Six student projects win the Durabilis Award

We all have a role to play in encouraging cleaner, greener lifestyles. And the seven UNIL and EPFL students who won the 2018 Durabilis Awards have some practical ideas for steps we can take to achieve that goal. Their six projects were selected out of the 21 contenders thanks to their innovative, actionable approaches.

Launched ten years ago, the Durabilis Awards recognize the top Bachelor’s and Master’s projects aiming to promote sustainable development. The awards are sponsored jointly by EPFL, UNIL and the city of Saint-Sulpice and were introduced as part of Switzerland’s RUMBA initiative to “continuously reduce the operational and product-related environmental impacts” of the Swiss federal government’s activities. Students with winning Master’s and thesis projects are granted CHF 1,000 each; those with other winning Master’s and Bachelor’s projects receive CHF 500 each. Read more to learn about this year’s laureate ideas.

Recycling building materials

Construction sites in Vaud generated over one million metric tons of waste in 2014, according to figures from the canton’s environmental office. For Célia Küpfer, an architecture student at EPFL, this represents a major opportunity for recycling used building materials – and she dedicated her Master’s research to this topic. She found that “there have been no building-material recycling initiatives in Switzerland since the 1960s” and identified potential obstacles to the widespread adoption of recycling programs. She also outlined possible solutions, such as creating a network of “reusage hubs” that would serve as both second-hand stores and research centers. The selection panel was impressed in particular by Küpfer’s “highly intelligent analysis” of the problem.

Rethinking the definition of a “healthy environment”

Stanislas Gouhier, a Bachelor’s student at UNIL’s Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, chose to investigate the concept of a “healthy environment” from three perspectives: political, legal and scientific. He looked at where the concept comes from and at whether the end goal is to protect nature’s ecosystems – or if that is just one step along the way. The selection panel pointed to Gouhier’s “thoughtful approach that is at once bold and intelligent because it incorporates elements of spirituality and nature’s rights, for example.”

Progressive electricity rates

Also from UNIL’s Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Thomas Deboffe – who just completed his Master’s degree – studied the possibility of introducing progressive electricity rates in Switzerland. He thinks that will encourage people to be more energy-efficient. His idea is based on the fact that wealthier households tend to use more electricity, and that progressive rate systems would have been introduced successfully in over “90 countries and regions worldwide.” The selection panel awarded Deboffe for his “exhaustive assessment of the social and economic benefits of introducing a progressive rate system to reduce power consumption, as well as the legal and political feasibility of such a system.”

Building an ecovillage on the UNIL campus

For their Master’s project, Loïc Bernet and Catherine Nachbar designed an ecovillage that would be built on the UNIL campus. The two UNIL architecture students worked in association with LaMoViDA – the UNIL student club for alternative and sustainable lifestyles – to map out a pilot village consisting of homes, a wholesale organic food store, a workshop and several gardens including a large one for growing vegetables. The village would be used to build and test various “innovative, alternative and sustainable systems” and demonstrate how people could “live in new ways that respect the environment,” say the students. The selection panel admired their “bold, yet conscientious approach.”

Encouraging urban agriculture

For her Master’s thesis at UNIL’s Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Léa Gillioz analyzed new urban agricultural methods using the Vergers econeighborhood in Meyrin, Switzerland – which is slated to house 1,358 people by 2019 – as her model. Future Vergers residents teamed up with city officials and urban planners to outline an end-to-end system for sustainable food production, from a communal vegetable garden to a local cooperative supermarket. The goal is to rethink every step in the food supply chain and present more responsible alternatives to existing food-industry practices. The selection panel noted that Gillioz’s research “could be used by other cities interested in implementing a collaborative approach among food producers, consumers and city officials, so as to help make urban lifestyles more sustainable.”

Supplying a city with renewable energy

Thibaut Menny, who holds a Master’s degree in architecture along with a minor in energy from EPFL’s School of Engineering, focused his project on the port of Saint-Malo in France, and more specifically on the Môle des Noires dike that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the coastline. Menny’s idea is turn the dike into a “machine for collecting and storing energy generated from the wind and tides” as well as a barrier that can protect the port from “marine submersion.” He also envisages the dike as housing shops and other facilities for Saint-Malo residents and tourists. The selection panel lauded Menny’s project as “a brilliant idea for creating architecture and energy infrastructure in Saint-Malo, which he translated into a cross-disciplinary project that combines technical calculations with historical and regional considerations.”