1.
Overview
The tradition of developing and using environmental technologies especially for waste management has existed in Switzerland for a long time. As early as the 1960s the country became a pioneer in this domain by rigorously installing treatment and incineration plants with stringent emission standards. Today it can be acknowledged that Switzerland has succeeded in moving from basic waste removal to an environmentally friendly process of waste disposal and recycling. Now, incineration plants are efficient power plants which produce clean heat and electricity.
However, Switzerland will soon be faced with new considerable challenges which it will not be able to master alone. If the objective is to sensibly reduce the environmental impacts due to the huge flow of goods worldwide, it will not be sufficient to act at the end of the production supply chain. Therefore, in order to work towards sustainable development, it will be even more necessary to improve social and environmental criteria all along the life cycle of goods and services.