Zurich Climate Prize goes to climate-friendly staff catering

Zurich Climate Prize goes to climate-friendly staff catering

Zurich
The SV Group is the winner of the national Zurich Climate Prize. The catering specialist invented environmentally friendly staff catering with WWF. Hundreds of thousands of guests in the SV restaurants are able to enjoy more seasonal and regional menus.

The first national Zurich Climate Prize Switzerland & Liechtenstein amounting to CHF 60,000 goes to the SV Group for its environmental program ONE TWO WE. The independent jury around ETH Professor René Schwarzenbach recognized the enormous widespread impact of the initiative. From carrots to schnitzels: The catering specialists calculate for each food how much CO2 it generates and in which season until it lands on our plates. This allows them to put together seasonal and climate-friendly menus. Hundreds of thousands of guests eat 20 million meals each year in the SV restaurants. The market leader intends to lower the CO2 emissions by 20 percent or 3,000 tons per year with the businesses affiliated with the program. That’s 7,500 flights from Zurich to London or 500 trips by car around the equator. If the entire industry would follow the pioneer’s example, five times as much CO2 would be saved.

Joachim Masur, CEO Zurich Switzerland, says: «I congratulate the SV Group and its restaurant customers who can now enjoy the new variety of healthy menus with seasonal ingredients from the region.»

Sun goes to school – Coop gets on track

Second prize totaling CHF 40,000 goes to the Solécole Cooperative founded by the cantonal school of Küsnacht. By 2020, the school intends to produce more energy than it consumes with its six buildings and over 600 people. To this end it is using solar energy, wastewater thermal power and soon perhaps even a water vortex power plant.

Coop and railCare win third prize to the amount of CHF 20,000. Whether it’s deep-freeze pizzas, oranges or power drills: Coop intends to largely transport whatever customers purchase with trains from its subsidiary railCare. By shifting to rail, Coop saved around 2,050 tons of CO2 last year – this year it's supposed to reach 3,500 tons already.

Greener on the go – the special prizes

The jury is honoring three more projects with a special prize each amounting to CHF 10,000. The special prize in the category «Residential» goes to the Kalkbreite Cooperative for a car-free residential and commercial building in Zurich. The jury commends its resource-conserving mode of construction and the low energy consumption.

The Ökozentrum Langenbruck receives the special prize in the category «Consumption» for its project konsumGlobal. The center offers groundbreaking city tours for young people and in so doing teaches them the global consequences of daily consumption.

The Lausanne firm routeRANK wins the special prize in the category «Mobility». Travel fans find the best connection from door to door on the online platform: with the lowest fare, the quickest travel time and the lowest CO2 emissions.

100 projects submitted

With the Climate Prize, Zurich is supporting projects that make a contribution to climate protection. Exactly 100 projects were received by the independent jury as of the registration deadline. The six prizewinners were announced in the Umwelt Arena in Spreitenbach on April 9th.

Joachim Masur, CEO Zurich Switzerland, says: «From the shower basin with heat recovery to the CO2-neutral confectionary through to the ski lift that runs on solar power: The quality of the projects submitted is impressive. They show with what determination and creativity the Swiss and the Liechtensteiners are facing climate change.»

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www.klimapreis.zurich.ch/Winners2013

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The Zurich Climate Prize aims to find and recognize projects that make an effective contribution towards reducing CO2, increasing energy and resource efficiency and changing behavior. The prize comes with funding totaling 150,000 francs, which is awarded in three categories: living, consumption and mobility. The prize money is being donated by the Z Zurich Foundation. The implementation and call for proposals are being funded through return distributions from the CO2 incentive tax to Zurich in Switzerland. Zurich is focusing on understanding the risks associated with climate change and developing products and services that help customers to cope with these risks. For further information: www.climateprize.zurich.ch

The Z Zurich Foundation’s mission is to equip people with the knowledge and resources to better manage change and risk in their lives and in the world around them. By taking a long-term partnership approach to tackling global challenges, the Foundation makes a valuable contribution to sustainable social and economic development, combining Zurich’s global experience and risk  management capabilities with the non-profit organizations’ local knowledge and development expertise. For further information: www.zurich.com/zfoundation

Zurich Insurance Company Ltd (Zurich Switzerland) and Zurich Life Insurance Company Ltd are responsible for dealing with the commercial and personal lines of the Zurich Insurance Group in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. Zurich Switzerland is one of the largest insurers in Switzerland and appears on the market under the names Zurich and Zurich Connect. For further information: www.zurich.ch

Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading multi-line insurance provider with a global network of subsidiaries and offices in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East as well as other markets. It offers a wide range of general insurance and life insurance products and services for individuals, small businesses, mid-sized and large companies as well as multinational corporations. Zurich employs about 60,000 people serving customers in more than 170 countries. The Group, formerly known as Zurich Financial Services Group, is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1872. The holding company, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN), is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt program (ZURVY) which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information about Zurich is available at www.zurich.com