Suva means 100 years of social partnership. 100 years ago, Europe was in the midst of the First World War and Switzerland was on the verge of a nationwide general strike. In this explosive socio-political environment, something substantial was created in Switzerland: employers, employees and the federal government jointly created the accident insurance company Suva.

It started operations in Lucerne on April 1, 1918. "With that, something succeeded that has endured to this day," said Gabriele Gendotti, President of the Suva Council, at the media conference to mark Suva's 100th anniversary. Then as now, the social partners, together with the federal government, determine Suva's fate and work out viable solutions together.

Compromises instead of maximum requirements

100 years of social partnership and the improvements in occupational safety that have been achieved as a result were the focus of Suva's anniversary event at the railroad company BLS. The social partners also justified Suva's current success with the equal composition of the Suva Council with 16 employer and employee representatives each and 8 representatives of the Confederation. Kurt Gfeller, Vice President of the Suva Council and Vice Director of the Swiss Trade Association, and Nico Lutz, member of the Suva Council Committee and member of the management of the Unia trade union, often do not have the same hay in everyday political life. But on the Suva Council, the two work together as bridge builders between employers and employees. "Everyone is aware that maximum demands do not lead to the goal at an insurance company like Suva. Compromises and concessions get us a lot further," said Kurt Gfeller.

Those affected become participants

The two Suva councillors also agreed that occupational safety was in the interests of both representatives, even if there were definitely different positions on implementation. Nevertheless: "Employees have a direct self-interest in comprehensive prevention work, a high level of occupational safety and extended health protection," said Lutz. To this end, he said, Suva has a captivating approach by turning those affected into participants. "Through the participation of the trade unions in numerous Suva expert committees, in the Suva Council and also in the Suva Council Committee, which is similar to the board of directors, the concerns and the views of the employees flow in directly."

The prevention efforts in occupational safety ultimately also served to protect the company. "As soon as an accident occurs in a business, every company owner is glad to have solid insurance," Gfeller explains. Whereas in the past a serious accident meant ruin for the employee, today - without insurance - it would bankrupt many business owners. After all, in order to cover the costs of a serious accident, it would take the premium contributions of up to 2,500 insured persons.

Together for success

Felix Weber, Chairman of the Executive Board of Suva, showed that the enforcement of occupational safety has not always been easy over the last 100 years. "In contrast to the past, however, the understanding has long since prevailed today that employees as well as employers must bear their responsibility in prevention and occupational safety." As an example, he cited the "Vital Rules" for high-risk occupational groups, which exist for both employers and employees. Likewise, in the rehabilitation and reintegration of accident victims, it is the cooperation of all the parties involved that brings success.

This was the point of departure for Peter Fankhauser, member of the management board of BLS. On behalf of the 128,000 or so companies insured with Suva today, he showed where the challenges in occupational safety lie today and what responsibility the companies and, in particular, the managers have in this regard. BLS, which has been insured with Suva for 100 years, is currently renovating and modernizing its railroad workshop in Spiez. In the process, it attaches great importance to safe workplace design.

Financially healthy

Since the mid-1980s, Suva has recorded more leisure-time accidents than occupational accidents. CEO Felix Weber is convinced: "No matter how society develops, we will need protection. Suva has done this successfully over the past 100 years." Today, he says, the company stands on healthy legs. Responsible for this, he said, is the model and foundation Suva was given when it was founded. "And it owes it to all the employees, associations and unions, as well as companies, whose efforts and innovations have made the world of work and leisure safer."

On the website suva.ch/100years the history of Suva is presented on the website. In addition, Suva continuously supplements the website with current news about the anniversary year.

Bisnode's succession study underscores a critical trend: those who cannot find a successor often have to liquidate their company. This is currently the case for around 30 percent of companies. Smaller companies in particular have major succession problems, according to the Bisnode report. Basically, according to Bisnode's figures, companies with up to ten employees are more affected than companies with over 50 employees.

The issue of succession is of great economic importance. If the succession fails, know-how, jobs and tax revenues are lost.

Large gaps for smaller companies

According to the release, half a million jobs are affected by succession. Only seven percent had an open succession, while the figure for small companies was over 13 percent. Larger companies are often managed with a longer-term plan than micro-enterprises, which is why succession is also addressed earlier, Bisnode writes in explanation.

IT sector slightly below average

Companies in the IT sector are slightly below the average for all sectors when it comes to succession issues, the figures show. In the IT services sector, 9.2 percent of companies and 8.5 percent in the telecommunications sector have no succession plan.

The two areas of business services, which Bisnode does not describe in detail, and recruitment services each account for around twelve percent.

Management buy-out lasts over three years

One of the most common types of company transfer in Switzerland is still within the family: in 41 percent of cases, the company is sold to a family member (FBO). Management buy-in (MBI), i.e. sale to a new, external management team, is almost as common (40 percent). In Switzerland, 19 percent of companies are bought by the existing management (management buy-out, MBO).

According to Bisnode, it takes more than six years to complete an FBO and 3.3 years for a management buyout. The fastest way is to sell the company to an external owner. An MBI takes only 1.6 years on average.

Bisnode's B2C and B2B databases, which contain all companies entered in the Swiss commercial register, served as the basis for the study. All active companies formed the basis; a company has - for the purpose of the study - an open succession plan if the owners (sole proprietors) registered in the commercial register or the shareholders (companies) or board members (stock corporations) are 60 or more years old. The age limit was chosen because a handover to the next generation would take five years. (mm)

Using a new potency analysis, Wegmüller wants to systematically identify the potential for improvement in the entire packaging and shipping chain. This can be done by referring to a sophisticated checklist. Away from the unit price, towards the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) consideration. This is also worthwhile in the packaging sector. However, other points should also be taken into account. The idea is to develop packaging solutions only after the entire requirements of the shipping process are known. So the process starts with the end customer's requirements and ends with the development of the customer's product.

Potential lies dormant
Marc Wegmüller, Managing Director of Switzerland's largest and oldest export packer: "Many companies have potential in the packaging and shipping area because these are not part of the core area. We uncover this potential and suggest solutions on how to get more out of it." An initial analysis is free of charge. Wegmüller also accompanies the implementation of concrete solutions.

Success stories
Wegmüller has already implemented many solutions for customers. This has resulted in lean packaging and shipping processes. For example, a customer used to place an order via the purchasing department, which was time-consuming. Today, he orders leanly and quickly via an electronic Kanban system such as SFS Pushlog or via a smartphone app. Another customer occupied a lot of storage space with packaging in a prime location. This resulted in high rental costs and high handling and search efforts. Wegmüller now delivers just-in-time smallest batch sizes with only a daily requirement. This is possible thanks to fast "lean" production with evening shifts and the company's own transport fleet with tour traffic.

Wegmüller will be at EMPACK2018 on April 11 and 12, 2018 at Messe Zürich. Experience Wegmüller's potential analysis at booth F23. www.wegmueller-attikon.ch

Bath ducks live in humid and warm areas. These are ideal conditions for the growth of biofilms of bacteria and fungi, for example on shower curtains or behind boxes. This is especially true for rubber ducks and other toys used for bathing. Inside the soft toys, lush carpets of bacteria and fungi grow. If a child then squeezes its toy, it is not uncommon for a brown broth to spray out of it. A group of researchers from Eawag, ETH Zurich and Illinois University has now investigated the factors that promote this growth and the types of microorganisms present.

Stubborn hospital germs

For this purpose, the scientists collected used bath toys and characterized the biofilms of bacteria and fungi on the inside. In parallel, they also conducted tests with new rubber ducks. For eleven weeks, they exposed them to conditions that would be realistic in a household - some as a control group only in clean drinking water and some in used bath water together with factors such as soap residues, dirt and sweat, but also bacteria from the human body. Subsequently, all ducklings were cut open and examined in the laboratory. The results do not sound appetizing: between 5 million and 75 million cells per square centimeter were found on the plastic surfaces. There were large differences in the composition of the biofilm communities, especially in the bath ducks used under real conditions, but also between the control groups. Various fungi were found on 60% of the real used and on all control ducks used in dirty water. In 80% of all ducklings, the researchers found representatives of potentially pathogenic bacteria, including Legionella or the rod-shaped bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, known as persistent hospital germs.

The researchers then investigated the causes of the abundant biofilms: First, they examined the tap water. This usually has such low nutrient concentrations that bacteria can only grow minimally. But the ducklings themselves provide a source of nutrients. That's because a lot of organic carbon is released from the soft plastic material - often low-quality polymers. Other important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, but also additional bacteria, enter the tub during bathing, e.g. from the bather's body, from dirt brought in, or from care products such as shampoos and creams.

Source of gastrointestinal infections?

The lead author of the study is microbiologist Lisa Neu. In her doctoral thesis, she looks - not only at the example of rubber ducks - at how biofilms form on plastic and how the materials influence microbial processes in drinking water. Her supervisor, Frederik Hammes, is not surprised by the results: "There are many forums and blogs on the Internet about dirty bathing ducks, but they have hardly been studied scientifically so far." Yet, Hammes says, the toys are extremely exciting research objects, "because they form the interface between drinking water, plastics, external contaminants and susceptible end users." By vulnerable or sensitive users, Hammes is referring to (young) children, who also like to splash themselves with the broth from the ducklings. "That can boost the immune system. Then it's positive," the researcher says, "but it can also lead to inflammation of the eyes and ears, or gastrointestinal infections."

So it's better not to have any more bath toys in the tub? After each use clean elaborately? Or, as recommended on the Internet, stop the splashing fun before the first use and tape the hole shut? Researcher Hammes sees another way forward: stricter regulations for the polymers used for the duckies. After all, that worked for problematic chemicals, now the release of carbon would have to be taken into account, as is already being done today in tests for plastic drinking water pipes.

The study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation as part of a project on bacterial growth in domestic installations (project 163366; Microbi-Homes).

www.eawag.ch

www.msstate.edu

Construction costs, an eternal cliché? Every year, 400,000 new apartments are needed in Germany. In 2017, just 300,000 new apartments were completed. There are many reasons why the number of new buildings is too low. The rapid rise in construction costs in recent years could be one of them. But why are costs skyrocketing? Are the energy standards for new buildings, which have been required by law since 2014 and were added to again in 2016 (EnEV 2016), the main reason, as many players in the construction industry claim? A new report by the Institute for Technical Building Equipment commissioned by the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) comes to a different conclusion.

On January 2, 2018, the marginal low-pressure system Burglind moved from Scotland into the North Sea towards Denmark. Its wind field led to widespread gale-force winds in Switzerland and elsewhere on January 3. The entire country was affected, with the exception of the southern side of the Alps. On the Central Plateau, gust peaks of 80 to 100 km/h were recorded even at low altitudes, at exposed locations 150 to 170 km/h (St. Chrischona BS, Üetliberg ZH, Bantiger BE).

In the Jura, wind speeds of up to 184 km/h were measured (Chasseral BE). However, the highest gust peaks were recorded at stations in the foothills of the Alps and in the Alps, such as Gütsch ob Andermatt UR with 201 km/h and Pilatus (NW / OW) with 195 km/h, which corresponds to a new station record. The storm winds caused damage in many places: buildings were partially or completely covered, chimneys damaged, parts of facades torn off, scaffolding, fences and railroad gates twisted, squares and parking lots destroyed by flying objects, and finally trees fell onto roofs; numerous small buildings in Swiss communities were completely destroyed - such as informed the VKG, the umbrella organization of cantonal building insurers.

High damage

On January 4, the renewed passage of a marginal low ("Christine") again caused squalls in Switzerland, which, however, were weaker with a maximum of 150 km/h (Titlis OW). This was followed by a situation of congestion with abundant precipitation and above 2000 m with a lot of fresh snow. In 18 registered cantons so far, the approximately 39,000 reported damages to buildings added up to an amount of about CHF 107 million. However, the total damage is still far below the damage caused by the storm "Lothar" in December 1999.

(Source: vkg.ch/MeteoSwitzerland)

swisscleantech is very much looking forward to working with the newly elected board members. Core objectives for the coming years are the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, the enforcement of a fossil-free Switzerland after 2050 and a secure power supply as well as the support of innovative business models.

New Executive Board members from cross-sector areas

Carsten Bopp is the owner of Bopp Consulting GmbH, a consulting firm in the fields of general management, human resources, and marketing and communications. As former President of the Board at Bombardier and member of the Board at House of Logistics & Mobility (HOLM), Carsten Bopp has long been committed to efficient, safe and environmentally friendly mobility.

Fabian Etter is a member of the board of directors of Elektro Etter AG. The family business specializes in the planning, installation and sale of electrical systems. The focus is on energy efficiency and the promotion of renewable energies. Operationally, he works at Swisscom as Head of Innovation for Workspace & Collaboration.

Lorenz Isler first worked as Sustainability Manager at Microsoft and has held the same position at IKEA Switzerland since 2013. The business economist from the University of St. Gallen also puts his professional commitment to resource-conserving living into practice in his private life and also runs a concept store in Zurich. Since then, we have had the pleasure of working very closely with IKEA Switzerland on various projects.

Cédric Jeanneret has joined the Management Board of Service Industriels Genève (SIG), replacing our long-standing Board member Robert Völki, who will take on a new role within SIG. SIG, Geneva's municipal utility, is an infrastructure company in the fields of drinking water, wastewater, waste disposal and electricity distribution and generation, as well as natural gas and heat supply, with a focus on renewable energies.

Matthias Schwendimann is Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of Schwendimann AG. The family business is the largest private provider of waste disposal services in the greater Bern area and has many years of experience in the disposal of all types of waste. Schwendimann AG is very concerned about an economy fit for grandchildren and has thus expanded its field of activity with the sustainable and economical disposal solution System-Alpenluft AG.

Christina Würthner has many years of experience in setting up, restructuring and expanding international businesses and has been part of the operational team at enersis as CFO & Head of Group Strategy since 2015. The company is a Big Data platform and supports companies, cities and citizens in mastering the digital transformation - especially the digital energy transition.

www.swisscleantech.ch/