News & Trends
Green Business Award – Futuremovers 2024
The Green Business Award is decided by a jury of experts chaired by Doris Leuthard and honours innovative companies that combine economic success with ecological impact.
The Green Business Award tells the success stories of those companies that want to change the world. A special selection process by national business and environmental organisations ensures that the best companies are recognised with awards every year. Companies that convince with ecologically innovative products, technologies or services and have at least two years of market experience can be nominated.
The award will be presented on 14 February 2025 as part of Impact Gstaad’s Impact Circle. Impact Gstaad provides the award finalists with scale-up financing so that Swiss solutions can make a difference on an international level.
The following five companies have been nominated:
Algrano
Digital Green Coffee Marketplace
Fair, direct, and to the benefit of everyone — Algrano has created a digital infrastructure that allows coffee producers to sell directly to roasters. This ensures a transparent supply chain and better prices for producers. The coffee comes from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and the customers are based in Switzerland, Europe and the United States. Thanks to the direct relationship between roasters and producers, the share of certified coffee is 80 % and thus more than three times higher than the industry average (25%), resulting in a reduced carbon footprint during cultivation.
Synhelion
Sustainable Mobility Using Solar Energy
Synhelion produces synthetic fuels made from CO2 and water exclusively using solar energy. These solar fuels replace fossil fuels such as kerosene, petrol or diesel and are largely carbon neutral, as they only emit as much carbon dioxide as was captured in their production. They are also fully compatible with the existing global fuel infrastructure. Carbon-neutral fuels are an important building block for sustainable mobility. Aviation in particular will continue to depend on liquid fuels in the future.
New Roots
Plant-Based Alternatives for Cheese Lovers
Traditional crafts meet innovative products. New Roots develops, produces and markets plant-based alternatives to cheese and dairy products, crafted in Switzerland based on traditional cheesemaking techniques. Animal products are among the foods with the largest ecological footprint: cheese made from cow’s milk ranks just behind beef. Compared to cow’s milk products, the company’s products achieve a reduction of 60 percent in CO2 emissions and 40 percent in water consumption.
SELFRAG
Recovering Valuable Raw Material from Waste
About 800,000 metric tons of incineration waste are produced annually in Switzerland. SELFRAG’s technology recovers valuable metals and minerals from slag. The recovery rate of 50 per cent per metric ton is the highest in this sector and is three times the current recovery methods. For example, SELFRAG recovers more copper from a metric ton of slag than a copper mine does from a metric ton of ore. The goal is a sustainable circular economy that significantly reduces landfill space and carbon emissions.
Distran Switzerland
Ingenious Cameras for Gas Leak Detection
Distran ultrasonic cameras are a global game changer for detecting all kinds of gas leaks. Not only do they do this ten times faster than conventional technologies, but Distran also enables these tests to be performed from a safe distance for the first time. By 2026, the company’s acoustic imaging solutions will save more than 100 million metric tons of carbon equivalents. This amount corresponds to the consumption of almost 22 million cars driven for one year.
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