Spending the heat days in the office? Proper ventilation, the use of sunscreens and the elimination of heat sources often bring noticeable relief. SwissEnergy gives the following tips for cool offices even without air conditioning:

Tip 1: Use the sun protection early enough and smartly

Who hasn't experienced it: the weather forecast predicts a hot summer's day and we're already getting ready to sweat in the office. But it doesn't get really hot until around midday. Closing the sunshades in front of the windows at that time is of little use. That's why it's best to block the sun's rays as early as the morning. Coordination is the key to success here: Whoever is in the office first thing in the morning should immediately darken all windows. Alternatively, it is worth considering automatic, demand-oriented control of your sun protection systems.

Tip 2: Proper ventilation

If the offices are located on the upper floors and open windows are therefore not an invitation for thieves, it is worth keeping the windows open overnight. Cross-ventilation is particularly effective: open opposite windows to create a draught. As with sun protection, the same applies to ventilation: organize yourself. It is better to open all windows together in the morning than to open them at different times throughout the day.

Tip 3: Create drafts with energy-efficient fans

Moving air extracts heat from the body. This effect is called wind chill effect and it can be artificially created with fans. Cooling units need around 1000 watts of power to operate, while fans get by on around 50 watts. So fans use much less power than air conditioners and often create a similar cooling sensation. When buying, look for quiet, slow-running fans with a large diameter. Place them as close to the floor as possible. That way, you direct the cooler air upward.

Tip 4: Reduce heat sources

Electrical appliances and lighting emit waste heat during operation. Consistently turn off external monitors, storage devices, printers, and lights when not in use. When you replace equipment, look for the following when you buy it energy-efficient devices by consulting the energy label. The page topten.ch offers you an overview of recommendable and energy-efficient electrical appliances.

Tip 5: Customize behavior

Does your company offer flextime? Then start your workday earlier and take advantage of the cool morning hours. This also leaves more time in the evening for cooling off at the pool or a trip to the nearest gelateria. Also, drink at least one and a half liters per day and choose an easily digestible meal on hot days. A longer lunch break (siesta) and a suitable summer office outfit made of linen, silk or cotton also help.

Worldwide, 1.3 billion tons of food end up in the garbage every year. In addition to wasting resources, this also places an extreme burden on the climate. But it is not only consumers who have a duty to rethink their consumption and buy more sustainably. Manufacturers from the fast-moving consumer goods industry must also act and create alternative concepts to prevent food waste. "Here, failed product launches in particular pose a significant problem. However, customer feedback and targeted market research can help reduce emissions, plastic and packaging waste, and food waste, and reduce the ecological footprint," reveals André Moll, founder and CEO of Utry.me, which claims to be the world's first online tasting market "without prices."

Marketing platform against food waste

Together with Tobias Neuburger, André Moll founded this marketing platform in Munich in 2018. It offers consumers a daily changing assortment of numerous new products from the food, beverage, cosmetics, household goods and pet food sectors. "Without prices," however, does not mean that everything is free; the concept works as follows: For a flat rate of 24.90 euros, registered users can put together a colorful sample box of renowned brands, test the individual products and voice their opinions. In this way, partner companies receive important user feedback on their products and pull-based trial contacts without wastage. Consumers benefit from a significantly higher merchandise value as well as the unique opportunity to discard old shopping habits and try something new instead.

Products in abundance

Every year, manufacturers in the FMCG sector launch tens of thousands of new products on the market. Twelve months later, however, three quarters of all items have already disappeared from supermarket shelves. André Moll explains why this is so: "Most customers tend to always put the same 40-50 products in their shopping baskets. Many don't even think of simply trying something new. However, every new product launch suffers from this disciplined shopping behavior, with the result that German retailers dispose of around 500,000 tons of food every year." According to the editorial team, the situation in Switzerland - broken down to the local market volume - is likely to be similar.

But how can the problem be solved? If companies knew which items were desired by consumers on the market, they could save a lot of money and keep a large number of food items from going to waste. "Efficient and intelligent market research is the key to actively tackling food waste. If manufacturers know the wishes and needs of their potential customers, they can adapt their items accordingly, which would massively increase the number of successful product launches. Utry.me is based on this concept," explains André Moll.

Profit for all sides

On the one hand, Utry.me offers large corporations the opportunity to present new consumer goods to consumers in the online store without price information. As a result, the focus is solely on the product itself and customers receive only the items they have selected themselves. Subsequently, there is the option of conducting intensive market research. Concept screenings, packaging tests, conjoint analyses and the numerous, honest user feedbacks provide manufacturers with valuable information about their target groups. "For companies, this provides the opportunity to test the chances of success of a new product with a small number of units and without risky initial investments even before roll-out. Since only proven items find a place on supermarket shelves, demand is regulated and overproduction is reduced," knows André Moll. In this way, not only manufacturers contribute to the sustainable use of consumer goods, but also consumers - who incidentally discover new favorite items through Utry.me. More information: Utry.me The post Against Food Waste: Efficient Strategies for Companies and Consumers appeared first on Organizer.

On Tuesday, July 5, 2022, the fourth CEO Talk of Female Business Seminars with Silvio Denz, major shareholder and VRP of Lalique Group SA, went successfully over the stage. The interview was conducted by Dr. Karin Jeker Weber, founder and CEO of Female Business Seminars. The experienced entrepreneur Silvio Denz gave the audience an insight into his Lalique Group, hotels and wineries. During the conversation, it became clear that it is important to have a feel for people and the story behind a company. The entrepreneur, who had a nose for perfume at a young age, also stressed the relevance of creating experiences that appeal to all the senses. "Create experiences that appeal to all the senses," was the message of the talk guest.

The legacy of company founder René Lalique was revived again under the leadership of Silvio Denz, complemented by valuable experience and business relationships from the cosmetics and perfume industries. With Silvio Denz, the public got to know a responsible CEO who is particularly concerned about preserving jobs and the production site in Wingen (Alsace). Today, a museum with over 650 works of jewelry, crystal and decorative glass or René Lalique's villa, which has been converted into a hotel, can also be visited here. Positioned as an exclusive event, the 5-star Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel provided the appropriate setting for the occasion. Also present was the host and general manager of the hotel Tanja Wegmann, who handed over her post to her successor Philippe Clarinval at the beginning of July.

Source: www.femalebusinessseminars.ch

Today, managers often no longer have an advantage over their employees in terms of specialist knowledge and experience. After all, the latter are not infrequently highly qualified specialists. These employees are correspondingly self-confident - especially when they know that the company depends on their expertise. Then they want to feel the appreciation they believe they deserve in their daily interactions. If this is lacking, their motivation to work declines and, in extreme cases, they change employers.

Communicate more and differently

Many managers find it difficult to lead such self-confident employees - partly because some have still secretly internalized the credo that their instructions must be followed blindly. But many members of the so-called Generation Y, who were born after 1980 and already form the backbone of many companies today, see things differently. They often question the instructions and decisions of their managers and want to have what they see as plausible reasons why certain things are necessary.

For managers, this means: They must communicate more and differently with their employees than in the past. Instead of top-down instructions, what is needed today is the inclusion of employees in decision-making processes. If this is not possible, managers must at least accept that employees will sometimes question their behavior as well as their decisions.

In theory, most managers are well aware of this. However, this does not mean that they always display the right leadership behavior in everyday work. It is often the case that supervisors, especially in situations in which they themselves are tense, display behavior that is more in line with an authoritarian than a cooperative leadership style. As a result, they not infrequently cause avoidable conflicts.

Employees "tick" very differently

In the day-to-day work of teams consisting of many self-confident employees, one also notices time and again: Managers never actually have problems with some employees; however, conflicts constantly arise in the relationship with others, which is why the employees in question are mentally labeled "difficult" by their managers.

If one analyzes the causes for this, one often finds: If the manager-employee relationship is right, then the managers usually have

• A similar value system to the employees with whom they harmonize well, and/or
• their behavioral preferences correspond to the expectations employees have of their manager based on their value system.

This is different for the "difficult employees". They either have a different value system than their manager, which is why other things are important to them. Or they have expectations of their manager based on their value system, which the manager does not fulfill due to their preferences.

Knowing different value systems

The divergent value systems and expectations are usually not a problem in day-to-day operations if managers are aware of them. However, many supervisors are not even aware of their own value system and behavioral preferences. And this is even less the case in relation to employees. Yet this is becoming increasingly important for successful leadership - not least because fewer and fewer people today are prepared to accept without question any authorities they have not chosen themselves.

If supervisors want to manage their employees individually and according to their value systems, they need to know the following:

• What makes my employee "tick"?
• How does the world look through his "glasses"?
• What does it need to perform at its best?

Only then can managers truly adapt their leadership behavior to their counterparts. Moreover, only then can they reach a sustainable agreement with each employee on what he or she needs in order to experience his or her work as satisfying because it is meaningful and corresponds to his or her value system.

Author
Joachim Simon, Braunschweig, is a leadership trainer and speaker specializing in (self-)leadership (www.joachimsimon.info). He is the author of the book "Selbstverantwortung im Unternehmen" (Self-responsibility in the company) published by Haufe-Verlag and co-founder of the (self-)leadership coaching app Mindshine (www.mindshine.app).

Red eyes, headaches, declining concentration, the latent feeling of fatigue, coughing and irritated mucous membranes - now the order of the day in many officesand not just since Corona. Once the symptoms have been identified, the search for the cause begins, based more on gut feeling and urban myths than on facts and science. The list of suspects ranges from air conditioning and electrosmog to public enemy number one, the computer screen. "Intuitively, this also makes sense," says Tanja Schmidt, managing director of the German company igreeen solution GmbH and an expert in technical office equipment, "after all, office workers stare at displays for hours every day, which are known to strain the eyes. However, many don't know that modern screens are often not the culprit, but rather the print devices." But why is that, and what does indoor air have to do with it?

Health as the most important currency

The choice of office equipment is often subject to economic factors, so that for many it seems that the more cost-saving, the better. Often, this fallacy is followed by serious consequences, because the material that is then available to the clerks is accordingly not of the quality hoped for. This is especially true for the printer, which is one of the most important purchases because it is constantly in use. "This is where companies like to save money and buy laser printers - in the supposed assumption that they can reduce costs with large toners and laser technology," the expert knows. However Schmidt warns: "Who always only thinks about saving potentials, will sooner or later lose out. Because health is the most important currency. If companies put prices before the well-being of their employees, it will ultimately cost them dearly."

The devil is in the details

Laser printers have long been considered the panacea of office work. However, the work processes that the technology must inevitably perform show that they operate in a way that is potentially harmful to human health. For example, before a print job can be executed, the device must heat rollers inside to approximately 180 degrees, which inevitably requires a fan inside the device. However, it is through this that ink particles enter the air and, via detours, the lungs, which are suspected of causing mutations. "At the same time, the device produces high voltage that, in combination with the air, releases ozone that can cause respiratory diseases and irritation of the mucous membranes," Schmidt explains. In addition, the process releases nanoparticles, for which research has repeatedly shown harmful effects on the organism could detect. In addition, the substances benzene and styrene are secreted during the printing process - they are also suspected, carcinogenic to be

Choose devices wisely

Companies need to think more about the health concerns of their employees when purchasing their utensils - if not already for humanitarian reasons, then also for economic reasons, because health influences employee productivity. But what might a solution look like? "There are already printers that are harmless to health and ecologically sustainable, and not since yesterday either: inkjet is the magic word. With these devices, the high temperatures do not occur in the first place, so there is no formation of fine dust," explains Schmidt. There are no compromises in quality either: Thanks to non-water-soluble ink, these systems are now already in the same performance class as laser systems. The expert emphasizes, "In relation to the laser system, there are therefore no qualitative disadvantages and therefore no logical reason not to rely on ecological printing systems." Wherever a printer is in use, those responsible have to think about it and also replace devices from time to time, because people not only work on the screen, but also still print out frequently.

Source and further information: www.igreeen.de

Work more productively, hold more focused meetings, communicate in a more relaxed manner and regenerate more quickly. These are just some of the obvious advantages that the workplace for knowledge workers in the forest promises. Peter Fibich and Roland Lüthi, the founders of the forest office, have been spending a significant part of their working time in the forest for quite some time. Enthusiastic about the possibilities and benefits of their experiences from office work days, meetings, seminars and team events in various forests, they now offer their experiences and services as a forest office to innovative companies throughout Switzerland.

Pioneers in forest office

The forest office offers fully equipped digital "plug in & work" workstations as well as customized workshop settings for special meetings in a unique forest atmosphere. According to its own information, this offer is unique in Switzerland. Depending on the task, weather or mood, each employee can work indoors in the spacious, cozy forest house or outside under trees in the great outdoors. Nothing is missing: Connected to the world via W-LAN and equipped with the necessary office supplies, working in this environment becomes a special experience. Especially when a meeting or seminar is scheduled, flipchart and pinboard are also helpful presentation aids.

Forest concierge guarantee all-inclusive service

Two standard offers for teams of up to 15 people and special individually plannable forest office offers leave hardly any wishes unfulfilled. As forest concierge, the experienced team from the forest office ensures that nothing is missing when working in this special natural environment. All-inclusive means that wi-fi is available at every workstation indoors and, of course, outdoors, or that team members are greeted with a wonderfully fragrant coffee as soon as they arrive.

Occupational health management strengthens resilience  

The two certified forest mindfulness trainers and event professionals place particular emphasis on the demonstrably positive effects that the forest has on the physical and mental health of the new "forest workers". Through their experience as forest bathing coaches and as mindfulness and resilience trainers, they know how to tangibly communicate the power of nature and the forest. As a member of various associations in the fields of mental health and occupational health management, they pass on their experience and know-how to all participating persons within the framework of the offers through deliberately embedded relaxation and activation sessions.

Rounding off work in the forest office with culinary delights

Another experience of a special kind is conjured up by the forest and fire cooks for morning meals, lunch, aperitifs or dinner on the table. Natural dishes of local origin are prepared, seasoned, baked, braised, stewed, roasted or smoked in front of the guests. Upon request, unimagined food creations with a forest connection are served.

Of course, these offers are bookable all year round, by the day or week and absolutely independent of weather conditions.

In the last 10 years or so, numerous new providers have emerged in the payments market. A field of finance that was once considered "dusty" has changed dramatically thanks to new technologies, especially mobile, e-banking and online shopping. Innovative fintechs are competing for a share of the pie, which offers great potential with over one billion bills sent in Switzerland alone (source: SIX Group AG). In addition, there are the transactions at the store checkout, in the restaurant and in online shopping. While QR billing solution providers and eBill network partners are vying for the classic billers, relatively young providers such as TWINT, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and others are fighting against the classic debit and credit cards. It seems like there is now a dedicated solution for every conceivable instance where money is moved from one person to another. The only question is: Who can still keep track of it all? Is it even worth maintaining so many parallel infrastructures? One thing is clear: in the end, the end customers pay the price.

QR code serves analog as well as digital payment transactions

With its entry into digital payment processing, the QR bill ventures out of the analog world of payment slips and significantly improves the convenience of digital payment. In particular, the option shown in the figure of being able to pull a QR bill in pdf format directly into eBanking, thus preventing media disruptions, represents an important milestone. This makes the QR bill the only procedure that can efficiently serve both the analog and digital worlds, which means that billers must ask themselves whether they are giving away too much leeway at best by switching to a purely digital channel such as eBill.

Instant payments will change old habits

If one additionally takes into account that interbank payment traffic in Switzerland will soon offer the possibility of processing payments in real time, further thought games suggest themselves. Because, as SIX Group Ltd already communicated in September 2021, it is planning to introduce "instant payments" in August 2024 together with the Swiss National Bank. When bank-to-bank payments are processed in real time, the bill recipient receives the credit note within seconds after the payer has triggered it in his mobile or eBanking app. As a result, this type of transaction could also become interesting for retailers - both in stores and online. After all, if a retailer writes QR invoices in certain cases anyway, what would be the argument against using the Swiss QR Code at the store checkout as well? The customer would pull out his smartphone, scan the QR code and release the payment. The merchant would receive the confirmation of receipt immediately - similar to TWINT, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc., but without a detour via a third-party provider who takes a share of the revenue for himself. Why should the merchant then still maintain these payment methods if all transactions could be processed via a single standard, the QR bill?

Competition promotes innovation, but also complexity

The future will show where the journey is headed. On the one hand, it leads to more innovation when different providers compete against each other. On the other hand, x-different infrastructures not only increase complexity, but also costs for billers. Particularly in an area such as payments, where a single but omnipotent infrastructure would be perfectly adequate, the question arises as to which service will bring the most benefit to the parties involved. It remains to be seen whether the various providers that are already available and that will enter the market in the future will be able to hold their own, or whether the trend will move back toward the elegant simplicity of a single standard. If the latter is the case, the exciting times in the payment traffic market could soon be over and the bland stability of the past decades would return. In return, payment traffic would once again be clear and predictable.

Author:
Beni Schwarzenbach is Managing Director of QR module.

From September 7 to 11, 2022, the grounds of Bernexpo will be transformed for the third time after 2014 and 2018 into a huge temporary stage for young talent from around 150 different apprenticeship professions. Around 1,150 of the best young Swiss professionals will offer an inspiring insight into the diversity and excellence of Swiss vocational education and training during SwissSkills 2022. The third staging of these central Swiss vocational championships had originally been planned for 2020 and had to be postponed by two years due to the Corona pandemic. This makes it all the more gratifying that the overall showcase of Swiss vocational education and training can once again take place in full.

Participants of the professions are determined

A total of around 1,150 apprentices and apprenticeship graduates will compete at SwissSkills 2022. As diverse as the SwissSkills professions are, so are the participation criteria for SwissSkills set by the respective professional associations. With the exception of a few associations that will not determine their participants until after the final apprenticeship examinations in summer 2022, most professional associations have completed the selection process.

The currently more than 850 nominated candidates will be published on the SwissSkills 2022 website at www.swiss-skills2022.ch/de/teilnehmende presented. The list is continuously supplemented with further participants.

Championship of the Professionals: A Crowd Puller

The unique format of the central SwissSkills enables the public and especially young people in the career orientation process to look over the shoulders of the country's best young professionals at work and thus experience a wide variety of apprenticeships on a 1:1 basis. In addition, the more than 60 participating professional associations offer the public attractive opportunities to try out the professions for themselves right on the spot.

Around 120,000 visitors are expected over five days. Among others, 2426 school classes with more than 60,000 students from all over Switzerland will visit the event.

Showcase for vocational training

"The Swiss vocational education and training system has proven itself extremely well, especially during the Corona pandemic, as a central pillar of Switzerland as a place to work and think, and offers young people in the country many prospects," says OC President Daniel Arn. "More than ever, SwissSkills 2022 will become the great showcase for vocational education and training. Together with all those involved and, above all, the young professionals, we will send out an important signal of new beginnings."

When looking at the 20 categories with the strongest growth in comparison between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, products for energy generation dominate. Photovoltaic systems (305% increase in page views) record the largest increase in this segment, followed by solar modules (up 287%) and geothermal probe drilling (up 252%). Power generators register an increase in demand of 261%.

Firewood is also increasingly sought again

When it comes to heating, an almost archaic energy source stands out. Thus firewood registers an increase of the side calls around 207%. Strong increases are also found in the categories wood pellets (244% increase), wood briquettes (241% increase) and small wind turbines (241% increase). Heat pumps, after all, record an increase of 179%.

"The variety of energy-related categories could be an indication that the broad mass of tradespeople, and possibly even individuals, are looking for alternative energy products on our B2B platform," says Peter F. Schmid, CEO of platform operator Visable. "That's a good thing. The energy turnaround is a task for society as a whole, and everyone has to get involved."

"Age of sustainability is ushered in".

"The 'age of crises' is finally ushering in the 'age of sustainability'. The switch to renewable energies reduces dependencies and increases crisis resilience," says the Visable CEO. In a survey conducted by Visable in cooperation with the opinion research institute YouGov, 49 percent of the companies surveyed in Austria had already stated in April that the importance of sustainability had increased for them as a result of the current crises.

However, despite all efforts, there is still a long way to go before the economy and society are fully converted to sustainability. A look at the categories with the greatest growth in the second quarter of 2022 also shows how great the dependence on fossil fuels still is: diesel fuels are in first place and heating oils in 18th place. The fossil age will therefore continue for a while yet, even if the reorientation toward renewable energies has now finally begun.

Source: Visible

The third Summer Academy offers practical training in a wide range of digital areas. Google is leading this offer together with educational partners such as the AWA-RAV, the FHNW and now also the Institute for Young Entrepreneurs IFJ, General Assembly and Glacier Carbon Reduction GmbH as well as with numerous experts. During four weeks, various free online training courses can be attended. This summer, for example, the initiative "Google Atelier Digital - seizing opportunities together" offered an up-to-date and high-quality learning program that promotes specific skills in the digital domain.

Live trainings and workshops

With training courses in a wide range of digital areas, the "Summer Academy" enables people from all walks of life and with a wide variety of backgrounds to expand their own skills and thus take a decisive step further in their professional development. These live trainings include, for example, workshops in the areas of Web analytics, Search engine marketing with Google Ads, Sales Automation or SEO basics for SMEbut also webinars from the soft skills area such as "Voice, speech and body language", How to run hiring interviews and manage the talent pipeline or #IamRemarkable. This year, for the first time, there will also be a session on a corporate sustainability strategy / climate transformation by the experts from Glacier (Every Job is a Climate Job) as well as from the IFJ for people who are thinking about becoming self-employed: From the Idea to Your Own Company - Your Path to (Partial) Independence. These are just some of the highlights.

Summer Academy as part of lifelong learning

With the "Summer Academy 2022", Google, together with qualified partners, wants to support even more companies, communities and private individuals in learning skills that will help them to better exploit the opportunities of digitalization. This is also confirmed by Patrick Warnking, Country Director Google Switzerland: "How can the success of Switzerland as a location for innovation be secured in the longer term? This question is highly relevant for many industries and startups in Switzerland as a research and development location and concerns them with regard to securing their future growth. It is continuing education and lifelong learning (#LLL) that are listed by many opinion leaders as critical success factors for achieving this goal; the future of work and the prosperity of us all will be very much shaped by, as well as dependent on, the digital skills of the workforce. Based on this motivation, we are also launching a mid-summer training offensive this summer together with partners and offer with the Summer Academy even more topics for personal digital upskilling. In addition to digital skills, the Summer Academy 2022 will therefore offer even more soft skills from long-standing partners as well as new experts - all free of charge."

More information about the courses of the "Summer Academy" can be found on the program overview: events.withgoogle.com/google-summer-academy-2022/program-overview

Face-to-face meetings and professional networking came to a virtual standstill at the start of the Corona pandemic. But according to a survey of 111 top managers in Germany by corporate payment specialist AirPlus International, 84 percent of respondents believe that these face-to-face meetings in particular are essential for building business relationships and mutual trust. This is not only true in our northern neighbor: "We see this attitude quite clearly in Switzerland," confirms Andy Stehrenberger, Managing Director of AirPlus International in Switzerland. The majority of respondents also prefer face-to-face meetings for negotiations (cited by 76 percent), occasions with emotional communication content (73 percent), discussions of confidential and sensitive content (71 percent), customer acquisition and retention, trade show visits and industry meetings (70 percent each), and strategic internal meetings (56 percent). In contrast, occasions such as the exchange of knowledge or collaboration in project teams can continue to take place virtually in the future in the view of the respondents.

Swiss business travel has increased significantly since the beginning of the year

In Switzerland, the numbers of airline ticket transactions processed via AirPlus have been rising steadily since the beginning of the year, as the AirPlus Business Travel Index reveals. After a brief stagnation in April, almost three times as many flights were booked via AirPlus in May 2022 than in January. As travel business picks up, the gap to the pre-crisis year 2019 is also melting from month to month. In the month of May 2022, the billing volume in Switzerland was only 15.1 percent below the level of May 2019.

It is striking that Swiss companies are making travel more expensive in the current year and are increasingly allowing their employees to travel in business class. On intercontinental flights, the share of business class flights increased by 2.3 percentage points to 50.5 percent from January to May 2022 compared to the pre-Corona year 2019, and on European routes by 1.9 percentage points to 5.2 percent. This trend is most striking on Swiss domestic routes: Here, the business class share increased by 18.8 percentage points to 26.4 percent in the first five months of 2022 (Jan-May 2019: 7.6 percent).

Swiss spend longer on business trips

While the average advance booking period in spring 2022 decreased only for intercontinental flights - from 34.2 days in 2019 to 31 days in 2022 - some clear shifts are evident in the duration of trips. From January to May 2022, intercontinental trips lasted an average of 12.5 days (2019: 10.3 days), European trips 4.6 days (2019: 3.7 days) and business trips in Switzerland increased markedly to an average of 18.5 days (2019: 3.4 days). "This clearly shows today's possibilities and acceptance towards 'remote work'," says Andy Stehrenberger. "Instead of traveling from A to B several times within Switzerland, trips are combined or the workplace is relocated right away for a longer period of time. This fact also testifies to an ecological rethink," says Stehrenberger.

The fact that the topic of sustainable business travel enjoys high importance in companies is also confirmed by the results of the AirPlus survey in Germany. Almost all of the companies surveyed state that they have the topic on their agenda. The most important measures include bundling business appointments into less frequent, but longer trips (named by 60 percent) - only the selection of the most environmentally friendly means of travel possible was named even more frequently (64 percent).

The bicycle boom continues: 21823 teams from a total of 2829 companies covered a total of 22,184,698 kilometers by bicycle. This corresponds to a CO₂-equivalent of 3,195 metric tons with a calculation basis of 144g/km CO₂-emissions. This development naturally pleases Mai Poffet, project manager of bike to work: "For many employees, participating in bike to work is a refreshing change in their daily work routine and brings momentum into the team. This year's success is based on many factors, the most important of which is definitely the "post-Corona feeling." Employees return to the offices, companies want to strengthen the teams and offer something to their employees. So many companies are using the campaign to boost team spirit and a sense of optimism."

Google also participated in bike to work

Companies have also recognized the value of the bicycle and actively promote it. Patrick Warnking, Country Director Google Switzerland: "Cycling and public transport are Google Switzerland's preference when it comes to means of transport. It is important to us that our employees are able to cycle quickly and safely to work, as well as between our sites in Zurich. We actively promote cycling and here in Zurich we offer our employees over 1,500 modern bicycle parking spaces. We also welcome the expansion of the bicycle network and infrastructure, which are essential for sustainable micromobility. And we are investing in innovation to bike information and routes in Google Maps."

Action for health promotion in companies

In the 18th implementation of bike to work, 28% of the participants took part with an e-bike. In 2019, the figure was 19%. The e-bike is becoming increasingly attractive for commuters and replaces inefficient and environmentally harmful car journeys.

The bike to work Challenge is a national campaign by Pro Velo Schweiz to promote cycling and health in companies. It takes place every May and June and is supported by Veloplus, SUVA and Panter. In addition to numerous SMEs, large corporations also participate in bike to work. There are prizes worth a total of over CHF 120,000 to be won.

Top 3 companies by number of participants

1. Migros Group: 1447 participants
2. Island group: 1059 participants
3. Swiss Post: 960 participants

The overview of all top 10 operations is available here.

Source and further information: Pro Velo Switzerland