Advent Calendar
on Sustainable Development 2019

20 years in retrospect

The Advent calendar on sustainable development went online for the first time in 2000 - as a commission for Novatlantis, an ambitious project of the ETH Domain. Unfortunately, this first calendar is no longer online; however, we have browsed through the more than 400 "windows" for the following years, "wiped their windows a little" and tried to identify a few trends.

<"Twenty years is an eternity. | In the digital age 20 years changes a lot and so some features and many links don't work anymore. Nevertheless, the review here and there gives reason to think, to smile and or even to shake up... There are some things we would not write like this today - e.g. recommendations for energy saving lamps with mercury or microfibre cloths... financial service providers shifted from internal, operational measures to the question of how and where to invest. The topic of energy was central from the very beginning. The topic of climate protection gained in importance and includes commitments from companies, NPOs and public bodies in roughly equal parts. The five live chats we had the pleasure of holding with the Swiss delegation from the COPs in Copenhagen, Cancun, Lima and Paris come to a frighteningly similar conclusion to the one published last week by Patrick Hoffstetter of the Climate Alliance. On the topic of biodiversity we see a shift towards urban spaces. Sport, nutrition and health tend to occur more frequently. The topics sufficiency and cycle management have played a central role in the last five years. Myblueplanet, which we were able to present shortly after its launch, has now become a strong NPO. Myclimate appears in many windows - from their marriage to Clipp in 2012, in many educational projects to the CO2-calculator for Christmas menus. The Filme für die Erde festival has grown steadily and has ventured abroad to Germany and Austria in 2019. We have accompanied the initiative Beverage Packaging Recycling for several years and hopefully in 2020 it will also make a breakthrough in larger cities.

Here you can browse through the previous windows

... or just a moment? Looking back can make you impatient too. How is it possible that the then newly elected parliamentarians whom we asked in 2004 about their commitment to climate protection are still struggling to find framework conditions that already seemed economically, ecologically and socially sensible in 2004? Only one person at the time denied the existence of climate change; today he would probably answer differently. We also asked whether the pension of Mr. and Mrs. Samichlaus was sustainably secured; the answers would probably be similar today.
>br> Uwe Schneidewind, with whose colleague Oliver Steng we had the pleasure of holding a chat on the subject of sufficiency in 2012, gave an interesting talk on the question of how long a social change takes, entitled: Future Art - Will we succeed in turning the tide towards sustainable development? Spoiler alert: It may take 80 years and could unfortunately bring us a global warming of 3 - 4 degrees. But this is no reason not to fight for every tenth of a degree, for every gigatonne left in the ground, for every vote of voters...

And what's the next step? | Will the Advent calendar of sustainable development still be needed in 10 years? Which of the many good initiatives will have a breakthrough in the next 10, 20 years? How can we meet the growing movement with many start-ups and local initiatives? How can we give the community a better voice? Can we manage the balancing act between experts and laymen? Which topics should the team tackle in 2020?
>br> We would be very pleased if you could take a few minutes to give us feedback. You can send us your thoughts via Email or discuss with us at a New Year's brunch on 3.1.2020 at Schiffbaustrasse 9a.

Many thanks to all loyal readers for participating! Your interest has driven us and made the project possible.

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