First Impact Circle event
First Impact Circle event
On Tuesday afternoon, the first Impact Circle event took place at The Alpina Gstaad hotel under the motto “Healthy Planet for Healthy People”. The sustainability initiative Impact Gstaad offered sustainability visionaries a platform to present their solutions for tackling the world’s most pressing problems to around 140 invited guests. Speeches by top-class speakers rounded off the event.
Right at the start of the first Impact Circle event on Tuesday afternoon at The Alpina Gstaad hotel, ETH professor and Impact Board member Dr. Reto Knutti used computer simulations to illustrate the problems that the global community, and the Swiss population in particular, will have to contend with in the coming years. For example, the Aletsch glacier will have completely disappeared by 2100 if we do not succeed in slowing down climate change.
An afternoon dedicated to solutions
With its Impact Circle events, the sustainability initiative Impact Gstaad aims to give a voice to visionaries who are tackling the world’s most pressing problems with innovation and technology. “We want to connect people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world,” says Impact Gstaad co-founder Andreas Wandfluh. The Impact Circle event impressively demonstrated that there really are enough of them. More than 20 project managers presented their solutions for a more sustainable future to around 140 invited guests in short talks under the motto “Healthy Planet for Healthy People”. From a visionary farm that combines agriculture, tourism and naturopathy (votre-cercledevie.ch), to artificial coral reefs (rrreefs.com) and an electric all-terrain multi-purpose vehicle (peakevolution.ch), to concrete that can bind CO2 (neustark.com) – the power of innovation seems to know no bounds. “It’s incredibly inspiring to see how all these people develop ideas and create projects that give hope for the future,” says Andreas Wandfluh.
In order to find successful solutions to the looming climate catastrophe, the economy must be involved and incentives for investors must be created. All those present at The Alpina Gstaad on Tuesday afternoon agreed on this. Philanthropy in particular was also the subject of controversial discussion. “From a sober point of view, philanthropy is an investment with a return of minus 100 percent,” one speaker put it in a nutshell. “People need to be enthusiastic about convincing sustainable projects or products and the stories behind them. Probably the
Very few people drive a Tesla because they want to protect the climate, but simply because it’s an impressive car,” said Reto Knutti. Guests at the Impact Circle event were given plenty of opportunities to invest in inspiring projects. Andreas Wandfluh is also optimistic about the future. “Impact Gstaad stands for progress. If we manage to link innovation, politics and the world of finance, our platform will have a measurable impact on the sustainable development of our society.”
"It is incredibly inspiring how all these people develop ideas and give hope for the future"People can only take care of things that they know.Andreas Wandfluh Co-Founder Impact Gstaad
"People need to be enthusiastic about compelling projects or products and the stories behind them"People can only take care of things that they know.Prof. Dr. Reto Kutti, Impact Board Member
"I am a child of the Saanenland"People can only take care of things that they know.Nachson Mimran, Impact Board Member
Graphic Recording by André Sandmann
Our graphic recorder André Sandmann from Pikka captured the entire Impact Circle event for us on a large poster. We have now prepared the map interactively and integrated the videos of the speeches directly into the corresponding graphic.
Please note that the map is optimized for desktop PCs. We have created a 360-degree panorama version for smartphones.