Joint²Initiatives Final Event

Wednesday 9 Sept 2026, 09:00 → 17:00 Europe/Zurich

Eventfabrik

Übersicht # Overview # L'Aperçu

 

Ort / Venu /  Lieu de l'événement

Eventfabrik

Fabrikhalle 12, Fabrikstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, Busstop: Güterbahnhof

09:30 → 10:00 Registration and Welcome Coffee

10:00 → 10:10 Welcome / Grusswort

Speaker: Michael Hengartner (President ETH-Board)

10:10 → 10:40 Keynote: "Die Herausforderungen unserer Zeit lösen wir nur gemeinsam"

Speaker: Carole Küng (Ko-Direktorin Sustainable Development Solutions Network Switzerland)

10:40 → 11:40 Key learnings from working together

Tandem talks, academics and practitioners share their experiences

10:40 How insights from the Joint Initiatives can help shape policies

Speakers: Josephine Herzig (Expedition Zukunft), Reto Knutti (Joint Initiative SPEED2Zero)

10:50 Digital Twins at the service of a sustainable future through integrated urban systems

Speakers: Clément Dromart (Service Industriels Lausanne), Pål Austnes (Joint Initiative UrbanTwin), Catarina Braz (Joint Initative UrbanTwin)

11:00 Engagement with society

Speakers: Isabelle Zutter (Geschäftsstelle Jurapark Aargau), Philipp Lischer (Joint Initiative Reallabor Jurapark Aargau)

11:10 Building exhibits between two worlds

Speakers: Martin Ettlinger (Direktor Verkehrshaus der Schweiz), Christian Schaffner (Joint Initiative ES4T)

11:20 Q&A on key learnings

11:40 → 12:00 Marketplace pitches & introduction afternoon (parallel sessions)

12:00 → 14:10 Meet & Eat

12:00 Lunch

12:10 Marketplaces / films / exhibits

13:30 Dessert & coffee

14:10 → 15:40 Communicating Science - The importance of knowing your audience

The parallel session 'Communicating Science' will share key insights from the Joint Initiatives “Engage” and “ES4T” in the form of an interactive, improvisation-based workshop led by anundpfirsich.
The workshop highlights the importance of knowing your audience, self-awareness, storytelling, games and interaction. It uses theatre methods to convey insights in the context of energy, climate and biodiversity. Participants will gain practical communication tools that they can apply in their own work — and enjoy themselves in the process!

Speaker: anundpfirsich Improvisation Theatre

14:10 → 15:40 Harnessing nature for Net-Zero: Biodiversity, biomaterials and sustainable forests

Bio-based materials will play an important role in achieving the net-zero emission target, replacing materials made from fossil sources in sectors such as construction and the chemical industry. In this session, we discuss emerging and established biomaterials, their supply and value chains, as well as innovative applications.
One focus will be on the assessment how biodiversity data and ecological modelling can guide land-use decisions in a changing climate while balancing conservation and societal needs.
Another focus of this session will be the use of proteins as emerging bio-based material. Here, the importance of the choice of feedstock will be discussed, as well as innovative processes to enable the utilization of protein-based materials for a broad range of applications.
The third focus is on the sustainable and efficient use of wood and wood-based products. This will include an analysis of how forests will look in the future, how much and what type of wood they will provide and how this wood could optimally be used in a cascading manner.

14:10 Welcome

Speaker: Michèle Erat (Joint Initiatives Management Office)

14:18 Land use and biodiversity in Switzerland: from data to decision-making

How can biodiversity conservation be integrated into land-use decisions under climate change and growing societal demands? This presentation highlights how recent advances in biodiversity data, ecological modelling, and spatial planning are helping to build a national evidence base for decision-making. Drawing on nationwide analyses spanning thousands of species, it illustrates how biodiversity patterns can be mapped, projected, and translated into actionable insights for conservation and sustainable land-use planning.

Speakers: Florian Altermatt (Joint Initiative SPEED2Zero), Antoine Adde (Joint Initiative SPEED2Zero)

14:40 Climate benefits in Switzerland through adapted forest management and wood cascading

Forests, woody biomass, and timber products contribute to reducing CO$_2$ emissions in Switzerland. We assessed how climate benefits of the forest and wood sector can be sustained or enhanced by analyzing the Swiss wood system from forests and harvesting trough the technosphere to end-of-life. Key measures include climate-adapted, risk-aware forest management and improved cascading use of wood by matching wood flows with material requirements.

Speakers: Esther Thürig (Joint Initiative SCENE), Nadia Malinverno (Joint Initiative SCENE)

15:00 Proteins for a sustainable future

Modern industries discard protein-rich food waste while manufacturing depends on petroleum-based carbon. This presentation examines valorization routes that convert proteins from food side streams, and those generated by fungal bio-conversion of carbohydrate waste, into materials for packaging, water purification and CO$_2$ capture. It shows how these materials can be repeatedly recycled by de-polymerization into amino acids and reassembly into new proteins, positioning proteins as key to closing the carbon loop.

Speaker: Tiffany Abitbol (Joint Initiative Proteins for Future)

15:20 Approaches to increase material-efficient wood utilization in construction

Adapting the construction sector to changing forest ecosystems while maximizing timber's potential as a carbon sink requires innovative material strategies. The MainWood project addresses this challenge by developing holistic strategies across the timber value chain to enhance resource efficiency and decarbonize the built environment. This presentation highlights our materialization efforts, investigating four complementary strategies across the wood value chain for innovative wood processing and products to ensure efficient timber utilization. Together, these integrated approaches demonstrate how technological innovation and cascading material flows render the timber industry more resilient to resource fluctuations.

Speaker: Sandro Stucki (Joint Initiative Mainwood)

14:10 → 15:40 Living Net-Zero: Health, environment and well-being in the transition to climate neutrality

In the session, we discover co-benefits and tradeoffs inherent to Net-Zero transition pathways.
We present a decision-support tool in achieving local and national climate targets, validated in the city of Lausanne. This tool is based on a model of critical urban infrastructures while considering underlying socio-economic factors.
We discuss the impact of net-zero pathways on the nitrogen cycle across atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic environments in Switzerland. This includes airborne particles pollution and nitrogen deposition based on changes in NO$_x$ and NH$_3$ emissions under a changing climate, and the impact on agricultural land, grasslands, forests, and groundwater quality.
Finally, we assess the impact of adopting net-zero technologies in Switzerland on local and global air quality, including life-cycle health impacts, external costs, and potential burden shifts along international supply chains.

14:10 Welcome

Speaker: Jörg Roth (Joint Initiatives Management Office)

14:15 UrbanTwin tool: A decision-support tool for urban infrastructure planning and operation

Urban areas are responsible for 75% of green house gas emissions while they represent a natural integrator of several systems, such as energy, water, buildings, and transport. UrbanTwin is developing and validating a decision-support tool in achieving local and national climate targets. This tool is based on a detailed model of critical urban infrastructures while considering underlying socio-economic factors. This speech will present the tool and its validation at the city of Lausanne.

Speaker: François Marechal (Joint Initiative UrbanTwin)

14:35 Integrative assessment of reactive nitrogen fluxes under energy transition and climate change

Reactive nitrogen harms air quality, water, and biodiversity, making it a major environmental challenge in Europe and Switzerland. ReCLEAN integrates atmospheric, terrestrial, and freshwater research to assess reactive nitrogen cycling in future Swiss ecosystems. Using models and experiments, we project that fertilizer reduction and a net-zero energy transition by 2050 can reverse climate-driven reactive nitrogen impacts on deposition, groundwater, and forest health, with major health and economic benefits.

Speaker: Athanasios Nenes (Joint Initiative ReClean)

14:55 Health impacts and externalities of Net-Zero scenarios: Local and global air-pollution burdens

Life-cycle health impacts and external costs of Swiss net-zero pathways. This contribution assesses how domestic decarbonization can reduce local air pollution while shifting part of the remaining health burden to global supply chains.

Speaker: Adolfo Uribe (Joint Initiative SCENE)

15:15 Panel with the presenters from this session

Speakers: Adolfo Uribe (Joint Initiative SCENE), Athanasios Nenes (Joint Initiative ReClean), François Marechal (Joint Initiative UrbanTwin), Jörg Roth (Moderation) (Joint Initiatives Management Office)

14:10 → 15:40 The future of transdisciplinary research - an immersive experience

This workshop introduces transdisciplinary research as a practical approach to addressing sustainability challenges in collaboration with academia and society.
Participants from a variety of professional backgrounds will engage in interactive exercises, experiencing selected transdisciplinary methods and exploring collaborative approaches to real-world problems. The workshop also provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own contexts and share what they need from the ETH Domain to better support collaboration and sustainability efforts.

Speakers: Joint Initiative Reallabor Jurapark Aargau, Joint Initiative TCBC

15:40 → 15:50 Closing words

Speaker: Christian Rüegg (Joint Initiatives Steering Committee)

15:50 → 16:40 Apéro