Migros has been making a push to encourage electric cars on the Swiss market
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 200m2 Migros m-way store opens at rue de Lausanne 54 in Geneva today, near the Cornavin station, in the same historic registered building that houses the Brazilian Mission.
It’s the first electric mobility shop for Migros in French-speaking Switzerland, and to make sure the public beats a path to it the store is offering 25 percent off on everything except cars to customers who spend CHF1,000 or more.
M-way is the public face of Migros’s push to encourage green energy and the shop sells electric scooters, bikes but also electric cars and home charging stations plus all the other accoutrements of a life that includes electric vehicles.
Summer, Grimsel Pass, Alpmobil partnering with Migros for silent, less polluting electric cars
The company is extending its programme of charging stations, and it’s been active in working with Alpine resorts to introduce fleets of electric cars for tourists, to reduce pollution in the mountains.
Electric scooters soon for the Swiss post - Photo La Poste Suisse
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Post buildings and vehicles are about to shift firmly into ecology gear, with the group’s announcement that all of its letter delivery scooters will soon be electric and 20 of its premises will see photovoltaic systems installed on their rooftops.
The group has until now relied on hydroelectric and wind power.
The national postal system said Thursday 22 September that the moves are part of its “pro clima” programme effort to reduce CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons by 2013, compared to 2010, and to explore “other avenues” for energy sources without sacrificing economic viability.
The fleet of 7,500 scooters used for mail delivery will be replaced with electric models as each one wears out, so that by 2016 at the latest the entire fleet will be electric, using renewable energy sources.
The photovoltaic systems on its business premises will produce 6,000MWh a year, enough to cover 4 percent of Swiss Post’s electricity needs. The installation cost is CHF39 million, with the first system at Zurich-Muelligan, spanning 26,000m2, in an “advanced stage”.
Swiss Post’s CO2 reduction programme includes several other measures:
- Drivers of large delivery vehicles will be trained to use the Eco-drive method, already in use by PostBus drivers who have reduced their energy consumption by 3 percent.
- 140 gas-powered delivery and business vehicles are being converted to 100 percent biogas.
- Swiss Post is buying another 10 hybrid buses, which use 20-30 percent less energy than traditional buses.
- The group is setting up a number of sharing stations for employees, with electric cars and e-bikes.
Hiking near the Jungfraujoch (baby gets a backpack ride), August 2011
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – WWF, the environmental organization, and Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain, Migros, are joining forces to help children learn more about and appreciate the Swiss Alps. Mountainmania is a seven-week online quiz programme that kicks off 13 September, designed to teach children more about the Alps.
The two organizations are ready to hand out 50,000 diplomas to “mountain champions” who correctly complete the quiz.
“We need to take care of our Alps,” says WWF chief executive Hans-Peter Fricker. “We’ll only be able to do this if we instill a love for the mountains in children, starting as early as possible.”
Migros will be featuring its bio brands during this period, aiming to increase their sales by 10 percent during the seven weeks. The mountainmania albums that are sold will contribute CHF1 per album to WWF Alpine projects that include restoring areas of the Rhone and Rhine rivers to natural habitats for trout and beavers, and helping encourage the natural return of large carnivores to their Alpine habitats.
public transport, Geneva
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss public transport systems do more than simply carry more people for less fuel: they also get relatively high ecology marks for their overall impact on the environment.
A study ordered by the federal government, published in German 9 September, shows that while public transport is far ahead of road traffic at the moment in terms of pollution impact, much more needs to be done to ensure it stays well ahead because of the rapid rate of growth predicted for public transport, while cars are seeing improvements.
Public transport systems do well in terms of energy consumption, CO2 and atmospheric pollution but their good marks are lowered slightly by the increase in their traffic volume, higher speeds and their use of tunnels. The noise from trains, despite significant progress in recent years to reduce this, remains a problem.
The study, which also projected the impact of public transport over the next 20 years, has resulted in a decision by the Federal Council to redouble efforts to reduce noise, carbon emissions and to put a greater emphasis on susbtainable development where public transport is concerned.
WWF shines a light on the new bulbs, with old ones disappearing next year
Photo: WWF
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The WWF conservation group is giving us a helping hand four months before the shock sets in of discovering you can’t just replace your old light bulb with the same thing. Switzerland in the autumn of 2012 will bury its incandescent lights and replace them with LED ones that consume seven times less energy for the same amount of luminosity and other energy-efficient products.
Only 5 percent of the energy transformed by traditional incandescent lights goes into light. The rest simply dissipates as heat.
The Swiss consume 8.2 billion kilowatt hours a year and, says WWF, this could be cut in half “and thus avoiding the need for the Muehleberg nuclear power plant”.
WWF is publishing a guide this week to the pros and cons of the new lighting technology, called “Lumière” in French (available in French and German). It evaluates lighting products already on the market and compares their energy efficiency, using a visual stop-and-go system of red to green.
The group’s recommendations:
- buy LED, fluorescent or energy efficient lights, keeping in mind that while the latter are more expensive than today’s incandescent lights, their lifespan of 30,000 hours is twice that of our old bulbs
- when buying lighting systems, buy only systems that use the new lightbulbs/tubes (TopTen is a consumer product comparison site)
- avoid classic spots and halogen lamps, which are barely more efficient than incandescent lighting
- eco-halogen as well is lighting that makes little real improvement.
The brochure is available online and can also be consulted while shopping, via smartphone (“Guide WWF”)
Download French version of Factsheet on lights and lighting
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Supermarket chain Migros is doing its bit to make Switzerland more habitable for endangered hares, birds and plants by empowering Facebook users to help support TerraSuisse financially. Migros will supple enough seeds for an IP (integrated production) Suisse farmer working with the TerraSuisse programme to plant one square metre of wildflowers in 2012 for each Facebook user who “likes” the Terrasuisse FB page.
TerraSuisse is Migros’s sustainable development label. Farmers who apply integrated production methods, which are close to organic, make a commitment to provide small habitats, or safe spaces, within larger fields and orchards, for wild flora and fauna.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Are you a gas-burning road hog who loves festivals and concerts? You might have to change your ways this summer, with environment and sustainable development the buzz words for Swiss festivals.
Montreux Jazz Festival, keeping an eye on electricity consumption (photo: Odile Meylan)
Montreux Jazz Festival, which runs to 16 July, is the first of the big summer festivals and it provides details about its environmental efforts on its web site. The MJF notes that it’s been given the Green ‘n Clean award from Yourope, which awards festivals that actively work to protect their impact on the environment.
Montreux turns on the lights, turns down the consumption
Two measures the MJF cites are its work with Alpiq to provide very low consumption lighting for Le Jardin and its work with e-covoiturage to reduce the number of cars coming to the festival.
Walk! World’s largest sports event encourages us to use our legs
The giant multicultural, multi-event Gymnaestrada, which has brought 20,000 gymnasts from around the world to Lausanne this week, said loud and clear at the outset that its sustainable charter was being given top priority. Walk to the events, as a starting point, it tells visitors.
Green festivals: a balancing act (photo, Gymnaestrada, 11 July group events)
The event increased the population of Lausanne by 20 percent overnight, creating rubbish and other problems, the organizers notes.
It details its green efforts on a web page, which at the end puts the onus on you and meet to make the charter work: “Help us to make this idea of sustainable development a reality! On a daily basis, travel sensibly, eat healthily, sort your rubbish and switch the lights off after you. From now on, you can support the WG-2011 by calculating your carbon footprint and committing to reduce it!”
Gymnaestrada runs until 16 July.
Paleo pushes festival-goers to reflect on transport
The Paleo Festival in Nyon opens 19 July and it will pull in more than 230,000 people by the time it ends 24 July. Paleo sent out a newsletter Tuesday 12 July about its efforts to push concert-goers in the right direction: greener travel.
The CFF rail company offers 20 percent off to anyone who goes by train, and online car-sharing options work for both Switzerland and France. RouteRank, newly improved, is a great way to find the best options for getting from your place to Paleo, and to find out your environmental impact in the process.
St Prex Classics, small is beautiful but also gentler on the environment
A late summer festival, the newly renamed St Prex Classics, takes another approach to the environment by keeping things manageable: 10 concerts over two weekends in intimate surroundings in the lakeside old town (Vieux Bourg) of St Prex (two are in Morges, this year only). The concert, now in its fifth year, runs from 16-28 August.
Solar Impulse at Le Bourget airport in Paris, during the solar airplane's first European trip
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse, flying with only solar power, is en route to Switzerland from Paris. The plane left Le Bourget airport in France at 07:11 Sunday 3 July and is expected to arrive in Payerne at 19:00 this evening.
You can follow the flight live on www.solarimpulse.com and via the Smartphone app “Solar Impulse Inventing the Future”, available free on Appstore and Androïd Market.
On Twitter: @andreborschberg and @solarimpulse and on Facebook.
Heading home: Solar Impulse could be back in its hangar in Payerne by Friday night, after its big European flights trip, weather permitting
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse appears to have a window of opportunity Friday 1 July to fly home from the Le Bourget airshow in Paris, where it has been a centre of attention after making its first international flights using only solar power. The weather promises to be fine and sunny for the Paris-Payerne run but the flight director could decide at the last minute to make a change to the departure date or the flight plan.
The plane will take off in the morning from Paris-le Bourget and climb to a cruising altitude of 3,500 meters. The plane’s team has released the following details:
“The plane will fly east towards Troyes, will continue to Pontarlier and land at Payerne airfield at the end of the day.
Swiss green economy's fastest growing area is construction, says WWF (photo, ©2011 iStockphoto)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The green economy is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy in Switzerland, figures published Tuesday 21 June by WWF Switzerland show. The green economy accounts for turnover of CHF29 billion and 116,000 jobs. It is expected to add another 53,000 jobs by 2020, with turnover reaching CHF57b.
The figures, compared to 2001, show an annual growth rate of 6.3 percent, compared to 3.2 percent for the Swiss economy as a whole in the past 10 years, according to “Environmental markets in Switzerland – outlook for the economy and jobs”, a report issued by the WWF training centre. “This level of growth requires developing matching environmental competences in professional fields,” says Helene Sironi, head of continuing education for the WWF.
The numbers look even more impressive, says the organization, when federal figures from a study on the Cleantech economy are added: CHF49b in turnover and 260,000 jobs, or 6.2 percent of the Swiss labour market.
The fastest growing green area is environmental construction, at 47 percent a year. Sustainable mobility is one of the weaker areas, growing at only 3 percent a year.
Report summary in French, WWF (3.9MB pdf)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in Vaud have issued a sketch of the man, 55 to 60 years old, who sexually attacked a pre-teen in her apartment building in Gland 14 April, in an attempt to get more help from the public in finding him.
He was European in look, with light-coloured eyes, white-blond hair and spoke French, possibly with a slight, indistinguishable accent. He was wearing wireframed glasses. Height 170-180cm, weight average although with a slight belly.
He was seen driving away from the scene of the crime in a turquoise (green or blue) car with Geneva plates.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 021 644 4444 or contact the nearest police station.
The girl was accosted and lured inside by the man on a false pretext, then sexually molested in the apartment building.
Electric car at the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland, with
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The German government has confirmed it will subsidize its budding green car industry with up to euros 1 million for electric cars, in order to have one million of them on the road by 2020. Angela Merkel made the announcement Saturday in her weekly newscast.
Welt am Sonntag newspaper says Germany is also considering boosting sales by encouraging consumers through tax cuts and special parking areas that would be free for electric cars, among other measures.
The amount is smaller than the estimate mentioned a month ago by puregreencars, which says industry analysts expect the green car measures to create up to 30,000 jobs, noting that the government plans to buy electric cars for its ministries.
But Spiegel magagzine in late April wrote that the government appeared to be setting off on the wrong carbon foot, with electric cars often having a worse carbon footprint than others.
AlpIQ, the Swiss Alpine energy company, which backs several electric car projects, predicts that 15 percent of the Swiss car fleet will be electric by 2020. The Alpmobil resort cars project during the summer of 2010 near the Grimsel and Furka passes saw a fleet of 60 electric cars made available to tourists, for silent, pollution-free touring.
Source: EMPA, Switzerland / Overall ecobalance evaluation of making a cup of coffee with both capsule systems and various other methods. The fully automatic machine was assessed twice, using the maximum amount of coffee per cup (high) as well as a significantly smaller quantity (low).
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Love your coffee capsule but you want an environmentally friendly cup of the hot stuff? Fair trade is the route to green coffee, with agricultural methods outweighing final packaging, research at Empa in eastern Switzerland shows.
Empa is the Swiss federal materials research laboratory.
The group’s latest research shows that the choice of coffee has a “much stronger effect on the environmental friendliness than the capsule system, type of machine or method of preparation.”
Source: Int'l Coffee Organization
And good news for those who like more than a cup at a time: If in the case of filter coffee the whole pot is drunk and in the case of soluble coffee only as much water is boiled as necessary, “then these two methods of making a cup of coffee are by far the most environmentally friendly.” Roland Hischier, Empa’s ecobalance expert, also reports that “the good old espresso maker or caffettiera does just as well, on the condition that the same amount of coffee is used per cup as for filter coffee and that all the coffee is drunk – some consolation at least for true coffee fans.”
Hischier says that “a well-informed choice of coffee is in any case the best option for the environment,” Those who want to enjoy their drink while doing their bit for the environment should choose coffee with an ecological label, he notes.
The single largest factor for the ecobalance of a cup of coffee is environmental damage caused during growth of the coffee crop. “Depending on the amount of work done on the coffee plantation and the different levels of usage of farm machinery (i.e. diesel fuel for tractors), fertilizer and pesticides, environmental data for coffee varies significantly. In the worst case growing the coffee alone can represent about 70 percent of the environmental damage caused by cup of the drink, while in the best case this value drops to just about 1 percent.”
The capsules themselves vary significantly, with aluminum capsules getting the best rating, but only if they are recycled. A capsule of average coffee is responsible for about one-quarter of the environmental damage.
Hischier compared capsules to other systems.
“In the case of fully automatic machines the results depend strongly on how much coffee is used per cup. This is hardly a surprise given the level of influence that the coffee has on the overall ecobalance. When the maximum amount of average coffee is used the environmental effects of a fully automatic machine are even higher than the ‘best’ capsule systems. Since capsules of different types contain different amounts of coffee – between six and nine grams, a variation of 50 percent – the ranking list in this case showed slight variations compared to that for empty capsules. Capsules containing a lot of coffee fare worse, as one might expect.”
Murphy TV, 1951, at Science Museum in London, England
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland is extending tougher energy regulations to more home appliances, including television sets, and to fluorescent lighting and public lighting. The country’s energy label will be aligned with that of the European Union at the same time, Bern announced Friday 6 May.
The government has opened a public hearing on the new standards, with comments accepted until July 2011. Revisions to existing standards, to be finalized later in the year, will take these into consideration.
Switzerland previously tightened regulations for refrigerators and washing machines, in June 2009, but this will now cover a larger group of appliances to ensure they are more energy efficient, in part because of technical progress. These improvements have pushed most appliances into category A, up until now the label showing the highest level of energy efficiency. The EU has decided to create three additional categories, A+, A++ and A+++, to distinguish degrees of energy efficiency among appliances.
Switzerland will adopt the same standards. It will also realign the application of the standards, which are expected to go into effect in January 2012, to European law: in Switzerland, regulations apply to imports and manufacturing, but not at the sales point, whereas in Europe, energy efficient standards for home appliances apply also at the point of sale.
For a trip into the past, with TV sets: a history of television
Chocolate hedgehogs joined the party at the US Mission to celebrate the newly planted indigenous prairie
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The US Mission in Geneva 29 April is celebrating its second-place honour for a new award given by the US State Department, the first annual Greening Diplomacy Initiative (GDI) award, “which recognizes leadership and innovation in sustainability projects at State Department buildings around the world”, according to the Geneva office.
The award was announced a week after a ceremony in Geneva to mark the planting of an indigenous meadow, with a seed mix developed by canton Geneva’s conservation office, to replace the tidy lawn that has long decorated the borders of the Mission buildings.
Mongolia won top prize
The US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia took first place in the State Department contest that had 130 entries from diplomatic operations around the world. It was the first US diplomatic mission to comprehensively calculate its carbon footprint, tallying all carbon emissions of its embassy’s activities.
US Ambassador Betty E King inaugurates indigenous Geneva meadow at US Mission in Geneva
“The State Department has emphasized the importance of carbon emissions measurements because of the important benchmark they set and is encouraging other embassies to follow Ulaanbaatar’s lead,” the Geneva office says.
US Mission completes carbon footprint study
The US Mission in Geneva this week completed a carbon footprint study, working with Swiss Climate AG, an ISO certified auditor for carbon emissions. The results show that the Mission’s footprint per employee is half that of comparable organizations in Geneva, according to the US office.
Engineers from Switzerland's famed watchmaking area in the Jura have created this eco prototype, Consomini Evo, that has done more than 2,000km on a litre of petrol
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - All roads in Switzerland lead to Geneva starting today, for one of the biggest events on the Swiss calendar, the Geneva Motor Show.
Happily, compared to a few years ago, a growing number of car enthusiasts are willing to take advantage of good offers from the CFF rail company, and the roads are less congested than in the past.
The CFF is putting an extra 15 trains on for the show.
Some 70,000 people are expected to visit the car show, widely considered the most independent of the major auto shows because it takes place in a country with no major car manufacturers.
Iran has an electric car world premiere, the IEFCV Aryana 800, at the Geneva show
Expect Green: environmentally-minded drivers, once considered a fringe group, are now the target group for scores of new models.
The Green Pavilion this year features 17 world premieres, including some of the most unusual cars you can expect to see at the show.
Migros, which has been backing a number of electric motor projects recently, has a strong presence at the show. It announced Thursday morning 3 March that it is opening 45 new electric recharging stations in Switzerland, as part of its push to encourage electric motors.
Rinspeed's BamBoo
Swiss concept car company Rinspeed, noted for many years for James Bond-style flash cars, is showing green vehicles for the second year running, confirming the growing industry move away from guzzlers to planet-friendly vehicles. Its super-sophisticated waterproof electric urban beach buggy includes a foldup bicycle, but under the icing on the package are some sweet futuristic technical design features.
What to expect, how to find your way around the Geneva Motor Show
Where Palexpo, next to the airport, in Geneva
When Starting Thursday 3 March: 10:00-20:00 weekdays and 09:00-19:00 Saturday, Sunday. Closes 13 March.
Swiss retailer Migros proves that the Geneva Motor Show is about more than cars: electric bike El Moto goes up to 45kph and the Vectrix-VX1 is the world's first electric Maxi-Roller
How to get there By far the best option is the train if you’re from out of town, or public transport if you’re going from Geneva.
If you take the train, go to the top of the steps as you leave the CFF/SBB station and take bus number 5 or 28 to Palexpo (2 stops). The CFF Swiss train company offers special deals to encourage people to use public transport and bus passes are included: 10 percent reduction on the train ticket and discount on the car show. You can buy the combined tickets in most railway machines or order online.
If you’re taking the train only one way the special offers won’t do you any good, and you’ll need to buy a bus pass: note that you have to have the right change for the bus. Consider a CHF7 (after 09:00) or regular CHF10 day pass for public transport if you’re planning to see something of Geneva.
The Motor Show site provides a good “how to get here” page with tips for drivers and those taking public transport.
Entry fee: CHF16 for adults and CHF9 for children; group discounts; tickets can be ordered online.
Number of people who attend each year About 70,000 during the 10 day-event.
What you can expect to see More than 700 car models shown by 260 exhibitors, more than in 2010, from 31 countries. An added plus for many visitors: some of the longest legs in the world, on the young women who show the cars.
Highlights of the 2011 car show
Pagani Huayra, for those who like air
The show is huge and, for first-timers, confusing because there are simply so many cars. Some of the odd and special highlights to look out for this year:
Hyundai: a green routing for navigation as well as the traditional shortest and fastest route options
Ferrari is giving us a station wagon, the FF (four wheels, four seats) which bends the rules of what station wagons are all about
Carlsson is making just 25 of its ultra-sumptuous burgundy C25s, at about half a million euros each
Saab has a new hyrid PhoeniX that showcases technology we can expect from the Swedish company in the future, for the more down to Earth driver.
VW offers a retro car, with a new version of the much loved VW van once so popular with hippies.
Fiat‘s hugely popular 500 model arrives this year with an award-winning engine and a double-bubble top from designer Zagato,who always puts these on his special cars, including Ferraris and Aston Martins.
Rolls Royce, not to be outdone in the Green game, has a one-off 102EX Phantom Experimental Vehicle that carries 640kg of lithium batteries so the electric car can make it 120 km without recharging.
Green Party member's web site to combat what he says is false information in right-wing UDC mailing
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A web site has gone live in Switzerland to uncover fictive aspects of “facts” concerning foreigners in the country that were sent to Swiss households by the right-wing UDC political party. The UDC, or People’s Party, is behind a popular referendum, which will be put to the vote 28 November, to send foreigners back to their home countries if they are found guilty of a variety of crimes. Ce que le UDC vous cache, in French and German, presents 52 factual and statistical errors: a mix of manipulations, omissions and lies, says the site’s creator, Antonio Hodgers, a Green Party politician from Geneva.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – They don’t make autoroutes like they used to, and for sustainability fans, this is a good thing. The new 11 km stretch of four-lane divided highway in Weinland, the A4, was opened at noon Friday 22 October between Schaffhausen and Winterthur, near Zurich. It has two underpasses and an overpass for local fauna to get them safely across the road.
The most startling difference for drivers is that the road is 8 metres narrower than older, more familiar autoroutes. There are no emergency lanes, but pullover emergency stopping places have been created. Plants have been carefully selected and trees planted with a view to encouraging wildlife to stay in the area. And rainwater from the road will be collected by eight special installations that will treat them and return the water to nearby streams that have been left in their wild state.
Green go the Russians, oh!
Electric vehicles only, with parking in Sierre
Aminona's existing 3 towers (white) likely to see several more as part of new luxury resort project
Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The controversial CHF350 million resort complex that Russia’s Mirax company is planning to build in Aminona, near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, is suddenly looking greener than its original plans showed.
Swiss environmental groups in December 2009 filed appeals against the project to build a 2,500 resort with several towers and a five-star hotel plus 32 chalets.
WWF and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature said at the time that they “fear[ed] a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
Concerns focused particularly on the supply of drinking water and protecting the dry prairies in the region, which are considered to be of national importance.
Mirax announced plans in 2007 to build on the 60,000m2 stretch to the east of Crans-Montana.
Mirax’s emphasis has now shifted from luxury resort to luxurious and green: the company says it will invest CHF250 million in green technologies for the resort, reports Le Nouvelliste, Valais newspaper.
The total expected cost of the resort has risen to at least CHF600m, with Mirax saying it will be not just the most ecological resort in Valais, but in all of Switzerland.
Ikea’s grand opening, Geneva-Vernier store 15 September, follows years of wrangling
Ikea Vernier Wednesday morning, before the crowds hit the grand opening
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The grand opening breakfast Wednesday morning 15 September at Ikea in Vernier was just the right kind: copious, with a wide selection of choices. Copious because it accompanied, Swiss-style, numerous speakers who all started by naming and thanking individually each dignitary present.
A wide selection because this is, after all, Ikea. And if the blue and yellow everywhere, including of course Ambassador Per Thoeresson’s tie, wasn’t a clue that Ikea is Swedish at heart, the glass of Schnapps at 07:00, at the end of breakfast, was a giveaway.
Sweden's ambassador to Switzerland, Per Thoeresson
“For me, like any Swede, Ikea represents Swedish values, Swedish culture,” Thoeresson told several hundred early morning breakfast guests, who thanked Sweden’s “other ambassador”, the home furnishings giant which has become an institution for foreigners in Switzerland. “It’s no accident that Switzerland was chosen as the first location in Europe outside Sweden. Switzerland is in the middle of Europe, Sweden and Switzerland share many values—including a sense of design, of functionality.” He added that the two countries “have become a little closer” thanks to Ikea.
It wasn’t always clear this would be the case.
This is the eighth Ikea store in Switzerland, but the 10-year battle to open it prompted one Geneva politician to say over breakfast that “Ikea in Geneva at one point meant ‘obstruction’ but today it’s a good example of working together.” The commune of Vernier repeatedly refused to approve the project, saying it needed guarantees the store wasn’t giving: a major concern was the potential for traffic problems. Protestors complained about future pollution and the canton of Geneva and Vernier commune battled over the number of exits from the store.
Burying the hatchet: what Ikea will bring Vernier, Geneva
The commune finally accepted the project in October 2008, after Ikea agreed to numerous conditions, which increased the bill considerably, and construction moved ahead. Final cost: CHF109.4 million, when the attic area is included.
Opening day shows a store that had 7,000 applications for 300 jobs. Eighty percent of those hired are from canton Geneva and 40 percent from Vernier, making Ikea a key employer in the canton with Switzerland’s highest unemployment rate.
The 31,000m2 (attic included) store has a parking lot with 850 places, but it has made a serious effort to discourage shoppers’ use of private cars: it’s easy to reach using bicycle lanes and public transport: buses 6, 19, 23, 28, 57, Y and trams 14 and 16, train Regio R from Cornavin. If you’re buying furniture you can’t put on the bus, you have two relatively green options: home delivery and Mobilité natural gas rental vehicles.
Ikea is expected to bring the commune tax revenues of up to CHF800,000.
Ikea is Ikea is Ikea, but this is Geneva, where living space is at a premium
Inside the store, everything is familiar to anyone who has visited Ikea elsewhere. It is slightly smaller than the store in Aubonne and the line of merchandise is essentially the same, but the Vernier store caters to a slightly different population. “People in Geneva have a bit more money, but smaller living spaces,” one employee told visitors. The kitchen selection is larger and there are numerous clearly marked sections for people with apartments of 25, 35 or 50 square metres: small spaces.
The rare opportunity to see an Ikea store without customers charmed breakfast guests, but at 09:00 as the grand opening drew near the most impressive sight was scores of employees racing to finish shelves-stocking before the doors opened. And only one protestor showed up.
Ikea Vernier web site, with hours
TSR timeline of Ikea political battle, Vernier-Geneva
Ed. note: GenevaLunch will publish a photo gallery of the new store before it opened, late Wednesday. Watch for the update here!
Zero Emissios race three-wheeler
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Eight people, 11 wheels, four countries, 80 days and unmeasurable amounts of sunlight: add it up and you arrive at Zero, the name of the solar race around the world that left Geneva early Monday afternoon 16 August.
The group includes a jeep, a three-wheeled electric car, a motorbike and a scooter, all of which could be mass-marketed cheaply, say their teams of drivers.
Getting that point across to manufacturers in order to cut back sharply on motor pollution around the world is part of the rationale behind the race.
Zero Emissions race two-wheeler
Louis Palmer, Swiss pioneer of green technology who in 2007-08 drove a solar-powered car 54,000 km across 38 countries, was at the UN in Geneva to send off three of the four teams from South Korea, Australia, Switzerland and Germany.
The fourth crew, the Korean team, joined the others in Lausanne, after it had technical problems in the Swiss Alps over the weekend.
Palmer, who organized the race, told journalists that the race “is about showing realistic ways towards a cleaner and greener future for the planet and its people.” The drivers will be cooperating rather than competing: the race is against time rather than each other, to see if they can make it through 16 countries around the globe in 80 days.
Driving on $5 a day, around the world
Zerotracer in the countryside
The drivers will need to recharge their vehicles every 250 km, at a cost of about $5 a day, but they have already compensated for this by generating clean energy (solar, wind, tide-powerd) and putting it into their local power grids.
The two-person teams will be back in Geneva in January 2011 after covering 30,000 km.
Their journey will take them Geneva to Lausanne, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, then across Kazakhstan and Central Asia to Shanghai.
From China they will ship out to Vancouver, Canada.
Zero Emissions race jeep
The next leg of the journey will take them down the west coast of the US, across Mexico to Cancun, arriving on time for a United Nations climate change conference in late November 29.
From Mexico they will cross to Portugal and continue on through southern Europe.
Working with nature to balance the fuel budget
A petrol-powered backup vehicle will accompany them. It, too, has compensated for its fuel use, as have other fuel “costs”: emissions for bringing the cars to Geneva, shipping them overseas twice, putting the drivers up in hotels. Julianne Priskin, who is the race coordinator and environmental adviser, says she will be running daily tallies of these expenditures to ensure these energy costs are covered.
Zero Emissions race web site and current positions (continually updated)
Anacamptis pyramidalis, part of Cern's natural grounds
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has been given a “Nature & Economie” award by the Swiss organization of that name, for its role in encouraging biological diversity at its Meyrin site.
Some 38 percent of the 80 hectares at the Meyrin site, which is on the French-Swiss border, is given over to green areas. They include natural flowerbeds where rare plant species have developed over a number of years. Between 1,000 and 3,000 plants of 19 species of orchid flower in these areas every year, including several hundred of the bee orchid – the rare and protected species Ophrys Apifera.
Geneva, Switzerland (Genevalunch) - The Geneva Motor Show has come and gone, but it leaves in its wake a sense that environmentally friendly “green” cars finally matter to manufacturers.
An equal amount of spectator buzz surrounded the less glamorous green cars’ stands as the flashy Ferrari and Lamborghini displays. Many of the manufacturers used g/km CO2 emissions ratios (grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven) as their key advertising strategy, splashing the information across the hoods, doors, and roofs of their cars.
Bern, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland’s minister for energie and the environment, announced in an RSR interview over the weekend that he is backing a green bonus-malus system for consumers that will reward them for environmentally friendly behaviour while penalizing them for driving larger cars, for example.
