Eawag: Eco Team: Archive

Eawag
Überlandstrasse 133
P.O.Box 611
8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland

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2012

Handicrafts and Swimming for Whales and Dolphins

Basteln und Schwimmen für Wale und Delfine

Surely every child knows that whales and dolphins don't belong in a pool - one would think! Apparently this is not known everywhere. Children in the Empa/Eawag childcare centre are taking part in a creative Ocean Care project, to ask EU politicians to protect whales and dolphins more effectively. Adults can take part in a swim across Lake Zurich in August as their contribution to this

project. Dolphins are imported into many European countries for exhibition in dolphinaria. Ocean Care wants to conduct a special campaign to make EU politicians aware of this fact and to request better protection for whales and dolphins. Together with a sister organisation in Germany, Ocean Care has called on children in Switzerland and Germany to make 10,000 origami whales. These will be presented to politicians in Brussels, as a sign that the coming generation wants to do away with dolphinaria. A photo gallery shows the children's origami folding project in the Dübendorf nursery.

In addition, Ocean Care will join the Swiss Lifesaving Society in sponsoring a swim across Lake Zurich to benefit dolphins in the Mediterranean. Participants will look for sponsors among their acquaintances who believe that they can swim the 2.65 kilometres from Männedorf to Wädenswil, and Ocean Care will invest the proceeds in the project for the protection of the common dolphin in the Mediterranean. This dolphin is threatened with extinction. The Eawag Umweltteam will be sponsor participating Eawag staff members. Please contact Jacqueline Schlosser from Umweltteam for details until 16 August 2012.

Eawag's insect hotel now open

A four-star insect hotel in Kastanienbaum is now finished. The guests can start arriving. The new insect hotel offers an artificial nesting and overwintering service for bumblebees, various species of wild bee and wasp, as well as earwigs and more. It is ideally situated next to the fish pond in front of Eawag Kastanienbaum and has been built almost exclusively from natural materials. The new residents will be helping to maintain

ecological balance, as many natural insect habitats are now only available to a limited extent in today’s mostly “cleaned-up”
environment. The insect hotel was created with support from the Eawag environmental team. Putting their energies into the project were Tamara Boes, Markus Meier, Sebastian Kaufmann, Nicole Egloff, Marta Reyes, Kirsten Oswald and Carlos Melian. The staff in Kastanienbaum will be very pleased to hear the place happily humming and buzzing all around them next spring!

2011

A successful 2011 Bike to work initiative

This year Eawag took part once again in the “bike to work” programme. The aim of this one-month initiative is to encourage use of the bicycle as a means of transport to work, thereby minimising the emission of greenhouse gases and improving physical fitness. As a bike-friendly employer, Eawag is more than happy to lend its support to this project. For the last two years an evening barbecue has been organised in conjunction with Empa

so that participants can get to know one another and exchange information. This year the event took place for the first time at the newly established barbecue site by the Ticino tables on the beach volleyball pitch at Eawag Dübendorf.

The participation rate in this year “bike to work” - programme was high, with some 150 Eawag employees (i.e. around one third of the workforce) organising themselves into 39 teams this year. This meant that the high participation level of prior years was maintained (2009: 39 teams; 2010: 40 teams).

Prize for best “btw”-video clip

This year's prize for the best bike to work video clip was awarded at the event to Team 4s comprised of Lisa Scholten, Jacqueline Schlosser, Raoul Schaffner and Nele Schuwirth . A special prize was also conferred for the first time in recognition of Christoph Ort’s dedication in commuting to work by bicycle. The barbecue went ahead despite warnings of severely stormy weather and a great time was had by all despite the arrival of the forecast rain thanks to the spontaneous spirit of cooperation demonstrated by guests. The environment team will announce shortly how far the Eawag bike riders travelled.

Bees and berries for the nursery children

When it was still warm, the children in the Eawag/Empa Nursery (Kipa) could be found hard at work, excitedly making nests for wild bees. On 31 August 2011, in a joint venture with the Eawag environmental team, the 15 nests were put in position in various places around the Empa and Eawag site. This week as a kind of ‘thank you’, six redcurrant bushes have been planted and inaugurated at the Nursery. The children are now looking

forward to next summer’s visitors to the bee nests, and, above all, to an abundant redcurrant harvest. The photos of the bee's nest project illustrate the childrens commitment.

2010

Bicycle Stand Facility opened for Eawag and Employees

Veloabstellanlage für Eawag und Empa eröffnet

It has been worth the wait: the new, separate bicycle stand facility for Eawag and Empa employees at the Stettbach train station opened on May 3. The facility has a perfect location (see map [pdf]) and is very well equipped with 100 Velopa stands [movie], good lighting, as well as room for trailers. This safe bicycle parking facility is offered to Eawag and Empa employees free of charge

On May 5, the facility was officially opened in the presence of members from both management teams and the responsible officials from the city of Dübendorf, VBG Verkehrbetriebe Glattal, as well as the planners of the Glattalbahn rail system. This facility is the first bicycle stand facility at a Swiss train station that is made available exclusively to employees of a particular company. It was made possible through the cooperation of the environmental team, IG-Velo, the management teams of Empa and Eawag, the city of Dübendorf, the VBG, and the planers.


Thomas Lichtensteiger with Jürg Sebestin (Head Public Works of the city of Dübendorf) and Ramon Oppikofer (Head Construction Manager Glattalbahn)		Lothar Ziörjen-Head of Town Council of Dübendorf with Roland Knechtle (Empa) and Rik Eggen and Thomas Lichtensteiger (both Eawag)		Ralph Bächli (Designer Railway station Stettbach, Basler & Hofmann) talking to constructive workers

And there is even more good news: the new bicycle path along the Chriesbach river, which crosses under the Ringstrasse is also scheduled to open in October!

There is still room at the bicycle stand facility. Interested employees are asked to contact Gérard Mohler at Eawag. They will be provided with a key for the facility in exchange for a security deposit.

2009

Participate - Save - Win: Open a CO2-Account

The Eawag Eco-Team is launching the «CO₂-Monitor». Visit the information event in Dübendorf or Kastanienbaum. There will be a couple of surprises waiting for you!
Dübendorf: Tuesday, October 20, Atrium Forum Chriesbach, 11:00 to 13:30 h
Kastanienbaum: Thursday, October 22, Entrance Lab building/Cafeteria, 11:00 to 13:30 h

The project «CO₂-Monitor» intends to motivate Eawag employees towards a reduction and monitoring of their personal CO₂ emissions. A personal account allows you to set-up your own profile. The online platform makes suggestions as to how you can decrease your CO₂ consumptions. In addition, everybody opening such an account can benefit from special offers and will participate in a raffle

2008

Bicycle stands 2008

2007

12'575 km by bike

This year Eawag once again participated in the „bike to work“ action organized by the Swiss cyclist syndicate, and set itself an ambitious objective: we aimed to cycle the equivalent distance of the length of the five biggest European rivers --Volga, Danube, Ural, Dineper und Rhine – clocking up a total of 12,575 km! Jukka Jokela, Urs von Gunten und Kai Udert assisted the team in reaching their goal. „This action is a great idea and I hope that as many staff members as possible participate. It is also very important to me that participants protect themselves by wearing helmets. Not every journey to work is risk free for bikers”, sais Janet Hering.

bike-to-work action: Objective reached and surpassed

12,575 km is the distance that Eawag wanted to clock up during the bike-to-work action; a distance equivalent to the length of the five biggest European rivers. Much more was achieved: 34 teams comprising 133 participants clocked up 18,923 km in June - 50% more than originally planned!

naturemade star – Certificate for the Chriesbach Forum Photovoltaic installation

The photovoltaic installation at the Chriesbach Forum has recently been awarded the naturemade star certificate. This certificate, that was developed for the use of hydro electricity - in collaboration with Eawag, is awarded for the ecological production of electricity.

Extension of the Stettbach bicycle stand until 31st march 2009

Along with the construction of the Glattal railway the Stettbach station will be converted. The Eco Team, together with the cyclist syndicate of Eawag, was able to broker a rental agreement with the new owners, the Glattal VBG. This will allow us to continue to make use of the current building until 31^st March 2009. Thereafter this building will be demolished. We are in contact with the planning team for the new station in order to secure a solution for the future. The new station and the Glattal railway will be operational as of 2010.

Eco-Drive course shows results

Upon invitation by the Eco Team 8 Eawag employees and one employee from the Empa/Eawag garage participated in a one-day course on safe and ecological driving on 22^nd November.

This involved teams of two driving 50km on city and mountain roads before and after the theory session. The higher the Eco-index number achieved the better.

The evaluation of the two runs was astounding:

·Even before the theory session all drivers achieved a good eco-index figure
Thanks to the application of a conscious eco-driving style (even and anticipatory driving at low revolution levels and the highest possible gear) all participants used significantly less petrol on the second run (-15%)

Conclusion: An economic, calm and safe driving style, which we learned, leads to increased security, savings on petrol and reduces the impact on the environment.

more informationen

2006

Bike to work: Eawag amongst the top-Teams

21,000 cyclists throughout Switzerland – amongst which 26 teams of 4 from Eawag – proved how health and environmental awareness can be a part of everyday life.

“Employers also profit from fit employees”, writes the organizer of the event, the cyclist syndicate, in its conclusion. With a participation of 31% ,Eawag ranks 3^rd amongst businesses of 200-500 employees, neck and neck with the HEKS relief organization.
"And this result was achieved despite some employees who always bike to work anyway not participating.”, says Christiane Rapin of the Eawag Eco-Team.  Three of the awarded prizes went to Eawag: Janina Pohl (Eco) and Chris Zurbrügg (Sandec) received a new bike saddle, Silvana Velten (SWW) an Ortlieb bag.  More information at www.biketowork.ch.

Only not driving is more eco-friendly

Recently Eawag in Kastanienbaum has moved to low-emission mobility in the service of science and became the owner of a natural gas car. The Opel Combo 1.6 CNG can run on natural gas, biogas or petrol. Best eco values are achieved by running it on biogas that can be purchased in Kriens and Lucerne.

The Eawag environmental officer, Thomas Lichtensteiger, praised the environmentally friendly replacement that was driven by the Eco Team. Further information can be found at: www.erdgas.ch; of course the spacious vehicle still requires tyres, some sheet metal and a parking space. “It goes without saying that not driving at all is still better.” Says Lichtensteiger.“

New building

The construction of the building was preceded by a demolition (Neubau Center West, Eawag / Empa Dübendorf (pdf, 1.7 MB))

According to Zschokke AG general planning team (today Implenia) the dismantled raw materials were separated and treated as follows (the demolished buildings on the site of the Chriesbach forum were mainly wooden constructions):

Excavated material:

70% of excavated materials were reutilized during the construction of the new building.

The rest was taken to Hüntwangen and Volketswil; some was taken to Lohstetten (D) in the return run from cement deliveries that would otherwise have been empty.

Wood: Wood+Stock-Recycling in Otelfingen

Cement: Cement-recycling centre in Rümlang (H. U. Kuster AG)

Cement asbestos: Barinag (Stutz AG)

Metals: Dietiker Metallhandel AG in Regensdorf

Insulation and bulky goods: Hagenholz incinnerator

This distribution guaranteed best means of disposal/utlization.

2004

Eco Team field trip, 26th August

Report: Heinrich Bührer, Yvonne Lehnhard, viewing of the WATTWERK in Bubendorf and the TENUM in Liestal.
Report [pdf]

Frog relocation, 8th July 2004

Detailed report [pdf]

2003

Communication

An Eco-Team-Label was launched to highlight and recall environment-friendly products, processes and attitudes.
The label will be assigned according to the following criteria:

Realisation of an ecological improvement
Identification of the best available alternative

Proposals for possible labelings can be handed in by everybody.

Blue label for new ecological improvements
Green label for existing ecological concepts

Elektro-Scooter

The Eco-Team, in collaboration with Rolf Kipfer and Andreas Peter, has bought an electric scooter for Eawag. This scooter is available for all employees (after appropriate introduction) for short distances (e.g. Eawag-ETH Zentrum). A shed for the scooter was built close to the Pavilion.

RUMBA

RUMBA, the management of resources and environment in the federal administration (Resourcen- und Umweltmanagement in der Bundesverwaltung) was succelsfully introduced at Eawag. The successful final audit was celebrated in spring 2003.
More information about RUMBA in the ETH-domain

2001

Experimental hall

Building of a new experimental hall meeting ecological criteria
more information [pdf] (german)

2000

Energy and material fluxes

First yearly registration of the energy fluxes and certain material fluxes (water, consumer goods, products, waste) with the computing model SIMBOX.

Handbooks

Handbooks «Öffentliche Beschaffung. Leitfaden für eine nachhaltige Beschaffung» (manual for sustainable procurement of infrastructure) and «Wirtschaftliche und umweltschonende Gebäudereinigung» (economical and ecological cleaning of buildings) of the Interessengemeinschaft Ökologische Beschaffung (IGÖB)