Editorial

Dear readers,

Companies like SCHOTT, who strive to achieve technological advances, have no alternative to constantly broadening their horizons. This means taking a closer look at industries with bright futures, such as architecture. We offer this creative field that is always receptive for new ideas a broad range of unique solutions, including coated color effect glass that offers various dazzling effects, depending on the incidence of light; LED LightPoints inside glass that receive their electrical power invisibly and thin-film photovoltaic modules that link power generation with modern architecture.

Such innovations are often born in labs. Inside our greenhouse for new technologies, our researchers have succeeded in carrying over piezo-electric glass ceramics with completely new qualities into product development.

This is hardly the only example of how big things often begin small. 40 years ago, SCHOTT began operations in Japan with three employees. Today, our extended presence in the world’s second largest economy provides an important foundation for further expansion of our activities in Asia. And new opportunities are resulting. For the first time ever, the populations of 25 remote villages in China are receiving electrical power for lighting from SCHOTT solar installations.

A completely different type of gleaming symbol was recently inaugurated in Spain. The monument for those who died from the terrorist attack in Madrid in March of 2004 consists of 15,600 glass elements from SCHOTT and represents much more than just a striking monument. It is an appeal for a more open and peaceful world.