As pioneers in urban mining, the Eberhard companies turn building rubble into raw material. As a result, old buildings and entire cities become “mines of the future”. With this concept, the traditional company convinced the jury of the Swiss Business Environment Award, chaired by former Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard.
The aim of the Umweltpreis der Wirtschaft (Business Environment Award) is to demonstrate annually the connection between business success and sustainable action. Companies cannot apply directly, but are nominated through the partners of the Swiss Environmental Foundation. 2020 the jury awards the prestigious prize to the Eberhard Unternehmungen. This was after it successfully won the traditional pitch at CE2 – Circular Economic Entrepreneurs, the latest conference of the Swiss Economic Forum, against the other two finalists Pickwings and Kitro.
Environmental Award 2020: Eberhard Unternehmungen convinces with Urban Mining
The Eberhard Unternehmungen summarize their vision of eliminating the largest waste stream in Switzerland, construction waste, under the term Urban Mining. In order to achieve this, they not only rely on technical innovation; an important part of the circular economy, according to the company, is also the information about and understanding of the interrelationships.
“This award is a great honour for us and confirms our long-standing commitment. But we are still a long way from reaching our goal. We must succeed in the transformation to a circular economy as soon as possible!Martin Eberhard, CEO
As early as 1983, the Eberhard family business recognized the potential of sustainable management and invested accordingly. Today, its recycling centre processes up to 450,000 tonnes of mineral rubble annually, which is available for new buildings. For example, 99 percent of the new Europaallee in Zurich was built using quality building materials from second hand.
More about Eberhard Unternehmungen and the Swiss Business Environment Award 2020 for Urban Mining
Finalist for the Environmental Award 2020: Kitro AG
Kitro provides its users with an instrument for the measurement and containment of food waste. The company addresses the problem of food waste and low profit margins in the food and beverage industry.
We can reduce avoidable food waste in commercial kitchens by up to 60%. In addition, we can save other valuable resources that serve as collateral for food waste, such as water, energy and land use.
Kitro AG
The aim of Kitro AG is to automatically measure and monitor the amount of food waste, to optimise operational processes and thus ultimately to avoid food waste.
More about Kitro (Website Swiss Environmental Prize 2020)
Finalist for the Environmental Award 2020: Pickwings
Pickwings is a platform for transport services in Switzerland, which connects shippers and transport companies in real time. This makes it possible to easily create transport orders within a few seconds and to send them according to the matching principle with the largest online delivery network of more than 6,000 trucks.
One in four trucks on Swiss roads is empty. The business model of Pickwings is designed to use the empty kilometres to enable CO2-optimised shipping of goods by road.
Pickwings
Since 2020, Pickwings has been awarding the “Green Transport Label” to companies that have made a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions and empty kilometres on Swiss roads by placing their transport orders. For each transport order, customers of the company can also choose to donate a tree seedling for one franc.
More about Pickwings (Website Swiss Environmental Prize 2020)
Quotations from companies with kind permission Swiss Environmental Foundation / Environmental Prize of the Economy