swisscleantech was very successful in 2018. Since December alone, 30 new members have been gained. The number of members was increased to 260 in 2018.

In the current year, the aim is to achieve even stronger membership growth. Contributing to this development are the urgency of efficient climate protection and the new, attractive membership conditions approved by the General Assembly.

Carsten Bopp (48), the newly elected swisscleantech President, Group CEO of PINI Swiss Engineers AG and member of the Board of Directors of Cargo sous terrain AG, joined the swisscleantech Board in March 2018.

"In view of the global challenge of climate change, entrepreneurial innovation plays a central role. The necessary change can only succeed together with the business community, and this requires the right framework conditions. Since its foundation ten years ago, swisscleantech has been working to achieve this. The political developments of recent months show: Climate protection can only be successful if business and politics work together," says Carsten Bopp, the new swisscleantech president.

Reinforcement of the Board of Management

At the swisscleantech General Assembly, Carsten Bopp, Group CEO of PINI Swiss Engineers AG, was elected President. Under his leadership, swisscleantech will make a pointed stand for a climate-friendly economy and the framework conditions required for this, the press release states. Carsten Bopp will be supported by the swisscleantech board, which will be strengthened with high-profile personalities from the business world.

Carsten Bopp replaces Matthias Bölke at the helm of swisscleantech. Matthias Bölke has chaired the association since 2016 and is now devoting himself to his new tasks at the Schneider Electric Group outside Switzerland.

With Daniel Eugster (46) and Franziska Barmettler (36), two experienced personalities have been elected to the board. Daniel Eugster is managing director and owner of Haustechnik Eugster in Arbon and an FDP cantonal councilor in Thurgau. Franziska Barmettler is Sustainability Manager at IKEA Switzerland and previously worked for Migros Genossenschafts-Bund and swisscleantech.

The two board members Fabian Etter, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elektro Etter AG, and Dr. Christina Würthner, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer at enersis, will in future be involved as Vice Presidents of swisscleantech.

Felix Gassmann, René Herzog, Lorenz Isler and Wolfgang Schwarzenbacher have left the Board of Directors. swisscleantech would like to thank them for their valuable commitment over many years, with which they have moved the association forward in these challenging times.

www.swisscleantech.ch

Rockwell Automation, a global leader focused on industrial automation and information solutions, has been honored by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies. This marks the eleventh consecutive year Rockwell Automation has been recognized, joining the prestigious list of 128 international companies that actively contribute to the betterment of society, train a competent and high-performing workforce, and cultivate a corporate culture focused on ethical action and purpose.

"Our reputation for integrity is built on the decisions we make every day, and I am proud that our commitment to ethics has once again been recognized by Ethisphere," said Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation. "Ethical practices and the value we place on them are among Rockwell Automation's business fundamentals and are maxims of our corporate culture. This also helps us attract great customers, employees and partners."

"Employees, investors and stakeholders today place a great deal of trust in companies to take a leading role on social issues. Companies that plan sustainably and also pursue a purpose-driven strategy are not only successful, but also enduring," explains Timothy Erblich, Chief Executive Officer of Ethisphere. "I congratulate the entire Rockwell Automation team for being well deserving of this award."

Rockwell Automation also announced today that its Corporate Responsibility Report 2018 is available now. The report explains the approach to corporate responsibility and sustainability, which includes the culture of integrity and ethical business practices. It also provides information on the company's approach to greater sustainability among customers, in the company and in society.

About Ethisphere Institute:

The Ethisphere® Institute is a global leader in identifying and maintaining standards for ethical business practices that enhance corporate character, market confidence and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and setting ethical baseline standards using data-driven information that enables companies to improve their standing and measure and improve internal culture. Ethisphere recognizes excellence by honoring the world's most ethical companies and supports industry professionals through the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). For more information about Ethisphere, visit. https://ethisphere.com

Menu and More AG is a pioneer in the field of sustainability: the dairy products used, the processed free-range eggs and the meat and poultry come exclusively from Switzerland. In addition, no air goods are used. The proportion of processed organic and/or fair trade products is currently over 20 percent. Seasonal menu components are clearly marked on the menu plan. Furthermore, "menuandmore" uses only healthy Swiss rapeseed oil and no products containing palm oil. This makes it the first completely palm oil-free catering provider in Switzerland.

"GREEN BRANDS" is an international seal of quality that recognizes companies that make a significant contribution to the protection of the environment, nature and the climate. "GREEN BRANDS" produce in an environmentally friendly manner, always act with regard to their own co-responsibility for the preservation of natural resources and are highly committed to the preservation and balance of nature as well as sustainability.

"For us, the label is a recognition of our corporate culture and an incentive to push our sustainability efforts even further. As a catering provider of lunch tables for children and young people, we bear a great responsibility that we take very seriously. We are delighted to be officially a 'GREEN BRAND'," explains Markus Daniel, Managing Director of Menu and More AG.

The commitment is exemplary

Even the cooling of the latest transport vehicles is supported by solar cells. The published sustainability reports, which transparently reflect the commitment also with regard to CSR, resource consumption, the level of emissions and waste as well as climate neutrality, have already received several awards and prizes. All these measures have convinced the "GREEN BRANDS" jury.

www.menuandmore.ch

How to become a "GREEN BRAND"?

Each nominated company, each brand must demonstrate its sustainable commitment. The questions range from the company's purpose to the application of environmental management and CSR to concrete information on resource consumption, emissions and waste. The level of awareness within the company itself, communication with customers and suppliers is also recorded. The aim of the autonomous and independent brand assessment organization is to use the sophisticated validation process to give politicians and the population in the EU and the respective country an indication of how companies handle the natural resources entrusted to them, i.e. how they live up to their responsibility for sustainability. Since 2011, the "GREEN BRANDS" label has been identifying sustainable brands, companies, and also products according to scientifically controlled criteria. It helps consumers to make ecologically oriented purchasing decisions.

www.green-brands.org/switzerland

An energy label such as the "Energy Guide Label" could also help to save more energy in this country. The potential for more energy efficiency would definitely be there, now shows a new study financed by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). "Households could save 20 to 30 percent more electricity than they do now," says study leader Prof. Massimo Filippini, adding that today there are "considerable inefficiencies" in the purchase and use of electrical household appliances. Together with Nina Boogen and Nilkanth Kumar from ETH Zurich and Dr. Julia Blasch from the Free University of Amsterdam, the ETH Zurich economist conducted a large survey on Swiss electricity consumption.

Using questionnaires, the team surveyed 8,400 households in the country to determine, among other things, which electrical appliances are used how intensively and how much electricity they actually consume. The latter was determined using data from nine participating electricity companies.

Based on this data, the researchers used statistical methods to calculate the energy efficiency of each household. They then benchmarked the households' electricity consumption against the estimated electricity consumption from a best-practice model. The economists determined the potential electricity savings of 20 to 30 percent from the inefficiency of the households measured against the best-practice model. Specifically, they found "22 percent structural inefficiency," such as that caused by power-hungry outdated appliances that last for years, and 11 percent "short-term inefficiency," which is when you leave an appliance in standby mode even though you could turn it off at any time.

"Buying household appliances can be economically complex," says Massimo Filippini, describing one of the reasons for today's inefficiencies. On the one hand, such decisions require a certain amount of energy knowledge: How much electricity does it take to heat water in a pressure stove compared to a saucepan with a lid on it? How much does a kilowatt hour of electricity cost? What are the costs of using an appliance? For example: How much does a wash cycle at 60 °C cost? In the survey, most people could not answer such questions correctly.

 Calculations that have it all

According to economist Massimo Filippini, another aspect is no less important: "In order to make informed energy-related purchasing decisions, a certain level of financial literacy is required; people must be able to perform an investment calculation when buying new appliances." After all, energy-efficient appliances have a handicap in the sales transaction: they usually look more expensive than they are, because the electricity costs they save year after year are not reflected in the purchase price. The energy label affixed to common appliances such as refrigerators, stoves, tumble dryers and ovens does indicate the expected annual electricity consumption, but in the physical unit of kilowatt hours. To find out the electricity costs and ultimately the total costs over the assumed lifetime of an appliance, you have to calculate them. And these calculations are tricky, as illustrated by a task from the study's questionnaire.

The following task had to be solved: Let's assume that there are two identical refrigerators in the store. The only difference between them is their price and electricity consumption: Model A costs 3300 Swiss francs and consumes 100 kWh of electricity per year, while Model B costs 2800 Swiss francs and consumes 200 kWh of electricity per year. Which refrigerator has the lower total cost after ten years if one kWh always costs 20 centimes? The correct answer to this question (model B) was given by just 30 percent of the respondents. This was despite the fact that the researchers had even provided the kilowatt-hour price, i.e. information that is missing from the energy label of the real appliances. In the real purchase of household appliances, the hurdle for correct cost estimates is therefore likely to be even higher.

The sobering conclusion of the study: Two thirds of consumers were unable to correctly calculate the total costs (purchase price plus energy costs for ten years) and thus correctly compare the two refrigerators from an economic perspective. Incidentally, the fact that model A consumes less electricity than model B and is therefore more ecologically sensible was a deliberate 'sleight of hand' on the part of the scientists: They wanted to ensure that the test subjects in the context of the survey did not make the simplistic assumption that energy-efficient appliances would be worthwhile over a long period of time (because the energy costs are correspondingly lower), but that they actually calculated the total costs reliably.

According to the Energy Strategy 2050, average per capita electricity consumption in Switzerland should be three percent lower by 2020 than in 2000. The target for 2035 is even more ambitious: average per capita electricity consumption should then be as much as 13 percent lower than in 2000. To achieve these targets, households can make a significant contribution.

Electricity declaration in monetary form promotes energy efficiency

The researchers subsequently wanted to find out how consumers could more successfully estimate the lifetime costs of household appliances. With subgroups of the household survey, they tested alternatives to the current calculation bases. ETH researcher Nina Boogen says of the results: "If people see the electricity consumption of household appliances in francs and centimes instead of in kilowatt hours, as is the case today, they make rational, well-informed purchasing decisions in favor of greater energy efficiency significantly more often." The proportion of correct answers then increased significantly. The use of an online calculator that allowed respondents to calculate the lifetime costs of electrical appliances also had a good effect. There was a slight improvement when respondents were given brief instructions on how to correctly calculate the abstract quantity "kilowatt hours".

 Energy label like in the USA?

From an energy policy perspective, the team of economists therefore believes it would make sense if manufacturers of household appliances were obliged in future to indicate the estimated annual electricity costs of refrigerators, tumble dryers, etc. in a clearly visible manner on product packaging. Switzerland could follow the example of the "Energy Guide Label" (US-FTC, 2017) in the USA. On this yellow label, the estimated annual electricity costs of an appliance are shown in bold black numbers on a scale that takes into account the regionally varying electricity prices. This measure would be relatively easy to implement, estimates Massimo Filippini. At the same time, it would have a long-term effect: "Once a household appliance is purchased, its energy efficiency often influences electricity consumption for years."

In order to further increase the important purchasing competence and also to promote general energy knowledge, the research team proposes further energy policy measures - from information brochures and campaigns to courses in schools and for consumers to mobile apps that help calculate the lifetime costs of household appliances. However, it is not up to the scientists to decide which of these measures will be implemented one day. The ball is now in the politicians' court.

The final report on the project "Energy efficiency, bounded rationality and energy-related financial literacy in the Swiss household sector" can be found at: https://www.aramis.admin.ch/Default.aspx?DocumentID=46444&Load=true

For information on the project, please contact Dr. Anne-Kathrin Faust, anne-kathrin.faust@bfe.admin.ch, head of the SFOE's Energy, Economy, Society research program.

For more technical papers on research, pilot, demonstration and lighthouse projects in the field of Energy-Economy-Society (EWG), please visit. www.bfe.admin.ch/CT/divers

World Wildlife Day on March 3 should not simply be about overfishing of the seas by industrial, but also illegal fishing, no, a new environmental program to be considered globally will soon be established.

A very urgent topic on the environmental agenda is also plastic waste in the world's oceans. The problem of littering the oceans with plastic, microplastics and lost fishery elements is one of the biggest environmental problems.

The plastic waste in the sea threatens marine animals and humans in the same measure and this several times. "The ocean landfill is getting bigger every day, every hour, every minute, and the situation of the marine habitat is deteriorating accordingly," says Fabienne McLellan, Head of International Cooperation at the marine conservation organization OceanCare, commenting on the significance of the challenge.

Marine animals mistake plastic for food or become entangled in plastic waste, usually fatally. The numbers are serious: hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, seals, turtles and even polar bears fall victim to plastic waste; the number of seabirds that die runs into the millions. As toxins are secreted in and around microplastics, fish, shellfish and other animals are contaminated with pollutants. This poisoned food from the sea also threatens human health at the end of the food chain.

Livelihood of all threatened 

But civilization's waste also threatens the livelihoods of coastal populations and residents of small island nations because the trash keeps tourists away and hinders fishing. "Burning, covering up, burying are not the solution. The question is whether we can manage quickly enough to bring about a shift away from single-use products in our consumption patterns and in the real economy. Policymakers must accelerate the framework for a progressive circular economy," McLellan urges. Nairobi will also discuss a new and binding international plastics agreement, which OceanCare had already advocated in advance.

Overfishing leads to poaching in the oceans

OceanCare is also concerned about a trend of the past years, which is named as a direct effect of the overfishing of the seas: poaching. Since the seas have been plundered on a large scale by industrial, but also illegal fishing, the nets of local fishermen are left empty more and more often. In their distress, they become perpetrators themselves and start poaching endangered turtles, dolphins and manatees. The poaching of marine animals is called "Aquatic Wild Meat." The number of illegally killed marine animals has increased rapidly worldwide. Aquatic Wild Meat is particularly prevalent in West Africa. OceanCare gets to the bottom of the main causes and addresses the still little-known problem at UNEA4.

OceanCare will attend the UNEA4 conference in Nairobi with three experts and will report on their experiences and - hopefully! - successes in an online blog. - successes: www.oceancare.org/blog

What would be more valuable precious metal or plastic? One thing is for sure: over 98 percent of nanoplastics are retained in sewage sludge. Researchers were able to prove this because they incorporated the precious metal palladium as a tracer in artificial miniature plastic.

However, a lot of microplastics literally end up in the environment. The researchers' innovative method therefore has great potential to track down the behavior of nanoplastics in technical systems and in the environment in other cases as well.

How much nanoplastic gets into the environment?

Tiny plastic particles in the order of 100 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter) are used in many products, for example to encapsulate colorants or fragrances or as additives in shampoos and cosmetics. Many of them end up directly in wastewater while the product is still in use. Together with other plastics, such as those from tire wear via road drainage, they end up in wastewater treatment plants. But until now, it has not really been possible to measure them there. Unlike larger particles (microplastics), they cannot simply be sifted out and weighed or counted. So - apart from model calculations - it was also not clear how much nanoplastic is retained in wastewater treatment plants and how much of it ends up in the environment.

Now has

n: To this end, they have produced plastic particles in whose core they have incorporated the precious metal palladium. This can be analyzed relatively easily using standard methods. In their paper published today in the journal nature nanotechnology, the researchers show how they used it to successfully study the behavior of nanoplastics in the activated sludge process of a wastewater treatment plant on a laboratory scale.

According to project manager Denise Mitrano, the nanoplastic particles are bound very quickly to the sewage sludge flocs; in the end, the elimination is over 98%. "So as long as the sewage sludge is not taken to the fields, but incinerated as it is in Switzerland, very little nanoplastics end up in the environment," Mitrano says.

That is a positive finding. Still, Mitrano is clear: "We need to know much more about the behavior of nanoplastics. Even if only a small percentage ends up in the waters, it can add up to higher concentrations downstream." She now hopes that her method with trackable particles will quickly lead to new findings. Because the palladium is securely bound inside the nanoplastic, she says, it would even be possible to track whether the specially produced particles are ingested by organisms, and controlled ecotoxicity tests could be conducted. Several projects using the labeled particles are already underway, including a joint project between Eawag and Zurich Water Supply on the retention of nanoplastics in drinking water treatment.

www.eawag.ch

Superfoods are foods, especially fruits and vegetables, which have higher health benefits than other foods due to their nutrient content.

Often, much-praised superfoods come from faraway countries. There is something mythical and unknown about them. The hint of exoticism makes us believe that superfoods from far away are significantly more valuable than local foods. However, this is not the case: plants that meet the definition of superfoods also grow in local gardens and at Swiss producers.

Superfood from the balcony

The superfood trend continues. Everywhere, foods with great ingredients for health are advertised. Often these have come a long way and have exotic names. There are also plants with super properties in our nurseries. And the best thing is that you can grow them yourself - often even on your balcony.

Superfoods are supposed to help with weight loss, maintain a youthful appearance and, in any case, promote health. Foods from faraway countries with sounding names are therefore highly
in the course. Yet there are so many healthy plants right on our doorstep. Homegrown fruits and vegetables are still the best for a balanced diet.

Good things are so close...
Swiss garden centers and nurseries carry a large selection of native, edible plants. Many of them are considered superfoods and are offered as seedlings or seeds. Even those who do not have a garden can cultivate healthy vegetables and fruit as well as delicious herbs on their balcony or terrace. From March, for example, it is already time to sow onions, spinach or radishes.

Starting in April, we start with various cabbage and lettuce seedlings. By the way, spring cabbage is one of the vegetables richest in calcium. Good to know, because calcium is mainly needed for building and maintaining healthy bones and teeth.

Finally, in May, when the icemen are over, seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, melons and the like, which require warmth, may be planted in the bed without protection from the cold. Whether vegetables like
Broccoli, cicorino rosso and hot peppers or herbs such as oregano, parsley and basil, a whole range of vegetable superheroes can be successfully grown yourself on your own balcony, even without much knowledge.

Low maintenance woody plants
Currently, especially popular are the bush blueberries. Their culture is very simple. And the berries are, among other things, a popular household remedy for diarrhea. Responsible for this effect are soluble dietary fibers, called pectin. The popular blueberries are also rich in vitamin C, which helps with iron absorption and strengthens the immune system. Even small trees like apple, plum or apricot are possible on the balcony and terrace.

Growing plants is a lot of fun - and what you have planted yourself simply tastes best by far.

What applies to food in general also applies to superfoods: one food alone never contains all vital ingredients. Accordingly, superfoods do not replace a varied, versatile diet, but they can complement it wonderfully.

http://www.jardinsuisse.ch

Tips and tricks from the specialist company
Thanks to expert advice in Swiss nurseries, the cultivation of such superfoods can be
plants succeed even on the smallest balcony. At the specialist company, gardening enthusiasts learn which
plant thrives best in what conditions, how much water and fertilizer it needs and
when it can be grown or harvested. You can also find on the Internet: At
www.superfood-pflanzen.ch there is a lot of useful information about vegetables, herbs, fruit
and berries that are considered superfoods and what properties make these plants special.
In addition, there are recommendations for sowing and planting dates, as well as harvest times. In a
zip code search field can be used to find the nearest recommended supplier of superfood plants in the
Display in the blink of an eye.

Stunt kites consist only of a shell that is inflated like a balloon. Once the target altitude is reached, the kites prance in the wind and tug on the lightweight ropes that keep them from flying away. The pulling force is converted into rotation on the ground. The rotary motion is transferred to a generator, which then produces electricity.

So far only on a small scale

The researchers call their development "Airborne Wind Energy System" (AWES), which has so far only been realized on a small scale - when folded up, the envelope, including the traction cables, fits into a not-too-large backpack. Towers of this height are not economically feasible, says aerospace engineer Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga, who co-developed AWES with Ricardo Borobia Moreno of the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Torrejón de Ardoz.

Unlike conventional wind turbines, the scientists promise that the landscape will hardly be disturbed because the thin tethers are almost invisible. Because the material costs are also low, stunt kites would produce electricity much more cheaply than systems that stand on the ground.

The development of kite-based wind generators is supported by the European Commission and private companies, including Google.

Measurement devices and sensors on board

In order to build larger systems that generate appreciable amounts of electricity, the researchers have equipped a stunt kite with numerous measuring devices and sensors. Among other things, they record the kite's speed, the angles it takes as it dances in the wind, its position changes and the force with which it pulls on its tethers. This data is fed into a computer program that does most of the work in constructing a large installation.

Why is the "LéXPLORE" project important for environmental research? "Lakes act beyond national boundaries as sensitive early warning signals of environmental change," says aquatic physicist and member of the Eawag Directorate Johny Wüest, who initiated the "LéXPLORE" project together with his colleague Bas Ibelings of the University of Geneva.

Interpert sea life

Water for drinking and irrigation; habitat for fish, plants and small animals; recreational space for us: lakes are unique for humans and nature. But these fragile ecosystems are under pressure. In addition to changes in land use and inputs of nutrients and pollutants, climate change is also affecting the lakes in our Alpine regions: Because lake water is continuously warming, lake stratification is increasing and the composition of plankton is changing. For example, researchers are concerned that blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) will proliferate in the future and affect drinking water and fisheries.

The research team now wants to investigate such changes and their scientific background with the help of "LéXPLORE". "This platform is the world's most modern floating research station on a lake," says Natacha Pasche, limnologist and project manager at EPFL. By 2026, the research station will be in operation near Pully (VD), recording hourly, seasonal and long-term changes. The project team plans to collaborate with the lake's users: Professional fishermen, shipping, nature conservation and authorities as well as researchers and other interested parties should be able to use data and new findings immediately.

Technical feat

After the researchers had put the platform through its paces in the Bouveret canal in December 2018, it was anchored in the lake yesterday. "It wasn't easy," emphasizes Natacha Pasche, because the moorings are up to 140 meters deep. Over the next few months, all the measuring instruments and dozens of sensors will be installed. A weather station will register temperatures and winds on a daily basis, sensors will record current speeds as well as light, turbulence, oxygen, carbon dioxide, various algae groups and diverse natural and artificial substances. "It should take a while before everything is working properly," Pasche says. "But we can't wait to finally start taking measurements and unlock the lake's secrets."

www.eawag.ch

By 2025, nearly 1.6 million e-cars will be produced in Germany, accounting for almost 30 percent of total domestic vehicle production. From this point on, suppliers can expect a noticeable shift in value creation from conventional to electrified drives. These are the findings of the study "Electromobility Strategies of Automobile Manufacturers" by the automotive supplier network AMZ http://amz-sachsen.de and the Chemnitz Automotive Institute (CATI) http://cati.institute .

30 percent by 2025

The AMZ and CATI analysts have examined the strategies and product plans of Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Daimler, BMW, Opel and Ford. They show the models and unit numbers planned up to 2025, the planned development of the plant locations building e-vehicles or producing e-components, and other technological trends. On this basis, production of around 1.6 million e-cars in Germany is forecast for 2025. With total domestic production remaining roughly at today's level of around 5.6 million cars per year, the share of e-cars will rise to just under 30 percent. Today, it is well below five percent.

"If the export ratio remains as high as it is today - 77 percent of passenger cars produced in Germany are exported - fully electric passenger cars can be expected to account for around ten percent of new registrations on the domestic market at that time. Today, the figure is one percent. For this expected market penetration, the necessary infrastructures must also be provided," warn CATI board member Werner Olle and AMZ manager Dirk Vogel.

Growth in Saxony

The study forecasts different results for Saxony in terms of production figures. "Unlike the national average, the volume of vehicles produced in Saxony in 2025 will grow by around 15 percent compared with 2017, from 740,000 today to 850,000 in the future. The share of all-electric vehicles will reach an order of magnitude of 40 to 45 percent and will thus be considerably higher than the national average. Almost one in four all-electric vehicles manufactured in Germany would therefore come from Saxony in 2025," said Olle.

These forecasts are based on the transformation of the VW plant in Zwickau into a pure e-vehicle production site for several brands and an associated increase in capacity, as well as the plant expansion at BMW Leipzig, which will also result in an increase in capacity. In addition, the construction of an e-vehicle is also planned at Porsche Leipzig.

"For the supplier industry, this means that it must now, at the latest, prepare for the rapidly growing production volume of battery electric vehicles in Germany and define its strategic orientation for the next five to ten years on the basis of the associated changes in value creation structures. This applies not only to activities in Germany, but to an even greater extent to China as the world's leading market for the modern automotive industry," summarize Olle and Vogel.

The initiative launched by Swiss Sustainable Finance is taking shape: More than 140 asset managers, asset owners, wealth managers and wealth service providers from around the world, representing USD 6.8 trillion worth of investor assets, have joined forces to call on index providers to use controversial arms[1] to be removed from the common indexes.

In an open letter also published today in the Financial Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Le Temps, the signatories addressed representatives of FTSE Russell, Morningstar, MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Indices and STOXX, calling on index providers to act.

Investments in companies related to controversial weapons already violate some national regulations and international conventions. However, mainstream indices still take them into account. For active investors, who exclude them themselves, this means an additional tracking error compared to standard benchmarks and additional costs. Passive investors, on the other hand, usually have no choice, as the overwhelming majority of strategies track traditional indices without exclusions.

As a result, today investors using the benchmarks of the major suppliers are contributing to the financing of companies involved in the manufacture of controversial weapons.

Clean Portfolios: The New Normal
Sabine Döbeli, CEO of Swiss Sustainable Finance, explains: "Aligning investor portfolios with established values and standards is becoming the new normal for pension funds and other institutional investors. The fact that our initiative has been able to gain the support of such a large number of organizations is a strong signal to index providers, and we believe it is a logical consequence to reflect this demand in global indices."

Eric Borremans, Head of ESG at Pictet Asset Management says, "We believe that funding should be less readily available to controversial arms manufacturers in line with international conventions, best investment practice and public opinion. Indexes serve as the basis for many active and passive investment products; we believe that controversial arms manufacturers should be excluded by default."

Peter Damgaard Jensen, CEO of PKA A/S says: "For us as responsible investors representing more than 300,000 pension savers, controversial weapons are unacceptable and therefore excluded from all our investments. Many index product providers do not share this principle, which makes it difficult for other investors to ensure that they are not contributing to the financing of controversial weapons manufacturers.

By joining with other investors from around the world, hopefully we can get this message across and get index providers to exclude controversial weapons from mainstream indexes once and for all."

You can find more information on the website of Swiss Sustainable Finance www.sustainablefinance.ch

^[1] Such weapons-which include cluster munitions, antipersonnel mines, nuclear weapons produced in countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and biological and chemical weapons-can cause indiscriminate and disproportionate suffering. International conventions outlaw or restrict the use of such weapons

In recent years, various projects in the field of circular economy have emerged in Switzerland. Existing large companies and young startups present creative solutions for various industries. The task now is to bring together these numerous activities and players, to exploit synergies and to give new impetus to the circular economy in Switzerland.

"Circular Economy Switzerland" was launched on February 5, 2019 in Basel. Various players - among others ecos, Migros, YODEL, CircularHub form the platform. CE2 is as well a significant part "of it". CE2 (Circular Economy Entrepreneurs) is a larger association for the circular economy in Switzerland.

CE2 (Circular Economy Entrepreneurs)

On June 27, 2019, the first conference under this name will take place in Langenthal. With a series of events and projects, the movement aims to "Circular Economy Switzerland" give a boost to the topic of the circular economy in Switzerland, network the key players and put the topic on the political agenda.

Swiss Economic Forum involved

This is intended to bring together various players in the circular economy and help the sustainable economic model hirland achieve a breakthrough.

In addition to the Swiss Economic Forum, other Swiss organizations such as Impact Hub, Stiftung Pusch, sanu durabilitas, etc. are behind "Circular Economy Switzerland". The projects are supported by the MAVA Foundation and Engagement Migros.

Over the next few weeks, we will be publishing information and background information on the topic of the circular economy here on an ongoing basis. Find out exactly what the economic model aims to do, how its goals can be achieved and which approaches are already being implemented today. The first CE2 conference will take place in Langenthal on June 27, 2019.

www.circular-economy-switzerland.ch