Dear Readers,
we always like to provide you with the newest information and best services. As some of you might know, GES has developed an environmental education programme which will be available after the Rio+20 conference. We will therefore redesign our platform and will offer you from July on additional a German version of our Magazine as well as an umbrella network for everyone interested in environmental subjects.To underline the idea of a network in a network, GES will change its name to meet4green and has already linked the name.

Come and join GES for the reoccurring, informal networking event for everyone interested in environmental issues and having a great time.

Green Drinks

Monday 4 June 2012, 19:00 onwards in the Hiltl Lounge, Sihlstrasse 28, 8001 Zürich (www.hiltl.ch).

NEW now also in Munich
Monday 21st of May 2012, 19.00 onwards in the Wirtshaus am Bavariapark, Theresienhöhe 15, 80339 München (www.wirtshaus-am-bavariapark.com)

The event is open to all GES members and friends and you are welcome to bring guests along too, but these will need to register on our events page.

The Club of Rome is launching a new campaign to get young people to brainstorm on how to change the course of history for a more sustainable society. Participants are asked to contribute a blog of 500 words to answer:

What sort of world are we heading for at the moment?
What kind of world do we want to live in?
What can we do to change course?
What could be the turning point?
What could be the real driver of fundamental change?

In many of our discussions with industry leaders, we have emphasised the need to install solar panels on the facades of new housing complexes and offices; we reiterated this more recently in last year’s Christmas letter to our members. We are now happy to announce that there has been a large step forward in this regard. The city of Zurich voted 167 to 0 in favour of renovating building envelopes in an energy-smart manner, rather than simply adhering to outdated building codes. And now an apartment building in Leimbach, on the outskirts of Zurich, is being renovated with a solar panel facade and will become the first 2000 Watt Society highrise in Switzerland by replacing concrete slabs with photovoltaic panels.

The next step is to change building codes so that indoor swimming pools that are heated by solar panels and heat pumps – and which act as a heat storage and then pump the heat back into the house, thereby reducing the need to heat the house with electricity and cutting down on the house’s overall energy consumption – are categorised as usable floor space rather than living space.

This is a great way to reduce energy and do something good for our health, too.

Dear Members,

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Thank you for your understanding, your GES Team

GES was pleased to organise a forum on sustainable mobility in cooperation with UBS Corporate Responsibility Management.

GES arranged for and invited the speakers from the transportation industry, all of whom are esteemed and experienced professionals: Wolfgang Mayrhuber, former chief executive of Deutsche Luftansa AG and head of the Corporate Responsibility Committee of the UBS Board of Directors, Stéphane Wettstein, managing director and CEO Bombardier Switzerland, and car designer and CEO of Rinspeed, Frank Rinderknecht, who also happens to be a GES member.

In addition to reflecting on the challenges facing their individual sectors in the coming years, the three speakers looked at the need to develop lightweight solutions across the entire transportation sector – vehicles, air transportation and even rail. Lighter, slimmer and more efficient forms of mobility are not only good for the environment, but also for the purse.

We at GES look forward to offering you more panel discussions and forums in the future, alongside our monthly Green Drinks event. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to benefit from our global network of high-profile speakers, many of whom are members of GES, and our many years experience organising events.

business_green_ch

We cannot ask others to operate efficiently and save energy if we do not set a good example ourselves. Therefore GES is proud to announce that from the end of April the hosting of our site will be switched to green.ch’s new energy-efficient data server in Lupfig Zurich-West.

Read more about one of the most energy-efficient data servers in Switzerland.

GES-Advisory Board:

Bertrand Piccard

Captain of the Breitling Orbiter; President and Pilot of the Solar Impulse Project. Solar Impulse is the first solar-powered airplane that will fly only with solar energy at night, as well as during the day. It has been developed to fly around the world in order to promote the cause of renewable energy.

Lord St. John of Bletso

Chairman of OCRA, President of the Friends of Television Trust for the Environment, Member of UK and EU sub-committees on a range of energy- and environment-related subjects, Director of Clean Tech Finance Ltd