An expert’s view on how it can be done

Nowadays mankind is facing several environmental challenges such as climate change, air pollution, the preservation of biodiversity and scarcity of resources. Switzerland is affected by the global environmental challenges as well.

As Evi Vanakari, a consultant on environmental management and sustainable development, assesses the situa-tion, climate change can have negative impacts on the Swiss tourism industry, especially if there will not be enough snow in the winter sports resorts. Agriculture could also be influenced by climate change, she adds, and another environmental issue that will become increasingly important is air quality.

Transport contributes significantly to air pollution in Switzerland, according to Vanakari, and with the growing importance of mobility the problem will become even more acute. She says that policymakers should find ways to combine attractive public transport with incentives that encourage the use of “cleaner” vehicles such as electric and hybrid in order to reduce air pollution in city areas.

She emphasizes that when facing all these challenges, it is important not to underestimate one environmental problem versus another in order to move towards sustainable solutions and sustainable products.

Life-cycle thinking

Evi Vanakari defines “life-cycle thinking” as a process that evaluates “all possible consequences and impacts that a product or a service will have through its life cycle”. By “life cycle” she means from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing until the end fate of the product, the disposal phase.

For Vanakari, the importance of life-cycle thinking lies in the holistic approach that enables moving towards more sustainable solutions, which take into consideration environmental, economical and social criteria in a balanced way without compromising innovation and development.

Vanakari is convinced that life-cycle thinking helps to avoid shifting from one environmental problem to another. This is particularly important with regards to water and energy, two resources that are often linked in daily life.

In her opinion, the production of agrofuel is an example that illustrates this dilemma. Agrofuel is an attempt to move away from oil depletion, but through the life-cycle thinking approach, it becomes clear that water consumption increases. This rise is due to the fact that farming and the growing of crops for the fuel requires much water. There is therefore a potential risk of the environmental problem shifting from oil depletion to water depletion. In addition, there is a concern with regards to the land use related with the growing of these crops.
Vanakari advocates that these risks can be identified and possible solutions found through the life-cycle thinking approach.

Evident solutions not always appropriate

Water is very often overlooked as other challenges and resources catch our attention. Vanakari exemplifies this by yet another case: the intent of trying to reduce solid waste in businesses and public administration.

In many companies, plastic cups are used to drink coffee and are thrown away afterwards. To reduce waste, an evident solution is to replace the plastic cups by porcelain ones, which can be washed and used again; however, companies that switched to porcelain cups had an increase in water consumption. A shifting from the waste problem to water consumption has occurred. For that reason, the most evident solution – in this case substituting plastic cups with porcelain ones – is not always the most appropriate.

Also, in Vanakari’s view, there is no standard sustainable solution for one environmental problem, but each case has to be analysed individually depending on geographic area con-straints and case specifications.

The tools are here

Every concept needs its application to achieve reality. Life-cycle assess-ment tools are the bridge between theory and practice. Environmental experts use them to make quantitative and qualitative assessments.

According to Vanakari – who contributed to the European expert’s panel CHAINET (European Network on Chain Analysis for Environmental Decision Support) with regards to en-vironmental and life-cycle Assessment tools – there is a large pallet of environ-mental tools that should be combined to address efficiently environmental concerns.

Switzerland has a long history of activity in environmental research and developments. Most of the large Swiss universities, such as the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich, carry out extensive environmental work. The Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape provides high-quality data-bases that have been widely used by consultancies, institutes and companies not only in Switzerland but also in other European countries, for instance in the UK, France, Germany and Holland.

All of these tools are much solicited and appreciated by environmental experts and the companies they advise.

Multidisciplinarity leads to desired results

Vanakari believes that in the environment domain, multidisci-plinary thinking is essential in order to come up with sustainable solutions. To find these solutions, she is convinced that, on the one hand, environmental expertise is needed and, on the other, the collaboration of everyone involved in the life cycle of a product or service is important.

For Vanakari, the development of a new design for the package of a product is a good illustration of how a multidisciplinary team should work. The designer is concerned about the functionality of the package and the safety of the product. If the designer works together with the environmental expert from the beginning, a much more sustainable package is the result. This is due to the fact that the environmental expert brings the environmental matrix to the designer, who then takes this into account in assessing the product before developing the package. Vanakari stresses that by considering the environmental aspects at an early stage, investment in non-sustainable solutions can be avoided.

Finding good solutions is excellent but only useful if they are applied. In Vanakari’s view, this can be achieved if there is good collaboration between environmental experts and the top management who have the power to make commitments and to implement solutions.

No panacea for all environmental concerns

Vanakari emphasizes that no standard solutions exists for our environmental challenges; instead, every case has to be considered indi-vidually. She adds that many tools are at our disposal. Clean technologies and cleaner production are part of these. They include the use of renewable resources and life-cycle thinking, and therefore present valuable solutions with respect to water use and energy consumption.

Clean technology is a concept that, when applied in manufacturing and processing industries, avoids pollution and waste at source. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines cleaner productions as “the continuous application of an integrated, preven-tive environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services in order to increase overall efficiency and reduce damage and risks to humans and the environment”.

In Vanakari’s view, the aim of clean technology and cleaner production is to optimize operations, minimize waste and water and energy consumption, and risks, targeting “zero” emissions and a minimum of resources consumption.

Summing up, Vanakari explains that the key to environmental solutions is “to use anything possible in the knowledge acquired so far to drive to our aim”. She adds that, “We have environmental management best practices, life-cycle thinking and environmental tools, clean techno-logies and cleaner productions concepts.” Accordingly, all of these instruments and expertise can be combined “in order to address future environmental challenges success-fully”.

Evi Vanakari is a consultant on Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. She is a chemical engineer with a Master of Science in Clean Technologies – Environmental Management. With her broad experience from Procter & Gamble in the UK, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, she assists her clients in addressing their concerns in the areas of environmental performances, safety and sustainability decision-making and environmental management systems.

The world’s melting glaciers

In search of the last ramparts of wilderness, Swiss artist Tonatiuh Ambrosetti immortelizes the rapidly retreating Alpine glaciers in his color photographs and testifies the impact of excessive human activity.

Through human intervention man impacts the natural wilderness
ideal at the same time gradually blurring the boundaries between
the two worlds.

The future of renewable energy as seen by Bertrand Piccard

“All that is impossible remains to be achieved”

Imprisoned at the hands of King Minos, Daedalus and his son Icarus sought a way to escape from their exile on Crete. Since the seaways were under Minos’s control, there was only one option remaining: the open sky. Daedalus built two pairs of wings wind, became too high-spirited and soared up to the sun. The sun melted the wax of his wings and he crashed into the sea.

This Greek myth is often cited as an illustration of the tragic consequences of presumption. While not accusing Bertrand Piccard of presumption, the fact remains that the adventurer from Lausanne has much in common with the mythological Icarus. However, for Piccard, the sun is not the symbol of perdition but rather the source of success.

Desert inspiration

On 1 March 1999, Piccard and his co-pilot Brian Jones landed their hot-air balloon in the desert of Egypt, having successfully circumnavigated the globe, a journey of 40,755 km. A new chapter of aviation history was written.

In spite of the impressiveness of his achievements in the air, one of Piccard’s defining moments actually came after the balloon was safely on the ground. When Piccard checked how much fuel was left in his balloon’s tanks, he was shocked to see that the fuel levels were almost empty and to realize that he and Jones had come dangerously close to failing their mission. The balloon had left Switzerland with almost four tonnes of liquid propane gas, but at the end of the trip only 40 kilos were left.
“That day, I promised myself that the next time I would fly around the world it would be independent from fuel,” Piccard says today. That day, the idea of circling the world in a solar airplane was born, and it was a project to which the charismatic psychiatrist would devote the next period of his life.

The former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt once said that “people who have a vision should go see a doctor.” However, in Piccard’s case, the visionary spirit is a hereditary disease.
His grandfather Auguste Piccard, a distinguished professor of physics, was the first human to ascend to the stratosphere and to see the curvature of the earth’s surface.
Bertrand’s father Jacques Piccard was also an explorer, albeit of another dimension. On the basis of Auguste’s invention of the pressurized cockpit, Jacques dove 10,916 metres below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, setting the still unbroken deep-dive record.

Pushing the limit

By flying around the world with solar power, the 51-year-old Bertrand Piccard literally closed the family circle.
The goal to forgo fossil fuel, however, raises the basic question about the alternatives to non-renewable energy resources. The project draws upon the rapid development of the solar energy industry in recent decades. Yet today’s photovoltaic cells can provide the motor of an airplane with a mere 6 kW over 24 hours. That is roughly the amount of power the Wright brothers had available to them in 1903 when they made their first powered flight.

Still, the challenge to construct an airplane that could fly powered solely by its own energy day and night has stimulated the spirit of innovation of scientists and engineers. In collabora-tion with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, a host of experts has developed a prototype of an airplane which is able to meet the challenge. It is extremely light, aero-dynamic and energy efficient: the take-off weight is less than 1,500 kilograms, the wingspan is 61 meters and a central computing system adapts the energy consumption of the plane to the particular flight conditions.
By pushing the technological limits, the plane – named “Solar Impulse” – aims to inspire scientific research in the field of energy resources and to increase awareness about renewable energies.

Ambassador of the future

Although few would deny that Solar Impulse promotes technological innovation, it could also be argued that the Solar Impulse is just a drop in the ocean and that Piccard’s project is mostly intended to please the media. However, the symbolic impact of circling the world should not be under-estimated. After all, the dream of flying is as old as mankind.

The vision of a green future fuelled by renewable energies is the main driver of the project. The recent turmoil in the financial markets has shifted the focus away from environmental con-cerns in a lot of heads. Nevertheless, Piccard is convinced that his vision has a strong tailwind. He depicts the current economic crises as a salutary tempest which offers the opportunity to modify our energy consumption habits. While energy hogs of the car industry and no-frills airlines are the dinosaurs of transportation, Solar Impulse is the ambassador of the future. It reminds us that the possibilities of technological innovations can make the fantasies of Jules Verne’s novels into reality – but only if men of action are ready to think beyond the limits of conventional wisdom.

This June, the Solar Impulse prototype will be unveiled and will take its first trial run. The big flight around the world is scheduled to take place in 2011. After more than 2000 years, Icarus might finally be avenged.

L.Raphael adds a touch of glamour to the glittering Cannes Films Festival

L.RAPHAEL’s luxurious Beauty Suite at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes has become the new beauty “Mecca” for the film industry. Movie stars and other guests attending the Cannes Film Festival discovered L.RAPHAEL’s magical touch and its technologically advanced aesthetic treatments while making the most of it during these special days and intensive public exposure.

The 2009 Cannes Film Festival marks the first time that L.RAPHAEL – the Geneva-based premium beauty brand – provided beauty services for the stars. The brand which launched its first “Temple of Beauty” on Geneva’s prestigious Rue du Rhone in 2005 was chosen by Chopard to provide the magical touch of beauty to the skins of the stars.

As some of the stars arrived on the French Riviera a short time before their encounters with the Press, the thousands of cameras and the public at large, they were in desperate need of a quick revitalizing boost for their skin and L.RAPHAEL’s exclusive treatments came to their rescue. The demand exceeded expectation so much so that some of the stars could not be accommodated in L.RAPHAEL’s Beauty Suite, and an L.RAPHAEL aesthetician along with L.RAPHAEL’s exclusive equipment were sent directly to the stars’ suites for their treatments.

L.RAPHAEL was also present at the glittering Gala event hosted by Chopard and hosted a special media gathering earlier the same day.

Forecasting with insight

Can a study that prices the ongoing conflict in the Middle East at US$ 12 trillion
change attitudes and break down ideological barriers?

Putting a price tag on things usually has a way of making people look at them differently.

This is the reasoning behind a report recently published by the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) on the cost of conflict in the Middle East. The report comes to the conclusion that since 1991 the There could have been an average of 8% growth per year in the Middle East in the last 20 years had there been peace and cooperation. Upon being confront-ed with such staggering numbers, the question automatically arises: How did they come up with these numbers?

A collaborative process

Sundeep Waslekar

Sundeep Waslekar, the founder of the Strategic Foresight Group and one of the main figures behind the report, explains the collaborative efforts behind the report: “We had very substantial involve-ment by experts representing almost all the major political constituents in the Middle East, both through bilateral consultations as well as collective reflection. This was an important aspect of this undertaking.

We also organized workshops involving senior experts, heads of think tanks and former ministers from all the twelve countries concerned in the report, except for Syria.These experts sat together and developed their under-standing of what the costs are, choosing the parameters we should take into consideration. This collaborative process was the foundation on which consensus between the experts evolved.”

A useful impact on policy discourse

The Cost of Conflict in the Middle East is the third report in a series published by the SFG on the cost of conflicts. The SFG published the first report in this series on India and Pakistan in 2004. “A lot of people that were in favour of reconciliation [between India and Pakistan] said that the information and the analysis within the report was very helpful,” Waslekar comments. “The report received a lot of attention worldwide and we started receiving requests from other conflict zones to prepare similar reports.” Thus, in 2006 a report on Sri Lanka was completed.

In 2007, Sundeep Waslekar attended an SFG meeting hosted by His Rt. Hon. Lord Alderdice at the British Parliament with parliamentarians from the European Union, the Chief of Staff of the Arab League Secretary General’s office and a senior American public policy figure. As Waslekar relates, during this meeting, “the Arab and American officials jointly suggest-ed that since the Cost of Conflict Report for India-Pakistan and Sri Lanka had an impact on the policy discourse, it would be useful if we [SFG] would produce a similar report on the Middle East.”

But Waslekar wanted to make sure that the report would be the product of unhindered independent research. “We wanted to do the report for the entire region. It was important to us to include views and analysis not only from Arab countries, but also from Israel. We started looking for neutral partners. Switzerland, Norway and the AK party in Turkey were all very happy to help us in this process.”

Unravelling a spider web of complexities

And so the difficult process of trying to price one of the most complex conflict zones in the history of mankind commenced. In contrast to the earlier reports that dealt with one and two countries respectively, the Middle East report covers 12 countries. “We had no choice; we were forced to take all these different countries into consideration, given the dynamics of the region”, states Mr. Waslekar. “While we realized that the Israel/Palestine conflict is at the core of the conflict situation in the Middle East, it is closely linked to the other conflicts in the region. It is very difficult to separate these other conflicts when you are measuring the impact.”

In addition to the highly inter- woven nature of conflicts in the Middle East, the report points out another interesting characteristic of political violence in this part of the world:

“One of the biggest contributors to the cost of conflict is that the conflict is getting multiplied. Ten years ago, when you talked about the conflict in the Middle East, you talked about the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. Today, in 2009, when you talk about conflict in the Middle East, you are talking about the Israel/ Palestine conflict, about the inner

Palestinian conflict between Hamas and Fatah, about Iraq and about Lebanon. One of our analyses is that if you wait another ten years, in 2019 youmight have many more dimensions to this conflict. The longer you wait the more complicated it will become, the more actors will be involved and the more difficult it will become to resolve.”

The window of opportunity

The election of President Obama presents a new era in the relationship between the United States and the Middle East; but other factors cannot be forgotten.

As Waslekar explains, “There are two developments that have to be taken into consideration. First, we have President Obama’s appointment of a special envoy for Middle East Peace, George Mitchell. Most parties in the region have welcomed this appoint-ment. This is a positive development that creates a window of opportunity. But on the other hand you have a coalition that has recently been elected in Israel, which in my opinion is a right of centre coalition. This coalition is not favourable to a peaceful solution of the Israel/ Palestine conflict in the immediate future.”

At a time when the political dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians is in deadlock, the opportunities to bring about positive develop-ments have been minimized. Sundeep Waslekar, however, is not pessimistic.

“Since political instruments are not working, there could be an opportunity to craft economic instruments that would represent innovative tools in order to try and break the deadlock. I think there is room for positive developments, despite difficulties in the region. The critical issue here is that American leadership under Obama is willing to play a supporting role, but they want leaders in the Middle East to take initiative. And there are far too many expectations in the region that the Obama admi-nistration should take the initiative.”

The importance of the private sector

As Waslekar sees it, bringing peace to the Middle East is a huge under-taking that cannot be implemented by governments alone. “I believe that there is a very important role that public–private partnerships can play. I don’t believe that it is realistic to say that the private sector can do this alone, but neither can governments. There is thus a very serious requirement for public-private partnership. There is a very direct economic deprivation that is taking place. This leads to extremism and political problems.”

The solution, according to Waslekar, is that, “We need an economic stimulus. This economic stimulus should come from public sources. However, that is not enough. In addition to that we need a tremendous amount of private sector activity. We need to provide certain goods, which can only be provided by the private sector. But beforehand we need government action. In the case of the West Bank, where there are 600 checkpoints, the lifting of the restrictions on the movement of people is of vital importance. At the moment there is no mobility of the factors of production. If factors of production cannot move freely, the private sector cannot act. Certain important decisions must be made by policy makers to make economic activity viable. The World Economic Forum is a platform that facilitates the interaction between private and public actors. This interface is of vital impor-tance in order to reach breakthroughs.”

And the time is now: “When looking at the complexities of a conflict like the one between Israel and Palestine, there is never an appropriate moment to resolve it. If we concentrate solely on the difficulties, we will never be able to resolve the conflict. If we wait, the complications will increase. What we need to do is find windows of opportunity and try to make collaborative interventions. For that, we can’t wait for tomorrow, we have to start the action yesterday.”

For more information on the Strategic Foresight Group, visit their website at www.strategicforesight.com.

Vintage Bentley – Swiss Mountains & Valleys Rally 23 August-4 September 2009

The “Bentley Boys” were a group of exceptionally rich British car enthusiasts who drove their Bentleys at mad-cap pace in the 1920s and kept alive the marque’s reputation as the best singularly high-performing car in the world. Their exploits were truly wild and verging sometimes on “eccentric” – but they won Le Mans 4 times against “lesser” marques.

As 2009 marks the 90th anniversary of the Bentley marque, what could be more appropriate than a Rally here in Switzerland with magnificent examples of the motor-cars that have toured all over the world? Many of these vintage Bentleys have possibly travelled further than some of our readers – from the Arctic Circle (!) to Rio, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, through Africa,
Europe and the Middle East.

The rally drivers themselves will ship their cars from the US, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, England and Scotland, and, less arduously, Switzerland. Some of the participants are well-qualified, true mad-cap – in a refined way, of course. There’s one driver whose very colourful life has included owning a diamond mining operation in South Africa. Another whose family has owned a Scottish distillery for more than 200 years; and another who “lost” (OK it was “nicked”) his 80-year-old Bentley radiator cap in a rally in South Africa – an inventive Zimbabwean mechanic replaced it with a rubber gear stick cover and a champagne cork (see photo) – ingenious eh?

The tour – sponsored by Chopard, Laurent-Perrier and Victorinox – will go from Vitznau to St. Moritz, Sedrun, Interlaken, Gstaad, St-Luc, and Glion.
These magnificent vintage Bentleys have amazing histories and a glorious heritage. One of the Bentleys (a Derby) – all of whose chassis’ carry a serial number thus allowing accurate historical records of ownership to be meticulously recorded – shows the next Derby Bentley to have been acquired by H.H. The Prince Ali Khan in 1933.

A personal invitation

But here’s the exciting part: You have a personal invitation from Swiss Style to come and see the cars and chat to the drivers on Sunday 30 August at Gruyères from 11:45–12:30 (or, if you prefer of course, anywhere along the route). The cars can be viewed alone in Gruyères until about 15:30. Special permission has generously and exceptionally been granted by the commune to allow the Bentleys into the village for the morning.

So come and have a splendid free tour of these museum-quality motor-cars.
A visit to see these magnificent machines is an indispensable antidote to the trivialities of the 21stcentury – it’s not often one has the chance to see them all together.

We look forward to seeing you there. Great photo opportunity, too, with the superlative medieval backdrop of beautiful Gruyères.

Anton Mosimann – chef extraordinaire, raconteur and forever Swiss

At 62, Anton Mosimann is one of the most illustrious members of the elite European Guild of Master Chefs. A Swiss chef who went to try his luck in London 30 years ago, he has opened up new gastronomic avenues that have found acceptance all over the world.

The Mosimann name has become an established brand in the upper reaches of gastronomic excellence. Anton Mosimann has been accepted by the rather “refined” members of society in England as a highly experienced host. Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Order of the British Empire in 2004.

Swiss Style: Mr Mosimann, what made you take the step to go to London over 30 years ago to practise your con-siderable culinary skills?

Anton Mosimann: In 1973, I was offered a position as Head Chef at The Dorchester in London. This offer was a tremendous opportunity and a challenge that I was keen to accept. I was just 28 at the time but very highly motivated.

SS: Can you describe the kitchen as it was at that time in The Dorchester?

AM: The hotel was managed in a very traditional fashion. The kitchen was good but very classical, kind of heavy and somewhat old-fashioned. It was clear to me that I would have to bring a wind of change into this kitchen. All the experience that I had been able to gain up to that point turned out to be very useful. My job was, nevertheless, not always easy. Right from the start I had over 100 employees under my control that I had to manage and motivate.

SS: Before you went to The Dorchester, you worked in some of the best palace-hotels in Switzerland, such as those in Montreux, Lucerne and Gstaad. What were the other decisive steps in your career before you took the job in England?

AM: I did my apprenticeship in Twann. When it came to the final exam, I was the only one of four candidates who managed to pass. My boss at that time offered me a job in Arosa. He just could not understand why I turned down this opportunity and instead decided to go to the 5-star Grand Hotel in Vilars. I had several positions in the grand hotels in Switzerland and then I went to Japan for a year as a Head Chef and was able to gain an insight into their cuisine. It is light, honest and artistic – simply marvellous! It has influenced me tremendously to this day.
I must also mention a particular love of mine – not a woman but a fish, the herring (laughs). I went to Stockholm to learn how to prepare it from A to Z.

SS: At some point you decided to become self-employed. How did you arrive at this decision? What were you aiming for?

Anton Mosimann with Jack Nicholson

AM: During my time at The Dorchester,
I trained an enormous number of good chefs. We had a waiting list of some 650 chefs of both sexes who would have liked to work with us. That was an unbeliev-able time. But at 40, I began to ask myself, What is next? Did I want to spend another 25 years in a hotel as Head Chef or was there perhaps something more to do?
So, after 13 years at The Dorchester under five different directors and having achieved two Michelin stars, I felt I wanted to step out. Getting the two stars had given me some publicity. Up to this moment, no hotel or restaurant outside France had earned two Michelin stars. I had offers to go to Tokyo, Hong Kong or New York. But in London, I knew a lot of people who I had grown fond of. I decided to turn down all these offers and stay in London to be my own boss. Also, I noticed a particularly enchanting old church, the very one my restaurant is situated in today. Even then, there was a restaurant in this church. It came to me in a flash that here I could do my own thing. I renovat-ed the restaurant and later bought the entire building.

SS: After 20 years as an employee, you decided to set up your own company under your own name: Mosimann’s, at the Belfry in Belgravia – today, a restaurant of superlatives. Tell us about your business plan.

AM: I considered very carefully how I wanted to organize everything. Of course, the main objective was to provide the very best cuisine available. I was the first person to involve sponsors. There were three well-known companies who each sponsored a private dining room. In return, they were allowed to display their names and products in my clubs. This arrangement then was entirely new in marketing and PR. The three firms were: Tiffany’s, Gucci and Wedgewood.
Today, we have seven private dining rooms that are all sponsored. This model was not only very successful for me but also for the participating companies. I can’t even attempt to name all the companies that would love to sponsor a dining room. The waiting list is very long. Along with the quality of the food,
the quality of these sponsors and their products must also match the highest standards. This is the only way to attract people who can afford this exquisite luxury.

SS: In the early 19thcentury, Jean
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Antonius Anthus and Carl Friedrich von Rumohr were among the first critical gourmets who began to occupy themselves at the highest level with gastronomy. Brillat-Savarin divided people who appre-ciated good cuisine into four groups: the money-men, the doctors, men-about-town and the Bible-bashers. Do you find these categories of people among your guests and, if so, which do you like most?

AM: (laughs) The guests I like best are the ones that appreciate my cooking and with whom I can develop a friendly relationship. Of course by that I mean mainly the guests that come back again and again. It is a great delight to cook for people who understand something about food and appreciate quality. I have been self-employed for over 20 years now and many of my original guests, who came when I started up, still come to dine and support my concept. We operate as a club. That is a model that has always been popular and successful in England but in other countries it is just beginning to develop. Our club now has about 2,500 members. That is quite a large number, of which we are justly proud.
SS: What has happened in European cuisine in the last 200 years since Brillat-Savarin?

AM: Well, quite a lot has happened and a detailed account would fill a book. The rather heavy cuisine of that period has been developed further. The dishes have become lighter and more varied.

Cuisine has become globalized. A few decades ago we had the so- called “nouvelle cuisine”, which was certainly a milestone in the history of cooking. I was lucky enough to be one of the few people to introduce nouvelle cuisine to Great Britain. My previous Japanese experience was a big advantage.
Furthermore, it is possible nowadays to eat without meat. I don’t think Brillat-Savarin would have permitted that.

SS: You have taken great pains to understand and then express nouvelle cuisine and in doing so have influenced it considerably. What are the main characteristics of nouvelle cuisine?

Am: Nouvelle cuisine’s main characteristic is that fresh food is used and is prepared à la minute, which is to say immediately before it is consumed. Traditional cuisine often uses products that have been prepared hours or even days before. Nouvelle cuisine attempts to preserve the original taste of the ingredients and is much lighter than traditional cuisine. This applies especially to sauces.

This cuisine, in the right hands, is fantastic. Many chefs have misunder-stood nouvelle cuisine and serve up menus under this label that in no way merit it. I myself created what I call “cuisine naturelle”. Its main charac-teristic is that it does without such ingredients as butter, cream and alcohol.
My latest cookery book has just been published in which I look inten-sively at the possibilities of cuisine naturelle. [Ed note: Anton Mosimann, Natürlich frisch, Rezepte eines Starkochs, Stämpfli Verlag AG, 2008.]

SS: Is it possible to remain modest even though you have cooked for Queen Elizabeth II, received the Order of the British Empire and meet famous people day after day?

AM: Yes, it is true; I have cooked at many state banquets for Downing Street in honour of foreign heads of state and cook every now and again for the Royal Family. But for me, it is always the product that is important. That I have the opportunity to get to know some interesting people and occasionally even make friends with important personalities is a welcome side-effect. If you are engaged as a chef by people all over the world, then you are able to make some interesting trips. I appre-ciate all these advantages and I’m very grateful for them. But, even so, my feet are firmly planted on the ground.

SS: So, in a way, you have become an ambassador for Switzerland. In your opinion, how do you personally, and your illustrious guests, see Switzerland?

AM: As far as I can gather from conversations with my guests, they have a very positive view of Switzerland. Prince Charles and the Royal Family know Switzerland well from their regular skiing holidays and they are very appreciative of our country. Kofi Annan also seems to have developed a strong attachment to Switzerland.

It is interesting to note that lots of people appreciate the fact that Switzerland has not joined the EU and has retained the Swiss franc. Swiss neutrality is also much admired and is often a topic of conversation. But that is all political and I am not in the least politically involved. I don’t really understand politics much. Whether Left or Right, Labour or Conservative, Democrats or Republicans, it is my experience that they all like to eat well and appreciate a good drop of wine (laughs).

SS: Lastly, I would like to ask you to tell us some anecdote regarding one of your illustrious guests.

AM: (laughs) There are so many stories!
In our club, you have to wear a tie and we don’t like trainers. English society sets great store by etiquette. However, when superstars like Mick Jagger turn up in a turtleneck pullover, you can’t turn them away. We do make an exception now and again.

Quite recently, we did a survey of our guests. We wanted to know whether we could dispense with ties over lunch. Our members were of the opinion that due to the very hot summer, it would be possible to come to the club without a tie at lunchtime. Since then the rule is: Lunchtime without, evenings with. However, our experience is that despite the rule, 90% of our guests come to lunch wearing a tie. On this topic, the following comes to mind. Two years ago we were invited once more to the Queen’s birthday ceremony. Everybody who is anybody was there and it was terribly hot on that day. Many of the guests were sweating quite noticeably. But despite the heat, no one took off their jackets. So you see, in England it takes more than a heat wave to cause them to depart from tradition!

Preparing students to enter into professional life

Since 1996, Ecole Hôtelière de Genève has been recognized as an Ecole Supérieure by the cantonal governments and the Swiss Confederation as an institution of public utility. Nevertheless, EHG retains a high degree of independence in the development and implementation of its training programmes leading to graduation.

The degree awarded to students who fully meet the conditions of study and courses is widely appreciated and recognized both nationally and internationally. It gives its holder permission to operate an establishment in the whole of Switzerland and also confers the title “Master of Learning”.

The cantonal authority participates actively in the final exams and the degree holder’s name is recognized and protected by the Swiss Confederation.

A programme designed for success

The goal of EHG is to prepare students to fully enter into their professional life. The pedagogical concept is based upon the school’s belief in combining its know-how as consultants to businesses and indus-tries with effective and practical tuition. This approach brings the EHG’s programmes closer to the expectations of future employers.

The school’s correspondence programme can be completed within five semesters and its content is adapted to the realities of the marketplace and to helping students succeed in their future functions.

The first semester focusing on catering is an overview of the technical and operational management of catering. This module combines general management of operations and exploration of the complex world of catering. The knowledge acquired (nutritional guidelines, menu planning, equipment and utensils, knowledge of the food and beverage association, technical services and sales is then applied in real-life situations at the school’s Vieux Bois restaurant.

Capitalizing on the knowledge acquired during the first semester, the second semester is devoted to business operations, allowing students to acquire knowledge in the management and planning of a hotel or restaurant, namely the framework and control of their development. This module deals with all administrative matters, ie academic subjects, including account-ing, Swiss law and the political economy, in the techniques of opera-tions and control of hotel reception and restaurants, through the organization of visits, conferences and events.

A paid internship in a company in Switzerland forms the basis of the third semester in order to test students’ skills in professional situations. This phase of the programme allows students to further develop their experience and confront the reality and pace of actual working environments.
The fourth semester, devoted to management and administration, is designed to develop the overall vision and techniques for successful econo-mic, commercial and corporate citizenship. Students learn the control of management tools and their application to hotels and restaurants. This human resources management, marketing, financial and technical orientation course is clearly targeted to acquiring managerial expertise.

The final fifth semester involves a paid internship in a company in Switzerland or abroad that is intended to confirm the student’s capability of organizing and coaching staff. This provides students the means to confront managerial situations in which they encounter the daily, realistic expectations of the manage-ment team and the business. The knowledge acquired during this portion of the training provides the elements needed to understand and mediate human situations, both logistical and technical, that the students will face in their future profession.

The strengths of EHG

Choosing a higher education is not simple; it is a process in which many parameters enter. The EHG approach is to provide prospective professionals with a global environ-ment that offers the best chance of success.
The EHG programme is based on the following advantages offered to students:

1. A higher education.
2. The rapidity of its studies, covering a total of 30 months, divided into five semesters with three theoretical modules (courses) and two practical ses-sions (paid internships in companies).
3. Short and intense – this high-level training is appreciated by students who want to enter quickly into a fascinating life.
4. A recognized degree – The EHG diploma is recognized and appreciat-ed by professionals in the hotel and catering sectors, while offering a choice of exciting and varied careers and a fantastic opening to the professional world. In addition, companies in the tertiary industries (banks, tourist offices, insurance companies, etc.) also offer profes-sional alternatives in areas that make the service a real asset.
5. Small classes and a school on a human scale is one of EHG’s priori-ties in optimizing the acquisition of knowledge – 6 to 8 students in prac-tical training and 22 in theory; a policy that promotes the sharing of experiences and relationships.
6. A team education – Experienced teachers have all previously held a high position in the hierarchy of the hotel or catering industries, an expe-rience that allows them to provide theoretical knowledge in line with students’ future professional careers. An excellent theoretical approach –
7. The concept of students acquiring practical experience during their studies is an advantage offered by EHG’s catering courses at the school’s Vieux Boisrestaurant, located on the premises, provides the opportunity for students to prove them-selves in real-life; frequently hosting a demanding clientele, including delegations from international organizations and from the political, economic and artistic sectors.

Combined with the two practical semesters of internships, this strength complements the high-level skills that EHG students ultimately acquire. The environment of EHG is an attractive one, located in the heart of the international organizations and close to the railway station, airport and city centre, and surrounded by a green park. Recently renovated and enlarged, EHG provides a modern infrastructure and an environment conducive to concentration and development.

Lastly, EHG prides itself on its attractive tuition structure. School fees are very attractive in regards to college-level training. Moreover, the school’s policy has always been that of transparency: the costs presented include all the services and supplies.

For further information on the Ecole Hôtelière de Genève’s courses and programmes, please visit the school at Avenue de la Paix, 12, Geneva (tel: +41-(0)22 919 24 24; fax: +41-(0)22 919 24 28; e-mail: info@ehg.ch; web: www.ehg.ch.)

Fert allows you to take care of business

It is no secret that business travel can be hectic for everyone involved. From the travel agency to the enquiring company all the way down to the individuals involved in making the arrangements, managing business travel undoubtedly involves a superior finesse.

Olivier Dupont, CEO of Fert, an independent travel management company established in Geneva since 1871 counting around 100 employees, sat down with Swiss Style and discussed what one of the leading travel agencies in Switzerland is doing to help businessmen and women in keeping their travel headaches to a minimum.

In today’s economy, making sure business deals run smoothly is more crucial and complicated than ever, and that is exactly what Fert focuses on and accomplishes – from start to finish.

With their “Travel Management Collection”, Fert provides proactive, efficient, localized and specialized services aimed at optimizing work travel according to their clients’ specifications.

Go the easy way with tailor-made travel

As self-proclaimed tailors of travel, Fert considers their profession to be an art form that combines “know-how, creativity, precision and respect”. By paying close attention to budgetary considerations and arranging travel with respect to the importance placed upon timing and ease, Fert invests in experienced consultants who can make a difference.

Pleasing you as the traveller is of course high on Fert’s priority list; however, they never lose sight of the company behind the traveller who needs to maintain certain financial limitations as well as time constraints.

As just one example of how Fert operates, Mr Dupont described a recent request the agency had received from a Swiss bank. The bank had a business deal with an airline that provided a ticket for an employee to travel from A to B via C for 7,291 Swiss francs. With Fert’s intervention, the employee was booked on the same flight – only this time for CHF 4,936 – saving the com-pany a substantial amount of money.

“Whereas many agencies or Internet companies might provide good solutions for easy and point-to-point journeys, the best tariffs and travel programmes in case of multi-segment and complicated journeys can only be obtained through the involvement of experienced staff,” comments Dupont. “A comparison with medicine helps understand this very clearly: whereas one can easily find all sorts of medical information and easy reme-dies on the web, one would always run to consult with the best doctor to cure more complicated diseases. The same rule applies to travellers when it comes to managing difficult situations.”

Avoid the hassles

Dupont pointed out that while having your business collaborate with Fert’s Travel Management Collection may cost slightly more in initial fees than with other travel agencies, you may rapidly be saving as much as 20–30% in getting better tariffs and avoiding unforeseen expenses in case of flight cancellations or booking modifications.

As an influential member of specialist travel networks such as the Agences de Voyages Privées, “AVP”, (Switzerland) and International Travel Partnerships, “ITP”, (international), Fert benefits from state-of-the-art and innovative reporting and traveller locating technology as well as the support of consultants who possess advanced negotiation powers. Fert considers managing your business travel a responsibility that demands nothing short of pure dedication and personalization according to your needs.
If you have to fly, say, from Geneva to Mumbai through Frankfurt, Fert makes it their priority to ensure that you arrive in India with as few complications as possible. If an airline goes on strike or a flight is overbooked – situations often encountered by busi-ness travellers today – Fert promptly examines alternatives for you, thereby decreasing the hassle you might face standing at the ticket counter.

Taking the risks out of travelling

As with many things in the business world, business travel comes with certain risks. From the unpredictability of airline companies to minor details that can quickly turn into major problems (such as traffic to the airport), Fert has you covered.

Allowing Fert to manage not only the fine-tuning of your business travel but also the risk-taking involved in booking flights – which may or may not be cancelled and therefore potentially quite costly to your company – gives you the flexibility unavailable with most travel agencies. While you conduct your business deals after a cancelled flight that Fert managed to rebook you on the same day, you can remain worry-free about obtaining refunds and dealing with one-way conversations with outsourced employees who have no answers. Fert does all the dirty work for you.

As Dupont noted, in some cases, businesses have been refunded by Fert independently for cancelled flights or changes in bookings well before the refund has actually been administered to Fert by the airlines, due to the fact that some refunds can take up to a year to actually come through, and Fert believes in doing its best not to leave its clients waiting.
Yes, it is a risky business, but these are all risks that Fert is willing to take in order to maintain their standards in guaranteeing clients the highest levels of ethics, discretion and security.

Traveller’s interests at the forefront

In an “Ethical Charter” recently proposed by Fert and its AVP colleagues, major airlines are being asked to not only introduce some basic quality guidelines into their companies but to also maintain them throughout all travel bookings in order to optimize the ease of business travel for everyone.
While these guidelines include requests that may seem minimal to any experienced traveller, they are surprisingly being neglected by most airlines – and Fert is demanding a change. For example, one of the charter’s requests is that airlines uphold standard opening hours for call-in services so that customers and travel consultants are able to have access to a helpline during regular working hours, instead of waiting 2 days, for example, for an e-mail response from Poland to discuss a flight within Germany.

In addition, the AVP “Ethical Charter” demands that refunds should be given to customers without any query when the airline is at fault. Dupont emphasized that Fert always keeps the traveller foremost in mind when conducting travel management and that, after a long day of meetings and high-stake deal-making, he or she most likely does not want the added stress of negotiating what should be already-implemented basic require-ments of the airline industry.

“Few people realize that the travel industry has completely changed in recent years. Five years ago, travellers booked through ‘travel agents’ which were, in fact, agents of airlines receiving commissions for their work,” Dupont says. “Since the introduction of the zero-commission system in 2005, the massive service cuts implemented by most airlines in order to compete with low-cost carriers and more and more complicated pricing models, travel agents either could not cope with the dramatic change and disappeared or turned into real travel consultants who earn service and performance fees on the added value they create for their customers.”

Optimizing unparalleled work travel

Favouring direct personal contact with its clients, Fert strives to optimize work travel in unparalleled ways. Monitoring your trip from the moment you leave your home until your safe return, Fert’s established team assigned to your account will know personal preferences and constraints without asking twice.
At the end of the day, if you had a problem-free business trip and your company saved money, Fert is happy. And everybody “Wins, Wins, Wins”.
And in order to provide always better service to its customers, despite the uncertainty of the economic context, Fert hired seven new employees in Geneva this year!

For further information about Fert’s travel services, contact them at 2-4 rue Fendt, 1211 Geneva 2 (tel: +41-(0)22 730 47 03) or visit their website at http://www.fert.com.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored” – Aldous Huxley

Of late, no publication, public discourse or conference has gone by without mentioning anthropogenic global warming (“AGW”), which, in the face of some scientific disagreement and reality checks, has been rebaptized “climate change”. It has had a considerable “production value” by promoting itself as the incumbent catastrophe, widely popu-larized in the Press by the Al Gore self-propaganda machine and the film “An Inconvenient Truth”, which has terrified cinemagoers and established the course for a new carbon-less era.

All other environmental, economic, societal issues arising from human activities are ignored when not visibly connected to AGW.

Population – the immediate threat

There is, however, one very important – but neglected – issue: How are we going to feed, clothe and provide health care and a decent future for the 9 billion people (or more) – a number which current UN estimates says will be reached by 2050 – if we cannot even provide the basic necessities now?

The continuous demographic growth is the natural consequence of the very young age structure of the current world population and the momentum it fosters. A large share of the population is concentrated in the developing countries, where women average five or more children. Human pressure on the ecosystems is multi-plying all human problems; all environmental crises and AGW are the fruit of the demands of an unsus-tainable human population growth.

The immediate threat is population. On 15 February 2009 at 15:21 GMT, the population of the US reached 305,822,862, while the world was at 6,760,713,753. At 15:23 GMT, the numbers were US 305,822,872, world 6,760,714,906. In those few minutes, humanity has been very busy. Doing the numbers, the dramatic rate of daily growth becomes readily apparent. These figures imply something like one million sex acts a day. It is not our wish to deny anybody a fair share of sane enjoyment; it is just that uninhibited human fertility seems to become self-destructive.

This issue is worth discussing because it has for so long been neglect-ed. Dr John Feeney, environmental writer and owner of the Global Population Speak Out (GPSO) website (http://gpso.wordpress.com) warns that, “It is the great taboo of environmentalism: the size and growth of the human population.” I would add that it may even have something to do with AGW and, quite possibly, with the current economic slowdown and the oil crisis.

Humans create environmental history

Humanity, more than any other species, has the power to modify its environment, climate included. At least 750,000 years ago, Homo sapiens changed the climate with its use of fire in order to clear the land for hunting, destroying the forests and replacing them with grassland. An agro-pastoral economy that started in the Mediterranean basin in the early Holocene period around 10,000 years ago increased the supply of energy, resulting in an increase of population, which in turn affected all aspects of human activity.

In spite of the numerous disaffected scientists that deny the human connection to climate change, many agree that the pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than predicted, due to increased burning of coal in developing countries, as well as the clearing of forests for agriculture and habitation.

As these factors are all naturally related to the size and requirements of population, the issue is self-explanatory. Technology or punitive laws won’t be much help because, according to several authorities, “reduction in greenhouse gas emissions … will be partially offset by the increase in human activity resulting from an increase in population.”

Energy and CO2

Our provision of food and materials is now 80% dependent on fossil fuels, which has increased energy use, biomass consumption and geo-graphical range. It is obvious, however, that this cannot continue forever. In a statistical trends analysis, Walter Youngquist, Consulting Geologist of the Geothermal Resources Council and New York Academy of Science, concluded that we would run out of cheap oil well before technology can find a safe and abundant replacement. With the rise of human numbers, fierce competition between regional powers for access to scarce reserves is already on. Energy-saving makes sense for offsetting the carbon footprint – the culprit of AGW – and so does the nuclear option, as suggested by environmentalist James Lovelock.

Even the Gulf States, now holding most of the world’s oil, will be experiencing soon a decline in oil production, which explains the hurry with which some of them are spending substantial accumulated wealth in alternative energy research.

But it isn’t only industry and transport that are consuming energy. Wherever we look, we find the pre-valence of oil and other forms of fossil-based energy. Civilization created by agriculture relies on topsoil. Some estimates maintain that topsoil is being lost at least 16 times faster than it can be replaced. Today, soil fertility requires oil and natural gas; modern agriculture is a way to transform oil into food.

Now that the price of oil has gone precipitously down, do the well-documented predictions of a peak in oil production loose their authority? Not a bit. According to a new research report by Merrill Lynch, “Global oil production decline rate is set to accelerate in the coming years ….” Alas, the western world is responsible for the greatest output of emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere – and it is the total amount of CO2in the air that matters. As Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, stated in a recent IEA press release, “We … must usher in a global energy revolution by improving energy efficiency and increasing the deployment of low-carbon energy.”

Still, there’s no mention of population. Who consumes the energy? We seem to have a big problem with that subject.

Forests and CO2

Agricultural expansion through forest depletion has multiplied emis-sions of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Poor peasants need land to grow food on it. The intensification of production to provide more food to an increased population leads to a greater increase in population, which will find its safety valve in urbanization, industrializa-tion and, at the last resort, emigration.

It is claimed that by 2030 the world population will require a 50% rise in food production. Moreover, corporate farms provide food on a huge scale, as grazing pastures for the meat that a growing market requires.

Moreover, demand for biofuel rivals food production, pushing food prices up. The plight of the developing world is echoing louder and louder in the conference rooms of international planners; however, the idea that demography has something to do with the world’s capacity to produce enough food doesn’t seem to figure in their agendas. Instead, these specialized NGOs issue proposals that recommend putting an end to malnutrition as a major policy objective of governments.

Limits to demographic expansion

The number of animals grows as fast as resources permit. This rule applies to humans even when there’s only the perception that the resources are infinite, as it has been during the past “Age of Plenty”. But economic rules apply to ecology: a growing number of consumers augmenting exponentially their consumption leads to depletion of resources and final collapse.

According to Pareto, the allocation of resources cannot improve some-body’s conditions without undermin-ing someone else’s. His calculation that 80% of effects depends on 20% of causes has been applied to every sort of phenomena, and it is especially men-tioned in the global distribution of wealth. “If the poorest 80% of humanity were to adopt the patterns of consumption presently enjoyed by the richest 20%, we would face an ecological, social and political disaster. Even so, the sole intent of the World Bank, the International Monetary

Fund, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is to create a so-called homogeneous, global world. Such a feat is structurally and politically impossible.” (Xabier Gorostiaga, “World has become a ‘champagne glass’ – globalization will fill it fuller for wealthy few”, National Catholic Reporter, 11.2.2009)

As the dependence on cheap energy has created an illusion of continuous growth, economic failures, due to an excess of supply, have been metabolized through massive injections of liquidity, based on public and private debt. In this entire crisis, the overpopulation is the thermometer of the limits to growth and at the same time the incentive to more economic growth: more births mean more consumers, a humanity whose main credo is compulsive consumption of useless throw- away products, which deplete more and more precious resources needed for sustaining basic necessities.

Population restraint developed in industrial countries is not sufficient. It may be that Italy, Spain, and some other European countries are below the replacement level of two babies per woman, but immigrants are more than happily obliging to fill the gap. In the US and the UK, where the population is growing due to high immigration rates, the immigrants themselves have acquired western consumption habits.

Besides, land is a limiting factor: where are we going to put them all? Newspapers have a social duty; it seems, to sustain the cause of solidarity and ethnic diversity, in order to justify immigration. Today, any state which closes its frontiers will be called fascist, so the dialogue on immigration becomes a taboo, just as the world population of migrants hits 175 millions. But now, when the local workforce finally appears willing to do the “jobs that the locals don’t want to do” and we face rising unemployment, the immigrants are becoming economically obsolete.

To answer the question of how many people the Earth can support, ask yourself another question: “What kind of world do I want?”

The way to a sustainable future

The Kyoto negotiations are more or less an ethical declaration which indicates that the natural metabolism has been fatally modified by the social and economic metabolism of a growing population.

Years of negotiations have shown that industrialized countries are not willing to sacrifice the well-being of their populations, while developing countries are reluctant to accept constraints on their growth. Similarly, Milton Friedman stated: “Only a crisis produces real change.”

If opinion makers, politicians, economists and business entrepre-neurs were obliged to study the principles of ecology, they would finally understand the connection of an affluent lifestyle based on non-renewable resources and the folly of overpopulation. They would be able to overturn pro-natalist and pro-immigrant policies and help the Third World to limit, with available humane methods, their fertility to a more sustainable level.

Maria Luisa Cohen is the founder and President of the Assisi Nature Council, Association for Environmental Education and Ethics, and an endorser of the “Global Population Speak Out (GPSO) Letter”. An author and frequent contributor to several publications, she also organizes seminars, conference and events, and is consulting editor of the journal Environmental Awareness.