Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2020

In his welcoming speech to the Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2020, the Mayor of Winterthur showed how the second largest city in the Canton of Zurich interprets sustainable urban development: "A lot of inspiration, curiosity and interest in cooperation. We need all of this for successful innovations", Michael Künzle heralded the Swiss Green Economy Symposium (SGES).

Next on the agenda, representatives from business, science, politics and administration discussed how digitalization and visionary thinking can be used for sustainability. For example, it was shown how companies can use blockchain technology to operate more sustainably and what opportunities 5G offers - keyword CO2 reduction (see also a comparison by Stiftung Risikodialog under "Diverging risk assessments in the field of mobile communications"). The participants agreed that events such as the Swiss Green Economy Symposium are important for overcoming silo thinking and developing innovative ideas together.

Foreign production as a core problem

Climate change is having an above-average impact in Switzerland, which is characterised by its Alpine landscape: the average annual temperature has risen by 2 degrees Celsius since measurements began in 1864, more than twice as much as the global average. Greenhouse gas emissions in this country fell by 14 percent between 1990 and 2018. However, the target of reducing emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 will probably not be achieved (source: FOEN).

Moreover, Switzerland not only produces emissions domestically, but - through the import of goods - even higher ones abroad.

The Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2020, one of the first dialogue platforms after the lockdown, shed light on the urgent implementation of the European Union's so-called "Green Deal", certainly also on individual circular economy measures for Switzerland and the rest of the world. The circular economy is a core element in the portfolio of measures to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. However, it does not only consist of recycling cycles. Already at the panels in the morning of SGES 2020, representatives of the food production and waste management industries saw: Switzerland is far from having discovered the full potential of the circular economy for innovation and climate protection. Instead, common denominators were reached at individual thematic workshops in the afternoon to create innovative incentives for sustainable investments or to understand and optimise international environmental hotspots in the supply chain of Swiss companies. During the lockdown from March 2020 onwards, many Swiss producers were left sitting on their products unless they experienced supply bottlenecks.

Environmental hotspots in the supply chain

Greenhouse gas, biodiversity, water, air pollution, eutrophication footprint or overall environmental impact ... where should Swiss manufacturers start in all these overburdened areas? And what incentives are working? Today's economy is highly interconnected. Supply chains often span the entire globe. As a result, the environmental impacts caused by the production of goods are also distributed around the world. Often, the environmental impacts that occur in a company's supply chain are higher than those that occur at the site itself. Companies are therefore increasingly expected to look at their supply chains and create transparency about the impacts in the upstream stages of the value chain. To help companies do this, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), in close cooperation with the business community, has conducted a study that identifies the environmental hotspots in the supply chain of eight relevant Swiss industries. These are:

• Meat processing
• Chemical industry
• Mechanical Engineering
• Real estate and construction
• Health and social services
• Grocery store
• Trade with clothing, textiles & shoes
• Trade with household appliances

Based on the study, the "Environmental Atlas of Swiss Supply Chains" was created, in which the results of the study were presented graphically (see end of text). The results show the environmental impacts of the sectors with the associated supply chain, i.e. from the extraction of the required raw materials to the processing at upstream value-added stages to the direct suppliers.

The calculations were made with the aid of an economic input-output model extended to include environmental data. For each industry analysed, the Environmental Atlas also provides indications of where an environmentally sustainable level compatible with the planet's carrying capacity would lie. The Environmental Atlas also presents possible measures for designing and optimizing a sustainable supply chain.

Further highlights of the SGES 2020

After a short film on the topic of food waste and a networking break, the next item on the morning's agenda was: "Take off now with the circular economy. "In the presentations and panel discussions, participants used concrete examples, such as waste-to-energy plants, plastic recycling or cement production, to show how the circular economy can be an opportunity for growth. If implemented correctly, it can create new jobs and help reduce environmental pollution.

Before going to lunch, the participants of SGES 2020 once again showed their full attention. On stage - and later in personal conversations - they discussed how to find sustainable ways out of the crisis. It was clear, for example, how technology can be used to improve the healthcare system and how wood can sustainably complement other materials such as concrete on the construction site.

In the afternoon, the visitors split up. They chose between numerous innovation forums, in which topics as diverse as high-tech food, impact investing, waste disposal and autonomous vehicles could be discussed in depth. In the innovation forum on smart cities, the focus was first on pilot projects from Winterthur (e.g. climate simulation Lokstadt, data generation through pedestrian/bicycle traffic promotion campaign, electric collection vehicle). Due to the great interest in the topic of Smart Cities, the Innovation Forum additionally extended to the following day, which was opened by the Dutch Embassy and thus underlined the cooperation with the partner country.

The second day of the Smart Cities Innovation Forum provided a dialogue platform for the national associations Smart City Hub Switzerland and Smart City Alliance and valuable networking opportunities for their members, who shared concrete experiences with the attendees.

In addition, international initiatives such as the ITUUN's United for Smart Sustainable Cities and the World Bank's Global Smart City Partnership Program, as well as on-site export opportunities from Switzerland Global Enterprise and funding instruments from the SNSF, Innosuisse and SwissEnergy for municipalities were also discussed online. In smaller workshops, many smart city topics were discussed in greater depth and further developed in partnership.

As the last presentation of the main day, government councillor Martin Neukom showed, among other things, why solar facades will be standard on buildings in the future and why the future clearly does not belong to combustion engines. After an intensive but exciting and inspiring day, it was time to move on to the more informal programme: At the networking aperitif, the participants could once again review everything and discuss open points.