the current and future use of hydrogen and other sustainable energy sources, possible production processes for bio-based chemicals, the extraction and processing of plant proteins and sustainability in general as a focus of the Group’s future strategy.