Can tech save the world?
Switzerland. Its Picture-Postcard Landscapes…and Cleantech: Swiss solutions to protect the environment
Switzerland is widely known for its picture-post-card scenery, shaped by mountains, clear lakes and rivers, cows and green meadows… Behind this idyllic backdrop lies a country wholly committed to cleantech – developing clean technologies to create a world that is more respectful of natural resources, to make the transition to renewable energies and to ensure greater biodiversity.
Join us on a journey through the most beautiful Swiss landscapes and discover some of the enterprising businesses finding innovative solutions to make our lives decidedly more sustainable.
For our first edition, we would like to proudly introduce some innovative and intrepid Swiss cleantech pioneers.
RAPHAËL DOMJAN
Between 2010 and 2012, eco-explorer Raphael Domjan sailed around the globe on PlanetSolar using only solar energy – it was the first time ever a journey of this kind was achieved by any means of solar powered transport. A keen advocate of experimental ecology, he has been working on the SolarStratos project since 2014, with the mission of reaching the stratosphere with a solar-powered aircraft and being able to witness the stars shining in broad daylight.
BERTRAND PICCARD
A passionate aeronaut and aviator, Bertrand Piccard has taken up many a challenge that was thought impossible. For example, he completed the first non-stop round-the-world hot-air balloon flight in 1999 and initiated the Solar Impulse solar aircraft project. Son of an oceanographer and grandson of an aeronautical physicist and aquanaut, Piccard circumnavigated the globe with Andre Borschberg aboard Solar Impulse in 17 stages, powered solely by solar energy. He now manages a foundation to support renewable energies and cleantech.
JOSEF JENNI
Josef Jenni is unquestionably one of the pioneers of solar energy in Europe. He began marketing solar thermal systems as early as the mid-1970s. His achievements include the construction of the first completely solar-powered house in Europe, in Oberburg in the canton of Bern.
MARKUS & DANIEL FREITAG
In 1993, the Freitag brothers retrieved an old tarpaulin from a lorry with the idea of turning it into a shoulder bag. Initially they hand- stitched the bags in their small apartment in Zurich, using old lorry tarpaulins, seat belts and the inner tubes of bicycle tires. Today, Freitag markets its bags all over the world. A prototype is even exhibited at the MoMa in New York. The Freitag brothers are now considered pioneers of the global circular economy.
