Sustainability Days 2023 show it’s time to act

Yesterday, the first edition of the Sustainability Days at the Congress Center Basel came to a successful close after two days. The 72 suppliers in the exhibition and 171 speakers and 171 speakers presented products, solutions, strategies and innovations with a focus on a sustainable future in the areas of cities, space, the environment and the economy to around 1,500 participants.

Under the motto “Get things done”, the Sustainability Days presented trends, concrete solutions in the form of innovative products and services as well as strategies and outlooks in the four congress and exhibition formats SmartSuisse, Re’ Summit, Future-Proof Infrastructure and MUT – Environmental Technology Exhibition during 28 and 29 March 2023. “We are delighted that the Sustainability Days, with their 15 thematic focal points around sustainability, have been so well received. In the future, our goal is to establish ourselves as the central platform for a sustainable future in the areas of smart city, corporate sustainability,
environmental technology and infrastructure,” says Julien Rousseau, Brand Director of the Sustainability Days, with satisfaction.

Food for thought from national and international voices
On 28 March, Marco Lambertini, Special Representative and former Director General of WWF International, was among those who kicked off the congress series with a total of over 170 speakers. He pleads for the initiation of a profound change of our economic model in order to become a nature-friendly society and to decouple development from environmental destruction. Keynote speaker and architect Thomas Rau also emphasises the need for change as quickly as possible. For him, one important way to do this is the circular economy. In his opinion, we have to rethink the value chain, towards a value preservation chain. In a finite world, material must be seen as something that is only used temporarily and then returned to the cycle of things.

The political perspective on the topic of sustainability also played a major role. For example, the Swiss city presidents Stefanie Ingold (Solothurn), Beat Jans (Basel), Michael Künzle (Winterthur), Barbara Thalmann (Uster) and Beat Züsli (Lucerne) discussed the goal of climate-neutral cities. There was agreement that climate protection in this context was not an alibi exercise. This shows, among other things, what measures and considerations are already underway or being considered. Cities certainly have a role model function, as they often have more resources at their disposal. Regula Rytz, former member of the National Council
and President of the Green Party of Switzerland, took a look at the topic “Sustainable Technology: between real transformation and progress myths” as a historian. According to her, new challenges in environmental policy need new forms of sustainable
technology – and it needs pioneering spirit for real transformation. In his keynote speech, Pekka Timonen, Mayor of Lahti, presented the success story of the traditional industrial city. This is how Lahti has become Finland’s leading green city and a pioneer among Europe’s sustainable cities.

Other keynotes and sessions focused on climate change as such. The Secretary General of the UN organisation WMO, Petteri Taalas, gave an impressive presentation on climate change and the associated climate catastrophes and future scenarios with a global impact. He said that action must be taken now if the worst effects of climate change are to be prevented in this century. And Prof. Dr. Reto Knutti, Professor of Climate Physics at the ETH Zurich and speaker at the Re’ Summit, organised jointly with sun21, shares this view. According to him, only a complete shift away from fossil fuels and net zero emissions before 2050 can limit climate change. The obstacles are not primarily of a technical and economic nature, but a collision of identities and the question of how to respond to the challenges. A new feature of SmartSuisse was the expansion of the main topics to include health, which met with lively interest. At the Health Podium, for example, experts from the field discussed whether health data is the new gold under the aspect of data security vs. data use.

Cross-sectoral meetings
Another highlight was the networking dinner party on Tuesday evening. Over a three-course meal in a relaxed atmosphere, participants of all formats came together to talk to each other across sectors, to exchange ideas and to discuss. They were guided through the evening in an entertaining way by stand-up comedian and magician Michel Gammenthaler and by “The Blackouts”, who showed with their LED show how art and technology can be used to convey a message and inspire people. Also a guest was the Swiss adventurer and visionary
Bertrand Piccard, who told of his round-the-world flight in a solar plane without fuel during his appearance. A pioneer in viewing ecology through the lens of profitability, he is now an advocate for renewable energies and clean technologies.

Concrete solutions to touch and try out
The accompanying exhibition offered ample opportunity for professional exchange as well as networking. 72 suppliers presented their solutions and innovations and were able to make important contacts with visitors as well as other participants. “SmartSuisse is an important meeting place for SBB to exchange ideas with other experts, to further develop our projects and to generate new ideas. This is entirely in keeping with the Smart City Lab Basel motto ‘network, develop, test, experience'”,
says Smart City Lab Basel, SBB AG.

There were also exciting things to experience at the exhibition: The exhibitor SAAM (Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility) presented the teleoperated driving project initiated by SwissMoves as part of SmartSuisse and offered visitors the opportunity to ride in a vehicle controlled from Fribourg on a test track. Also part of the exhibition was the MUT – Environmental Technology Exhibition, which catered to the professional audience of the Swiss environmental technology sector. “The meeting of the cleantech industry at the MUT shows the need to promote ecological and pragmatic solutions,” says Andreas Knecht of Mokesa AG, which was an exhibitor at the Environmental Technology Fair.

Virtual discussion: sustainable infrastructure projects
On 28 March, the Future-Proof Infrastructure virtually discussed the challenges that infrastructure projects have to face in order to achieve sustainability, such as financial and political resilience. For this, the virtual congress brought together key international stakeholders, investors and infrastructure experts. The discussions made clear that there is a huge inancing deficit in infrastructure investments in all sectors and that there is an urgent need to tackle climate change by improving sustainable infrastructure outcomes. Solutions for financing infrastructure were addressed by the FAST-Infra panel, among others, which aims to unlock private investment in valuable infrastructure. Also discussed was how project preparation institutions can bring to light important infrastructure projects in countries with limited access to financial and technical resources. The partner of the format is the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB). The second edition of the Sustainability Days is scheduled to take place in Basel from 9 to 11 April 2024.