Inpressing™ grows stronger with Swiss Climate Foundation support

We are excited to announce that our incubation project, Inpressing™, has received a generous grant from the Swiss Climate Foundation. Inpressing™ is a patent-pending technology that uses a high-speed wood-pressing process to provide a competitive industrial alternative to plastic packaging or small plastic objects.

Recognized by the Swiss Climate Foundation

In line with its mission of protecting the climate and strengthening SMEs in Switzerland, the Swiss Climate Foundation has selected our project, Inpressing™, to receive a grant that will help us advance our patent-pending technology. We are honored that this respected private foundation believes in the potential of our project and we look forward to working together in the spirit of sustainability and Swiss innovation.

Inpressing™: Intrapreneurship at its finest

Developed by our team of Professional Inventors – Laurent, Luc, Clémentine, Roman, Pierrick and Markus – this patent-pending technology offers a sustainable alternative to plastic by transforming solid Swiss wood into functional shapes using pressure. Inpressing™ is a high-precision process that compresses wood along the grain to form cavities, patterns or textures – all in a single press movement. Instead of carving or cutting, the wood is shaped using a counterform, which helps retain the integrity and strength of the material.

Key features of the technology:

Compression of up to 50% in the fiber direction
Smooth, impact-resistant surface
Crisp edges without cutting or bending fibers
Reliable reproduction of shapes via counterform
Energy-efficient process with no pre- or post-processing
Compatible with high-speed production lines

The result is a high-quality wood component that is both functional and biodegradable.

Inpressing™’s environmental impact

Inpressing™ technology has the potential to drastically reduce the climate impact of products previously made from plastic or other non-renewable or processed materials. Inpressed wood products can emit up to 9 times less CO₂ than traditional plastic equivalents.

Some eco-friendly benefits are:

Use of wood from Swiss forests
No synthetic or newly created material – just solid wood
Fully biodegradable: suitable for composting or energy recovery
Low-energy production process

For example, a small plastic case produced by injection molding (at 6 million units per year) typically generates 26g CO2 per piece – or 16g if 70% of the waste is recycled. The same item made using Inpressing™? Just 3g CO2.

Inpressing™ wooden block compared to plastic Duplo

A future with Inpressing™

Manufacturing costs of Inpressing™ objects are estimated to be comparable to those of plastic injection, making this technology highly competitive from a commercial point of view. Currently, our focus is packaging, but the technology can be used to replace plastic – or other materials with a larger carbon footprint – in other ways such as cases, boxes and decorative appliques.

Inpressing™ is a viable alternative with a competitive price. Not only does the trend toward eco-design align with inpressed objects, but European regulations that extend the producer’s responsibility to design more sustainable packaging will certainly help this technology gain more traction.

How is Creaholic involved?

Intrapreneurship has always been a core part of our business model. Driven by their entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and respect for people and the planet, each of our Professional Inventors has 100 hours every year that they can dedicate to making a product or business idea come to life. Inpressing™ is one of these ideas, and the team has been working on it for nearly four years with continuous support and investment from the company.

Incubation at Creaholic is more than hobby projects – the ideas from our Professional Inventors have led to 14 spin-offs.

With the support from the Swiss Climate Foundation, our hopes are high that we will see Inpressing™ used throughout Switzerland, and beyond!