2tonnes workshop
September 26, 2024
Feeling overwhelmed by the climate emergency and unsure how to act? Should you focus on eco-friendly habits or collective actions? Choose a flexitarian diet or buy second-hand? Renovate your home or commute by bike? Get involved in an association or drive change at work?
We are excited to bring tuthis collective game to the HSG Alumni Sustainability Club. Your challenge will be to create a transition plan to limit global warming to +1.5°C. You'll need to make impactful individual and collective decisions for the next 30 years, with every choice affecting your greenhouse gas emissions!
What steps must be taken by 2050? Which actions have the most significant impact? What role can you play in the ecological and social transition? Jeffrey Belt, a skilled facilitator who generously volunteered for this event, guided the participants through the workshop. Thank you, Jeffrey, for the experience!
Past Events
Company visit @Climeworks
June 27, 2024
Capricorn was the world’s first commercial direct air capture (DAC) plant created by Climeworks in 2017 in Hinwil, Switzerland. Powered by waste energy from the incineration plant where it was built upon, it provided a local farmer and the Coca-Cola Company with high-quality CO2 for usage. As interest by businesses in DAC is growing, Climeworks has invested in building a new and far larger plant called Mammoth, currently under construction in Iceland.
To learn how this upcoming technology works and how it can contribute to reaching net zero, we visited the pilot plant in Hinwil on Thursday 27th June. Our board member and Strategic Partnerships Director Charles De Bruyne presented the company and gave us a tour of the plant.
After the event, attendees went to have dinner together at a nearby restaurant to continue discussing.
Zürich Stamm @ Kweer bar
April 23, 2024
We were at Kweer Bar (Spitalgasse 14, 8001 Zürich) on Tuesday April 23th, from 7pm onwards.
As usual, there was no need to register for our Stamm.
Cultivating Impact: Exploring the Meaning of Personal Influence
May 28, 2024
Each one of us strives to make a meaningful difference in our own lives, in the lives of others, and in the world at large. It is essential to recognize that our actions are consequential. They contribute to the dynamics of our surroundings. Yet, how can we ascertain the true impact of our actions? Should we rely solely on subjective feelings or seek evidence of tangible consequences? Developing a keen intuition about our impact is crucial.
At our collaboration event with WISF, the network of female professionals for a more sustainable and inclusive world for everyone, you will hear from renowned expert, thought leader and HSG Professor for sustainable finance Julian Kölbel, who will share his insights and expertise. The panel discussion will delve into these questions and foster a dialogue about the importance of personal impact in shaping one's life.
Here's what you can expect:
6:00 pm – Doors open
6:30 pm – Welcome by WISF
6:35 pm – Presentation from Prof. Julian Kölbel and panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Marta Ra
7:30 pm – Networking & Apéro
9:00 pm – Doors close
> Date & Time: 28th May 2024, 18:00
> Location: Zurich, details to be announced
> Registration: The event is free but with limited spots. Please register here.
Bern Stamm: Learning about circular economy with ReCIRCLE
February 28, 2024
We're thrilled to invite you to an enriching event at ReCIRCLE headquarters on the 28th of February 2024! Get ready for an evening filled with insightful discussions, learning about sustainable business models, and networking opportunities, followed by some well-deserved refreshments. Our fellow HASC member and HSG Alumna Rheija Hug is responsible for the Marketing & Community Management at ReCIRCLE and she will provide us with her insights.
Here's what you can expect:
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Exploring ReCIRCLE's Business Model: Dive into the innovative world of ReCIRCLE and gain valuable insights into their sustainable business practices. Discover how they're reshaping the landscape of reusable, high-quality containers and contributing to a more circular economy.
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Understanding Circular Economy: Join us as we delve into the concept of a circular economy and its importance in today's world. Learn how businesses like ReCIRCLE are pioneering initiatives to reduce waste and promote sustainability.
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Networking and Drinks: After an enlightening session, wind down and connect with fellow attendees over drinks at wartsaal | kaffee. It's the perfect opportunity to exchange ideas, and expand your professional network.
> Date & Time: 28th February 2024, 18:30
> Location: ReCIRCLE AG, Greyerzstrasse 70, 3013 Bern
> Registration: There is no need to register, just show up (and bring a friend!)
2023 review
Member offer: Sustainable Leaders Conference
December 5, 2023
We were invited to participate at the Sustainability Leaders Conference at the Google office (Europaallee 36, 8004 Zürich), organised by the Swiss Association of MBAs (SAMBA). Keynote speakers from Google, Baloise, SAP, WWF, Nestlé, South Pole etc. talked about their efforts to make a positive impact on society in two panel discussions and a breakout session at the end. As a HSG Alumni Sustainability Club member, you benefited from a 50% discount on the tickets, so make sure to keep an eye out for next year's event.
HASC Workshops @ the Community Festival
September 30, 2023
HSG Alumni celebrated the Community Festival on Saturday, 30 September for our alma mater's 125th anniversary. We partnered up with two other clubs and co-hosted two sessions:
In partnership with connexHR, we held a workshop on the role of HR for sustainability. Is sustainability a means to recruit Gen Z employees or is it an inherent aspect of HR? After all, sustainability also encompasses a social dimension, and what department could be more suited to address this than HR?
Our second session was a podium on sustainability in real estate, co-hosted with the MBA Alumni Sustainability Club. Our experts shared their understanding of what sustainability in real estate means and debated various aspects - from which building materials we should use and what building standards we should apply, over how real estate can be managed sustainably to whether we should renovate existing or build new houses.
You can see some impressions of the sessions below and you can find all the pictures of the Community Festival here.
Healthy and sustainable convenience food by FELFEL
May 11, 2023
You have probably heard of FELFEL. They are a popular start-up of HSG Alumni, so they are frequently featured in our alma mater's communication. They provide employees at offices without a canteen with tasty meals, often partnering with known food brands like Tenz, Paul & Lulu or Tibits.
As part of their sustainability commitment they source from local family enterprises, strive to provide healthy menu options and delivery their meals in recyclable boxes. Of course nobody is perfect, but FELFEL strives to improve its sustainability performance. Hence they are doing a full sustainability analysis of their business and they agreed to share and discuss the results with us! FELFEL guided us through a company visit and shared with us their newly developed sustainability report with their main initiatives. See some impressions of the event below.
Insuring for a changing climate with
March 14, 2023
The insurance industry is highly affected by climate change, as natural disasters occur much more frequently and result in higher claims payments. It is thus essential for insurers to adapt their strategies to changing circumstances and to promote the mitigation of and adaptation to a warmer climate among their customers.
We were thrilled to discuss the arising challenges faced by the insurance industry with Linda Freiner, Group Head of Sustainability at Zurich Insurance, and to learn about Zurich's sustainability strategy. Linda Freiner explained how sustainability is embedded in the company’s strategy. She elaborated that, as part of their commitment, they take on non-sustainable customers and help them on their sustainability journey, rather than turning them down. Next to the engagement in their core business, Zurich supports projects on several topics, such as climate adaptation and social equity, through the Zurich Foundation.
After their insightful input, the HASC members and Zurich employees networked over an Apéro richer.
See below some pictures of the event.
Valentine's Day Stamm @ Kasheme
February 14, 2023
Yes, you read right, we hosted a Stamm on Valentine's Day. And no, there wasn't be any speed dating. (Although we had some fun debating the idea.) We organised a regular Stamm, where everyone - single or taken - was welcome.
Online event: Plastic is evil! Or is it?
January 18, 2023
We kicked-off this new cycle of events with Kim Bauer, member of our Board, working for Aldi Suisse. She is responsible for all things packaging and explained that packaging only represents 4% of total product's greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, packaging is a hot topic in our society and it is much more complex to address than one might think. In fact, Kim explains, it is a lot about changing customer behaviour - depending on how many times you use it, a cotton bag might be much worse in terms of its carbon footprint than a single-use plastic bag. We had lively discussions about how to solve this problem. Of course, recycling is important, but is it really as efficient as we hope? In the end, it all comes down to one thing: We have to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste that we generate.
November Stamm @ Kraftwerk
November 16, 2022
As one of our aims is to facilitate networking and exchange among sustainability-interested peers, we want to establish our Stamm as a regular get-together to meet new people and catch up with old acquaintances. Thus, we plan to schedule a Stamm every other month.
This Stamm took place on Wednesday, 16 November at 7pm at Kraftwerk (Selnaustrasse 25). It was great seeing ou all there
Are you hungry for change?
October 27, 2022
The planted.experience was a blast! A big thank you to everyone who joined the factory visit - and above all to Valérie for giving us a tour.
It was apparent from your numerous questions regarding positioning and production that there is a general curiosity and desire to learn more about the growing market of plant-based sources of protein. Thanks to our well-versed guides we are confident that you went home with many new insights and an appreciation for their innovative production technologies.
The mix of attendees also showed the potential of plant-based alternatives for the environment. As not all of us are willing to give up meat completely, the availability of products with similar taste and texture can help meat-lovers to replace some of their consumption with plant-based alternatives. We hope the factory visit planted an idea ;)
Planted produces delicious plant-based proteins including Schnitzel and chicken chunks, focusing on the perfect bite. Inspired by nature, the company pioneers a novel biostructuring approach that combines protein structuring and biotechnology. Using various proprietary technologies, Planted designs and structures alternative proteins in any size, shape, and fibrous texture and is convinced that biostructured proteins will outperform animal meat in the future in terms of taste, sustainability, health, efficiency and price.
September Stamm @ DuPont
September 21, 2022
June Stamm @ Hofkino
June 30, 2022
Our June Stamm took place at the Landesmuseum, Hofkino (Museumsstrasse 2, Zurich) on Thursday, 30 June from 7.15pm onwards (only for food & drinks, no film).
Thank you to all who attended, it was a really cool evening and we hope to see you again soon!
Stamm @ Atelier Bar
April 14, 2022
We were thrilled to see so many of you at our first in-person Stamm of the year, which took place at Atelier Bar (Talacker 16, 8001 Zürich) on Thursday, April 14th. Stay tuned and join our next #HASC Stamm planned in June (details will be provided in our next newsletter)
Visit @Resilux
April 6, 2022
We had the exclusive opportunity to visit Resilux, a leading company in the PET packaging industry. CEO and HSG Alumna, Jana Walker, welcomed us personally. We received a guided tour on the topic of circular economy on-site in Bilten and were able to take a closer look at the bottle-to-bottle PET recycling technology. In the end, we had time to network over a FELFEL snack.
What do doughnuts have to do with economics?
March 24, 2022
Developed by University of Oxford economist Kate Raworth, doughnut economics is a visual framework for sustainable development. The framework combines the concept of planetary boundaries with the complementary concept of social boundaries in a doughnut-shaped model - hence the name.
The main goal of the new model is to re-frame economic problems and set new goals that meet all twelve social foundations without overshooting any of the nine ecological ceilings.
In this online event, we received an introduction to this framework by Dave Brühlmeier, certified practitioner of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. He elaborated on: What does it mean? How can its goals be reached? What role do companies - and we as employers and employees - play within this framework?
Afterward, time was given to discuss the theory, its practical applicability as well as advantages and challenges of doughnut economics. We hope you all had a sweet time during this online event.
Open letter to HSG's rectorate
December 3, 2021
Two months ago we started collecting signatures for our open letter to the rectorate. With the letter, we want to advocate for more #sustainability in education, research, and practice at the #HSG and have set out four demands.
As of the end of the signature collection, over 1,300 people have now co-signed our demands! After a review of the signatures, we have officially handed over the open letter to Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ehrenzeller and the Rectorate.
Here you can read the open letter again: https://lnkd.in/digGYY3D
You can read the rectorate's response here (in German): https://tinyurl.com/yc4upze6
Online Stamm on Sustainable Investing with Yvonne Suter and Nico Frey
November 8, 2021, at 20:00
Interest in sustainable investing has surged in recent years - with good reason. Investors are heeding the environmental and social impacts of their capital, and wealth managers which advise and invest on clients' behalf are just as vigilant, if not even more so.
Two of HASC's Advisory Board members and sustainability experts, Yvonne Suter and Nico Frey, provideed first-hand insights on Sustainable Investing and on how wealth managers aim to create a positive impact on society at large, followed by an engaged discussion. Yvonne Sutter is theHead of Sustainability and Director of the Sustainability Board at the Bank Julius Bär, and Nico Frey is a Sustainable Investment Analyst at Bank J. Safra Sarasin.
Online Stamm with Carlo Giardinetti, Sustainability Lead at Deloitte
August 26, 2021, at 18:00
As companies strive to become more sustainable, they turn to consulting firms for support. At thisHASC online get-together, we discussed what role professional services firms can play in helping organizations succeed in the transition. Carlo Giardinetti, Sustainability Lead at Deloitte, presented what Deloitte is doing to anticipate and answer new asks from clients.
The event was made possible by our advisory board member and Deloitte's CSR Manager Elise Kammerer, who also joined the discussion.
Online Stamm with Manuel Rotzinger, Public Affairs leader at IKEA Switzerland
May 10, 2021, at 19:30
During the fourth HASC online get-together, we discussed IKEA Switzerland’s sustainability efforts. Manuel Rotzinger joined us for an input speech, followed by a discussion. In addition to the company's sustainability efforts, we discussed how and why IKEA engages in corporate activism, as for example IKEA's involvement in the public discourse revolving around the vote on the CO2 law coming up on June 13th.
The event was made possible by our advisory board member and IKEA’s Public Affairs Leader Sustainability & People Lorenz Isler, who will also join the discussion.
We were very pleased to see so many interested HASC members joining the event. In case you missed the session, a recording is available here https://hsgalumni.ch/de/veranstaltungen/online-sessions/
*picture taken and shared with permission of the people who appear in it
Online Stamm with Klimastreik Switzerland
March 24, 2021, at 20:00
The Climate Action Plan was released this January and presents concrete solution approaches for the climate crisis. Climate strikers and over 60 scientists and experts from all over Switzerland developed the plan together. It shows that net 0 by 2030 is possible. The presentation was held by Maya Fischer and Hanna Tharian, two students, who were actively involved in creating the Climate Action Plan. More information including a podcast about the Climate Action Plan can be found here. After the presentation about Klimastreik Switzerland's climate action plan, the participants were able to ask questions and discuss further.
*picture taken and shared with permission of the people who appear in it
A look back
February 9, 2021
It has already been two years since the foundation of the HASC. Today, we have more than 200 members, 10 events, and countless inspiring conversations and ideas to look back on. We've compiled a short overview of what we've accomplished so far and what you can look forward to in the future.
Online Stamm with Input Speech from HSG alumna Nina Damaso, sales manager and data analyst at Too Good To Go
December 3, 2020 at 20:15
Our third online Stamm featured Nina Damaso, HSG Alumna, and sales manager&data analyst at Too Good To Go Switzerland. At the beginning of the event, Nina held an input speech talking about the business model of Too Good To Go. The company's mission is to inspire and empower everyone to take action against food waste by enabling buyers to get food at a very attractive price that would otherwise end up wasted. After the speech, participants had the chance to ask questions about the company and to talk with other HSG Alumni Sustainability Club members in small discussion rounds.
Thank you, Nina, for being our guest in this third round of online Stamms!
*picture taken and shared with permission of the people who appear in it
Online Stamm with Input Speech from HSG alumnus Michaël Tuil, co-founder of Direct Coffee
July 16, 2020 at 20:15
For our second online get-together, we invited HSG Alumnus Michaël Tuil to provide his input speech on how to achieve a CO2 neutral day. Michaël is the co-founder of Direct Coffee, a social startup that imports specialty coffee directly from smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We started by reviewing where the greatest CO2 emissions for coffee are hidden across the supply chain and then Michaël explained what Direct Coffe does in order to tackle them and reduce the emission to less than one fifth compared to the conventional product.
We would like to thank Michaël for his time and for sharing his insights with us!
Make sure to check out Direct Coffee's sustainable and fair products here.
Online Stamm with Input Speech from Prof. Dr. Judith Walls
April 29, 2020
Adapting to current circumstances during the COVID-19 outbreak, we held an online get-together & discussion round. During the input speech, Prof. Dr. Judith Walls, Chair for Sustainability Management HSG-IWÖ, presented the Wheel of Corporate Purpose. The Wheel describes what businesses can do in order to help people in times of crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. After her introductory speech, our 22 participants were randomly assigned to different breakout sessions in order to discuss two follow-up questions regarding the Wheel of Corporate Purpose and exchange their own experiences.
We thank Prof. Dr. Judith Walls for her valuable time. You can find her opinion piece on the Wheel of Corporate Purpose here.
Screening at WWF - Our Planet: Our Business
November 13, 2019
In collaboration with WWF Switzerland we hosted a screening of the film “Our Planet: Our Business” inspired by the award-winning Netflix original documentary series Our Planet.
After the screening we discussed our questions with Nico Frey, member of our Advisory Board, former Corporate Account Director at WWF Switzerland and currently Sustainable Investment Analyst at J. Safra Sarasin.
We thank WWF for the very inspiring and interesting evening.
HSG Alumni Sustainability Club Stamm
September 26, 2019
On the 26th of September around twenty of our members came together and enjoyed great food at the HSG Alumni Sustainability Club Stamm.
We listened to a short presentation and had a tasting with the start-up planted, which produces plant-based “meat”: sustainable, healthy and cruelty-free.
It was a pleasant evening with a lot of interesting conversations!
First ever St. Gallen unconference on sustainability
On August 29th and 30th, 2019, more than 20 sustainability advocates from all over Europe came together at University of St. Gallen for the first St. Gallen Unconference on sustainability.
Organized by the oikos International Alumni network together with the HSG Alumni Sustainability Club, participants met in St. Gallen to learn, teach and exchange knowledge about the shared vision of a sustainable future.
With more than 15 workshops organized by the participants themselves, there was plenty of opportunity to dive into various topics related to sustainability. Sustainable consumption, measuring value or new ways of working were just a few of the highly relevant topics.
After the success of the St. Gallen unconference, it is planned that it will take place on a regular basis in the upcoming years.
Below you’ll find a few impressions from the Unconference.
Company visit at Umami
June 20, 2019
Guided tour through the production area of Umami, a start-up from Zurich producing microgreens in a circular ecosystem. The event featured a guided tour at Umami, a product tasting & samples from Umami to take home as well as a drink at the end with the opportunity to network with other attendees.
Learn about Umami here.
HSG Alumni Sustainability Club Stamm
May 22 2019
On the 22th of May around twenty of our members came together and enjoyed great food at the HSG Alumni Sustainability Club Stamm. It was a pleasant evening with a lot of interesting conversations!
Kick-off event
March 21, 2019
It was a pleasure to meet so many of you at our Kick-off event! We would like to thank all the participants for joining us and the lively discussions. Everyone provided us with valuable input which will help us develop our club further. Please find some impressions from the event below.