Swiss Sustainability Challenge

Three innovative projects have successfully participated in this year's Swiss Sustainability Challenge. 

On October 20th at 6 PM, this year's Pax Sustainability Award ceremony took place in Hall 7 in Basel.

The 5th edition of the Swiss Sustainability Challenge, formerly known as the Swiss Student Sustainability Challenge, is an innovative idea competition aimed at projects committed to social and ecological sustainability.

Out of over 40 projects, three winners emerged. The startup Simon & Josef (S&J) from Fribourg, a member of «HotellerieSuisse Trusted Start-up», made it to the winner's podium with their project for sustainable and customizable room cleaning in the hotel industry. The project was developed in collaboration with Les Roches Global Hospitality Education and its Innovation Hub in Crans-Montana, and HSW Freiburg, and is coached by FriUp. The startup has set itself the task of making room cleaning in hotels more sustainable and ecological in order to reduce the consumption of natural, financial, and chemical resources and to make guests' stays more attractive.

Every guest who stays for at least two nights will receive an SMS from the hotel via the S&J platform with a link to a survey. This way, guests can easily cancel or personalize room cleaning from anywhere and at any time. Alternatively, the hotel can place a QR code in the room, which directs the guest to the same survey.

If the guest does nothing, the room will be cleaned as usual. The guest does not forgo any comfort when using S&J; they can personalize room cleaning according to their wishes and contribute to sustainability. Every day at the desired time, the hotel will receive a report in PDF format via email, listing all rooms with the guest's desired services. No IT installation is necessary at the hotel, as all information is processed externally and can be viewed at any time on their own dashboard.

If the guest uses S&J, the hotelier saves resources. At the end of the month, S&J calculates a commission on the savings, with no monthly fixed costs.

In the 8-month test phase, in which 31 hotels with 1489 rooms participated, a total of 128,000 L of water, 180 L of chemicals, and 225 kWh of electricity were saved. All participating hotels were able to save costs associated with the reduction of consumed resources.

The award is the reward for hard work and continuous development in response to external circumstances, in the spirit of sustainability and market demands.