International Swiss Talent Forum
For young people between 18- 23 years – Participation on invitation only!
Find novel and thought-provoking ideas around “building a resilient society”. It’s a chance for you to contribute to shaping the future of your generation. Develop new ideas with your group of international participants in our for you free event. Be part of the next International Swiss Talent Forum in February 2023 and join five exciting days with students from all over the world.
Five exciting days in a lavish camp – it’s your turn to find globally relevant solutions.
“The ISTF experience has been nothing short of amazing. The programme has well achieved a fine balance between the provision of information and the opportunity for creativity. It has been an intellectually stimulating and personally fulfilling experience.”
Cassandra, Singapore
International Swiss Talent Forum 2023
Circular Economy
Circular Economy
Schedule
International Swiss Talent Forum 2023
One: This is the number of planet Earth humanity has at its disposal for meeting the needs of the present. Would all humans live according to the standards of Switzerland, we would need more than three planets Earth: This is, in essence the issue of the finite resources and was already identified by the so-called Club of Rome.
Although progress has been made in the last decades, the necessity for a paradigm shift from a linear economy to a circular economy is becoming the cornerstone of the next industrial revolution to stop the loss of the planet’s biocapacity and climate change. We need to find new ways of defining growth and success. We have the chance of learning from nature where the everlasting cycles and rhythm of growth and recovery are proven principles, finetuned over billions of years.
At the International Swiss Talent Forum 2023, we want to look at the concept of the Circular Economy through the lenses of various challenges to try and develop approaches to tackle the issue of a non-sustainable linear economy.
Topic Leader 2023
Claudia R. Binder, a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian citizen, was born in Montreal and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland and Colombia. She studied at ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1996, earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences. After conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US from 1996 to 1998, she returned to Switzerland and took a position as a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich, studying the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface.
She joined EPFL in March 2016 and set up the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at ENAC. Her research involves analyzing, modelling and assessing the transition of urban systems towards sustainability. She looks in particular at how we can better understand the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes. She does so by combining knowledge from social, natural and data science. Her research focuses on food, energy, and sustainable living and transport in urban systems.
In Switzerland, Binder was appointed to the Research Council, Programs Division of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2016 and serves on the Steering Committee of the SNSF’s National Research Program 71, “Managing Energy Consumption” and the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER). Since 2020, Binder is the Dean of the ENAC School at EPFL. She is also the president of the ENAC School Council.
Ankita Singhvi studies circular economy for cities and is currently a PhD candidate at EPFL.
Ankita received her BSc degree in Architecture from the Technical University Delft in 2017. Her interest in climate adaptation led her to pursue a MSc in Industrial Ecology from Leiden University and TU Delft. She graduated in 2020 with honours, with a thesis on resilience in grey and nature-based infrastructure for coastal protection.
During her studies, Ankita interned at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Circle Economy. After graduation, she worked at LDE Centre for Sustainability, bridging science with practise. She coordinated the Circular Industries Hub, where she supported companies in their transition towards the principles of a circular economy.
Ankita continues her work within the context of circular resource use at HERUS, EPFL. Her research focuses on the role of circular economy in urban and territorial transitions towards sustainability.
Aristide is a senior researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (HERUS) and the non-profit organisation Metabolism of Cities.
From 2018 to 2020 he was Chair of Circular Economy and Urban Metabolism at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. During the last years, he has collaborated and worked with/for several universities, research centres, environmental administrations, NGOs, youth organisations and consultancy firms on a great variety of projects trying to reduce the environmental footprint of territories.
Finally, Aristide is the co-founder of Metabolism of Cities, a global network of people working together on systemically reducing net environmental impacts of cities and territories in a socially just manner and context-specific way.
Challengers 2022
Challenge 1
Intellectual Property Rights
to promote Circular Economy
Christian Moser is a patent expert in life sciences and working at the IPI since 2014. Besides his activity as professional patent researcher and examiner, he is involved in IPI’s efforts to promote IP awareness at universities and in the private industry.
Christian Moser is a trained veterinarian with a PhD in molecular virology. After his education at the University of Bern and a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, he worked from 2001 to 2013 in the Swiss vaccine industry in various scientific and management roles.
Challenge 2
Moving beyond single-use packaging
in the worldwide shipping business
Mégane Schafhirt is one of the co-founders of ZipBack, a reusable and circular packaging solution that aims to tackle single-use plastic and cardboard in the e-commerce and clothing industry. Very concerned about the global environmental issues, she is passionate about sustainable innovations and turning ideas into concrete projects and actions.
After graduating from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in 2020, she started a Master’s degree at the HEG-FR in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It is in Fribourg that she meets her future Zipback colleagues and friends. While developing their startup and studying, she also worked part-time as a project manager in a larger company. In September 2022, she graduated and ZipBack was nominated as on of the three finalists of the Swiss StartCup Challenge organized by B Corporation and Nespresso.
Challenge 3
Make the refurbishment schemes
in the appliance sector a reality
Rainer leads the Business Unit at Helbling developing beverage systems and tools. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the development of appliances such as home appliances, beverage systems and power tools. He is used to work in and perform projects for renowned international companies.
Rainer has since years incorporated ecological aspects in the development of appliances. Aspects that were implemented in a variety of projects during the last 10 years to improve design for sustainability are the use of recycled material, energy consumption (standby) and high expected life. He has valuable contacts in the manufacturing industry and succesfully finds partners to implement more sustainable processes that previously were thought to be “impossible”. For example, the use of waste from electronic equipment to build new coffee machines.
Rainer has studied economics at the University of Zurich. He has worked and lived in 8 different countries and has served 2 years for a humanitarian organization.
Jonathan leads the Sustainability Engineering Team at Helbling. He has a broad experience in sustainability and ecodesign in various sectors such as consumer goods, food and beverage, electronics, energy, and international cooperation. His team supports clients - ranging from startups to multinationals - in ecodesign, sustainability assessment, LCA, and circular solutions. Prior to joining Helbling, Jonathan worked at the Sustainable Engineering Lab of Columbia University where he led research on expanding access to affordable and clean energy and sustainable development in developing economies. He participated as well to drafting the G20 Energy Access Action Plan. At the beginning of his career, he gained experience in the fields of heat pumps, cogeneration, and turbomachines as technical project manager and research engineer. Jonathan holds a PhD in Energy Systems and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) and an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from SUPAERO (National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space).
Challenge 4
Closing the loop: What drives companies
to do (more) for a circular economy?
Martin Wörter is head of the Innovation Division at ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute and adjunct professor at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich. His research focuses on the field of innovation economics including topics related to environmental innovations, digitalization of the economy, and knowledge and technology transfer. Before coming to ETH Zurich, he worked at WIK (Scientific Institute for Communication Services) in Germany, at the Academy of Sciences in Vienna and at the University of Innsbruck. As part of his PhD he also conducted research at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research) in Brighton (England) and at the University of Marburg (Germany).
Challenge 5
End of Life Solutions for the Shoe Industry:
How can resources be recovered and the
logistical framework for circularity be designed?
Coaches
Project Leader
Our partners
Main partners
Fonds Verena Guggisberg-Lüthi
Scientific partners
