These innovations protect the climate

Riding an e-bike instead of driving a car is not only good for your personal fitness, but also for the climate. E-bikes emit significantly less CO₂out than a car. However, the production of their batteries is a burden on the environment. The Glattbrugg-based company Libattion now wants to reduce this burden by giving used batteries a second life. Often, only individual cells in a battery are defective. Libattion uses the other, still intact cells to produce high-tech battery packs for industrial machines and stationary energy storage systems. "We need to move toward the circular economy and reuse valuable resources more than once"says Vincent Eckert, Executive Director of the Swiss Climate Foundation. "That's why we're supporting this project financially."

High-rise buildings save 50% of their energy

The development of a new glass facade for high-rise buildings is also supported. In summer, a lot of sunlight passes through conventional glass facades, heating up the office or living space. This must therefore be cooled with air conditioning or cooling ceilings. The new hybrid box-type windows with built-in solar shading from the Wollerau-based company HyWin prevent the heat from entering the office space. Highly efficient and compact heat exchangers in the bottom area of the box-type windows dissipate the heat and store it in the ground probe storage tank under the building. In winter, the building is heated by the HyWin with the stored heat. The HyWin thus takes over the cooling and heating function. This would massively reduce the energy consumption of a modern high-rise building, according to the funding application submitted by the SME to the Swiss Climate Foundation. After examining the potential, the foundation board decided to provide financial support for this project as well.

Insurance companies demand and promote more climate protection

The funding comes from the 27 partner companies of the Swiss Climate Foundation. Among them are insurance companies such as Allianz, AXA, Swiss Re, Vaudoise or Swiss Life. Several of these insurance companies have committed with the UN's "Net Zero Asset Alliance" to make their investment portfolios climate neutral by 2050. "To achieve this goal, we depend on new technologies for climate protection"says Martin Kaleja, CEO of Allianz Suisse Immobilien AG and member of the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Climate Foundation. "That's why, among other things, we are involved in the Swiss Climate Foundation, promoting innovations from Swiss and Liechtenstein SMEs."

Subsidies for replacement of heating systems and other measures

The foundation awards its funding twice a year to innovation projects with high potential for climate protection. But just as important are the so-called "standard measures" that SMEs implement to save energy in their own operations. For example, the foundation supports the replacement of oil heating systems with woodchip heating systems or the insulation of buildings. "After transportation, buildings are the second largest source of CO₂in Switzerland and Liechtenstein", says Managing Director Eckert. "A lot of SMEs could be doing a lot of CO₂and also save a lot of money by insulating their buildings better and heating them sustainably. They often shy away from the high investment costs, which is why we support them with donations of up to CHF 20,000 per standard measure".. SMEs can submit applications for standard measures on an ongoing basis. A list of the funded measures is available on the website of the Swiss Climate Foundation.

To the list of standard measures