Zermatt Summit 2018: People change the world - not money
The seventh edition of the Zermatt Summit attracted 120 entrepreneurs and managers to the Valais mountains, who want to use their entrepreneurial skills to promote the necessary change and innovation in the service of society. "Humanizing Innovation" was the theme of this year's Zermatt Summit. How can we create new systems for producing food and energy while respecting people and nature and serving the common good?
Christopher Wasserman, founder and president of the Zermatt Summit Foundation, which sees itself as an incubator for new business models with a social and environmental background, summed it up in his opening keynote: "Our vision is to create a place where people can come together to be inspired, share innovations, network and collaborate to create new business models for a better world."
The Zermatt Summit is a place of reflection for leaders who understand that business can be a force for good and that economic models can have necessary social, environmental and welfare impacts. The Zermatt Summit aims to be the reference for ethical business in a globalized world, alongside the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where business leaders and politicians meet to discuss mainly "business as usual", and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in Brazil, where activists meet without a concrete agenda for change.
There is a gap between Davos and Porto Allegre, which the Zermatt Summit aims to close.
The economy at the service of people and the common good
The selection of top-class international speakers was impressive. Guests from Europe, Africa, Asia, the USA and Switzerland came together to present and discuss groundbreaking new business models. Belgian entrepreneur, author and activist Prof. Dr. Gunter Pauli presented his vision of the "Blue Economy" for a more sustainable global economy.
The Blue Economy focuses on basic human needs -food, water, energy and health-while regenerating nature, creating jobs, building communities and eliminating waste. "Nobody tells me that buying an organic apple from Chile here in Zermatt is sustainable. That's just not true. It's not, and it never will be," Pauli said. The Blue Economy stimulates a local economy with a direct relationship between producers and consumers.
Coffee, the most traded commodity in the world after oil, played an important role in an innovation discussed at the Zermatt Summit. German entrepreneur Hans Stier introduced Bonaverde, a company that offers a machine for roasting and grinding green coffee and creates a direct relationship between small coffee producers and their customers. The Bonaverde concept significantly improves life in coffee-producing countries.
Bertil Akesson, who runs a family plantation in Madagascar, presented 51 types of natural, decaffeinated coffee. He assured the audience that this specialty coffee would soon enter the retail market.
Groundbreaking inventions and projects presented
Physicist and entrepreneur Prof. Dr. Suat Topsu from France brought a breakthrough communication technology to Zermatt. Topsu is the inventor of Li-Fi: data communication, Internet, via light waves. Science fiction? Absolutely not. Topsu gave concrete examples of applications in supermarkets, museums and hospitals. Li-Fi is currently being integrated into the new 5G communications network standards.
Dutch entrepreneur Joost Wouters presented the enormous potential of seaweed cultivation for energy, food and more at the Zermatt Summit. "Seaweed is the fastest growing biomass on the planet," Wouters said. For centuries, seaweed has been grown primarily in Asia, where 99 percent of the world's production is now produced and primarily processed into food. Production is simple. It requires only salt water, sunlight and nutrients. The process is very efficient, and Wouters has shown that biogas from seaweed performs far better than natural gas from fracking. Algae production regenerates the marine environment, while fracking destroys the natural environment for centuries.
Swiss entrepreneur Marco Simeoni's performance at the Zermatt Summit was fascinating and impressive. Simeoni is considered Switzerland's best-kept secret. His foundation, Race for Water, was founded in 2010 with the goal of eliminating plastic pollution from the oceans. Race for Water has developed a process that converts plastic waste into gas and electricity. This small innovative factory can be distributed in containers around the world, offering a great opportunity to reduce plastic waste in an economical way.
The humanization of globalization becomes a priority
Companies have a major impact on society. They create jobs and innovations, produce goods and services, and generate income. With this economic power, however, comes a social responsibility for the common good that many entrepreneurs are not yet as aware of.
There is a great need to review, rethink and expand the company's purpose. Christopher Wasserman said, "Change will come not only from new innovative business models, but also from personal connections and relationships. The Zermatt Summit provides the ideal platform for exchange and relationship building." (Zermatt Summit/mm)
About Zermatt Summit
The Zermatt Summit was launched in 2010 as an international reference platform to promote constructive, action-oriented dialogue between a wide range of social stakeholders. The conferences are organized by the Zermatt Summit Foundation, an independent NGO recognized by the Swiss government as a non-profit organization. The foundation aims to bring together stakeholders from civil society, business and politics, as well as religion and the arts, to bring more humanity into the process of globalization and to provide leaders with practical recommendations for an economy that serves people and the common good. The initiator, promoter and president of the Zermatt Summit Foundation is Christopher Wasserman, founder of a Swiss family business.
