Image: Markus Bertschi

Sarah Springman, a geotechnical engineer and the rector of ETH Zurich since 2015, has retired. In a farewell portrait of Springman, the magazine Globe called her a “Rector of hearts”. The newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that Springman has truly made her mark on the scene: “A quarter of a century ago, she came to Zurich as a pioneer in a male-dominated environment. She leaves the city as someone who has had a lasting impact on Zurich as a research location, as a role model for many young female academics, and as a mentor to seasoned scholars”. But it also listed the challenges she has had to cope with: For example, Springman admits that the Carollo case affected her deeply, with its accusations of a lack of care on the part of ETH and poor crisis management. And she is also disappointed that she still has not reached her goals in matters of empowering women.

Image: ETHZ, Felix Imhof

Julia Steinberger is a professor of ecological economics at the University of Lausanne and the lead author in Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose sixth assessment report concerns climate change mitigation pathways. She belongs to the new organisation ‘Degrowth Switzerland’, which aims to put a brake on economic growth in order to combat the climate catastrophe. But to propose an intentional slowdown in growth is politically taboo. On the online site Heidi News, Steinberger explained why it should now be broken: “Every societal change seems utopian before it becomes concrete. Studies show that it is completely unrealistic for us to try and protect human well-being and our livelihood by means of economic growth”.

Image: UNIL, zVg

Daniel Reck is a postdoc at ETH Zurich who is researching into traffic planning. His surprising findings about the eco-balance of sharing e‑bikes and e‑scooters have been taken up by the media. Given their current conditions of use, sharing these forms of transport “would do the climate more harm than good”, he says. He has undertaken a reconstruction of 65,000 journeys, and proved that they would not actually substitute journeys by car, but would be used as a replacement for more sustainable means of transport such as the tram, bicycle and walking. In an interview with the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Reck recommended that providers should refrain as much as possible from collecting and redistributing e-vehicles, and ought to provide incentives for people to use defined parking zones. “In this way, they could prevent emissions and save costs too”.