In 2014 Zurich Switzerland launched the Zurich Climate Prize for Switzerland & Liechtenstein for the second time. Projects are awarded which either make an effective contribution to reducing CO2 emissions or which lead to an improvement of energy and resource efficiency or to behaviour changes. The Zurich Climate Prize focuses on the following three categories: buildings & housing, production & consumption and transport & mobility. A total of 108 projects were submitted and seven winners awarded. The municipality of Hohentannen won the first prize for its project GemeindePOWER.INFRAS supported Zurich in the conceptual design and implementation of the Climate Prize. All information are availabe on klimapreis.zurich.ch.

Deep geological repositories (and their surface facilities respectively) have economic, ecological and social impacts on a siting region. These need to be identified objectively and as early as possible. It is with these objectives in mind that the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) commissioned a socioeconomic and ecological study in 2011 for all the six potential siting regions. INFRAS, together with Rütter Soceco and Ecosens, carried out the expert study. Now the final report of the study is available containing the following results:Economy: The more the construction and civil engineering as well as the metalworking sectors are represented in a region, the more added value, employment and, as a consequence, tax income are to be expected when a deep geological repository is constructed. Regions with a comparatively high proportion of sensitive sectors (tourism and agriculture), however, suffer a potentially negative impact from the presence of a deep geological repository. Environment: The highest impact concerning surface facilities arise in regard to consumption of land, crop rotation areas, excavated material as well as wildlife corridors. There is a low or no impact at all in regard to protected areas and ground water protection zones as these areas have been excluded on the basis of the site location process already. Society: The more the settlement area is dense, the aspired settlement growth is high and the surface facilities are well visible, the more a site is appraised as being negative. However, if there is industry and commerce represented in the vicinity of the site already the appraisal is less negative.All documents: www.bfe.admin.ch/soew

Sustainable consumption has become a significant trend in the last years. How is this positive trend reflected in sales of environmentally friendly products? Do we observe spectacular growth rates in niche markets or a 'greening of mass markets'? Do green products replace standard products or not? Those questions are addressed in a study on the market development of green products conducted by INFRAS on behalf of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA). The results reveal that sales of 'green' products are on the steady rise, but remain in niches in most areas of consumption. However, there is a willingness from the consumers for an increased demand of environmentally friendly products that were sustainably produced.