After an intense start into 2023, it was time for our first team event in 2023. Traditionally, we spend this day in the snow. However, since snowfall was very rare this year, we decided to discover Zurich.
Zurich is interesting for many reasons: it is the largest city in Switzerland, a high-tech centre, one of the cities with the highest living standard, topographically very interesting variable, situated on the border of a large lake, and planning and implementing Climate adaptation strategies since almost 10 years. The latter is a reason for a joint project with meteoblue and the Zürich University of Applied Sciences, with whom we set up the first real-time IoT city climate monitoring system, with hourly measurements being shown on our website and used for monitoring and improving the city climate adaptation strategy, which aims at making Zürich more comfortable for the population and for future generations.
We started the city tour with six individual groups, each discovering different parts of the city. The teams had a printing camera and individual tasks to solve and document - including very demanding tasks such as counting the organ pipes in the largest Zürich Church (was it more than 100?), crossing a Zürich waterway by (bare-)foot (with 8°C) and taking pictures with a necktie. By solving these questions, the teams could discover the city rally's final destination. It was not easy, and we lost 12 employees on the way - fortunately, our event management team had an emergency rescue plan, so at lunch, all were again re-united - having learned a lot about the city and had some fun :)
After lunch, we visited the Zürich City Garden nursery, with more than 10'000 plant species hosted in parks and greenhouses. We also learned more about the city climate and mitigation options and the use and effectiveness of vegetation in reducing extreme heat in the city.
To finish, we took the train back to our hometown Basel - a largely climate-neutral trip. Walk the talk (or maybe "ride the tide") - working out ways to learn and entertain in an environmentally friendly way. Back to our remote, heated offices at 19°C today and working on more solutions.
