All Posts from Claudio Ruch
What do you mean by “sustainable”?
It has become fashionable to be sustainable: More and more companies try to aquire a green identity, products and labels rival for lucrative sustainable customer’s favour. A trendy image certainly accelerates things: More customers encourage companies to develop sustainable technologies, therefore, sustainability policies can be introduced faster. However, this process is also blurring the topic and » read on
Japanese insights at WRF 2011
Finally I have enough time to sit down and give you the insights from Prof. Masafumi Maeda’s speech, as promised in my last post on him. He mentioned at the start of his presentation facts and numbers. An interesting plot presented by him showed a strong correlation between life expectancy and GDP per capita until a » read on
The favourite scapegoat
Free market economy is often blamed to be the scapegoat these days, especially in discussions on sustainability and resources efficiency. Enterprises are accused for using resources irresponsibly. Some experts demand for stronger regulations, others claim that adapted economic models and even command economy are needed to solve the resources problem. In my opinion, the implementation of » read on
Video: Actions to improve resources management
Student reporters have witnessed a lot of highly interesting discussions, speeches and sessions at the World Resources Forum 2011 in Davos. Research, theories and improved policies are certainly important to promote resources efficiency, but nevertheless actions is what’s needed the most. With this short video we’d like to show you examples of participants of the » read on
Exciting guest from the Far East: Prof. Masafumi Maeda, University of Tokyo
Europe has learned many times from Japan. In past decades Japanese business administration principles were adapted by European management consulting agencies, Japanese art of cooking found it’s way into our restaurants and even Japanese styles of bedding are popular in Europe. Tomorrow maybe we’ll have the chance to adopt Japanese resources management into our European concepts. Masafumi » read on
Necessary aims are announced – but when will the Turning Point happen?
WRF 2011 has started and I am currently listening to the opening session. The goal of the conference has become clear: Delivering the immediately needed impact on resources management. The reason for this: change towards a more efficient use of resources and towards a closed circles economy is going to be a lot more difficult once » read on
Resources management: A new platform for counting the assets
As promised, I am bringing some information from the dinner with Jacqueline M. McGlade to you: Actually the last post did not cover at all the various and different research activities of her. Her newest project is just about to be released. It is going to be presented in mid December in Abu Dhabi and » read on
Environmental Monitoring with Jaqueline M. McGlade
Imagine someone telling you: “We are living a completely sustainable life. Exploitation of our resources for example fishery is not dangerous and there will be enough left for our children and grandchildren.” Of course you’d reply: “No, we aren’t living a sustainable life. We can’t go on like this forever.” But how could you conquer » read on
More about this author
Claudio is studying mechanical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH). His motivation to be an engineer is to enhance sustainability and the joy of creating new products. In his opinion, change towards a more sustainable economy can be supported highly by creating new technical solutions that are not only more sustainable but offer better economic performance at the same time. Claudio is highly interested in the interaction of technological innovation, social changes and policies. He is convinced that engineers and technological experts can and should influence the public discussion on sustainability more by bringing in their knowledge. His interests in mechanical engineering are mainly mechanics, control of dynamic systems and computational science. At university you'll find him either listening eagerly to lectures or teaching exercise hours himself: He cares much about handing on his knowledge to younger undergraduate students. Other key interests next to technology are economics, politics and history. Claudio is an active member of the Swiss Study Foundation, loves working in an international environment and travelling. He speaks German, English, French and Spanish and is an enthusiastic jazz saxophonist.