Superstar Taylor Swift played concerts at the VELTINS-Arena in Gelsenkirchen on three consecutive days in July. Swifties who travelled to the arena by car could already see from the multi-storey car park that this location is not only about superstars, music or sport, but also sustainability: a banner informed visitors about ZINQ's Cradle-to-Cradle® (C2C) surfaces used in the construction of the car park. As a result, the structure is not only permanently protected against corrosion; rather, at the end of the galvanised steel components„ lifecycle, fully recyclable products are available from which the resources used can be recovered in closed material loops.

The concept of circular construction, which prioritises the principles of reuse and high-value subsequent use at the end of building materials' life cycles, plays a crucial role in globally reducing the environmental impact of the construction industry. The latter is responsible for a significant proportion of global resource consumption and CO2 emissions. Through the use of C2C-certified finishes on steel – as seen in the Gelsenkirchen multi-storey car park – it is ensured that the material does not have to become waste after use, but can instead be fed back into the production cycle – thus further reducing the ecological footprint of construction projects in the true spirit of circular construction.

Alongside the ecological hot-dip galvanising of a wide variety of car park components, ZINQ is also involved in the Zukunftsschmiede 04 and is even one of its founding members. Zukunftsschmiede 04 brings together FC Schalke 04 partners such as ZINQ, E.ON and Gelsenwasser to jointly promote sustainable projects and make the Ruhr region greener.

Furthermore, ZINQ teamed up with ten other companies from Gelsenkirchen to form the "UnternehmensElf" (Corporate Team) for UEFA EURO 2024 – an initiative launched by the Emscher-Lippe employers' associations, FC Schalke 04, the City of Gelsenkirchen and the North Westphalia Chamber of Commerce and Industry. One of the network's activities involved oversized steel footballs for all eleven companies, which were sustainably hot-dip galvanised by ZINQ and installed across the entire city area before the start of the European Football Championship, each individually designed by the respective company.

As a Cradle-to-Cradle pioneer, ZINQ repeatedly demonstrates by way of example that a circular economy is not only possible in the energy-intensive industry, but can also be implemented in a holistically oriented, circular business model. Aside from multi-storey car parks, the recycling loop and the associated potential of hot-dip galvanising in an event context are more than considerable. For instance, a Cradle-to-Cradle-certified surface from the climate protection company ZINQ was already used in a stage construction prototype with duroZINQ (click here for the article) – just one way to continually reduce the carbon footprint of events.

For the many fans who came to Gelsenkirchen, the multi-storey car park was at least a visible sign that not only are people celebrating here, but sustainable events are also a focus.