1000

1,000 solu­ti­ons wanted, 1,000 solu­ti­ons found: the Solar Impulse Foun­da­tion foun­ded by Bert­rand Piccard sear­ched for 1,000 approa­ches against climate change.

There’s not just one solu­tion, but 1,000. Four years ago, Bert­rand Piccard and his initia­tive, the Solar Impulse Foun­da­tion, star­ted an appeal. They sear­ched for 1,000 tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­ti­ons that could contri­bute toward reaching climate goals. And this has now been achie­ved: ‘We’ve achie­ved our goal of finding 1,000 solu­ti­ons. These comprise tech­no­lo­gies from both small and large compa­nies across the world,’ explains Bert­rand Piccard, adding: ‘but our jour­ney isn’t over yet.’

Pionee­ring spirit

The jour­ney star­ted long before the appeal. Bert­rand Piccard has dedi­ca­ted his life to solving ecolo­gi­cal chal­lenges. His mission? He wants to show­case the oppor­tu­ni­ties that arise from sustainable deve­lo­p­ment. Explo­ring new hori­zons to do so is in his DNA. His grand­fa­ther, Auguste Piccard, was the first person to fly into the stra­to­sphere in a balloon. His father, Jacques Piccard, rese­ar­ched the deep sea, which saw him diving deeper into the Mariana Trench than anyone had before. He dedi­ca­ted his work to protec­ting the oceans and seas. With his pionee­ring acts, Bert­rand Piccard has joined the family tradi­tion. He was the first person to circum­na­vi­gate the globe non-stop in a hot air balloon. He also succee­ded in being the first person to fly around the world in a solar aircraft. In order to realise this project, he foun­ded the Solar Impulse Foun­da­tion in 2003. The round-the-world stages star­ted in 2015, and were successfully comple­ted the follo­wing year.

Appeal

In 2017, the foun­da­tion laun­ched the appeal for 1,000 solu­ti­ons. These should posi­tively influence climate change, and also be viable. Solu­ti­ons that meet the foundation’s requi­re­ments are awarded with a label. Inde­pen­dent experts audit the solu­ti­ons in order to award the label. The 1,000 solu­ti­ons that have since been certi­fied come from 67 count­ries. They contri­bute to solving ecolo­gi­cal chal­lenges in the areas of water, energy, cons­truc­tion, mobi­lity, indus­try and agri­cul­ture. Bert­rand Piccard says: ‘We’ve proven that there are nume­rous solu­ti­ons that can alre­ady sustain­ably and effi­ci­ently shape our world, in a profi­ta­ble way. Now we have to ensure that govern­ments and compa­nies start to imple­ment tech­no­lo­gies suited to their situa­tions.’ A digi­tal data­base, called a ‘Solu­tion Guide’, is being deve­lo­ped for this purpose. It will offer the oppor­tu­nity to search for a suita­ble solu­tion, while also suggest­ing other solu­ti­ons at the same time. There are not just 1,000 solu­ti­ons. There are more. It’s time to use them.

Read the inter­view with Bert­rand Piccard on thephilanthropist.ch.