Forum SBS Discusses Sustainability Program

At Cable Cars Switzerland's most important event - the annual forum and general meeting - this year everything is focused on sustainability. The mountain railway industry will meet in Davos on October 19th and 20th and discuss innovative solutions to give additional attention to the topic of sustainability.

The general meeting and forum of Cable Cars Switzerland (SBS) will take place this year in the congress center of the highest city in Europe. Hans Wicki, President of Cable Cars Switzerland, welcomed the around 380 participants to the general meeting in the morning and looked back with the members on an eventful year. Last winter, the cable car industry was initially concerned with the danger of a power shortage and the question of whether there was a risk of a ban on technical snowmaking. At the same time, energy saving measures were consistently implemented, also to cushion the rise in energy prices. This was followed by an extremely low snow start to the winter. Meanwhile, the cable car companies have shown their ingenuity and offered winter guests alternative experiences.

Solution-oriented

The cable car industry does not want to maintain problems, but rather present solutions to overcome future challenges. Under this credo, Berno Stoffel, Director of SBS, presented a sustainability program for the Swiss mountain railways. This program is based on pioneering projects from mountain railway companies and is rolling them out throughout Switzerland. A total of seven projects are being worked on in the strategic action areas of climate change and energy, water management and communication.

In order to secure the future of the industry, the association is launching the “Alpine Tech Heroes” young talent promotion campaign, which is intended to motivate students to become apprentices as cable car mechatronics engineers. This campaign will be implemented starting this fall.

New members elected to the SBS board

At the general meeting, the three board members Philipp Holenstein, CEO of Arosa Bergbahnen AG, Sepp Odermatt, delegate of the transport company Central Switzerland and Roger Walser, managing director of the Eastern Swiss cable cars, resigned after three terms in office. The association would like to thank them for their many years of service and great commitment. Michael Ackermann, Head of Railways & Technology at Bergbahnen Flumserberge AG, Fréderic Füssenich, CEO of Rigi Bahnen AG and Adrian Jordan, COO of Bergbahnen in St. Moritz, Engadin Mountains AG, were chosen as successors.

Opportunities and challenges of sustainability for the cable car industry

As an expert in climate and environmental physics, Prof. Dr. Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern in the afternoon in the Swiss Cable Car Forum about climate change and its importance for mountain areas. He emphasized that the task of changing habits regarding mobility, consumption and energy is not only a national and international task, but also a personal task. Markus Wolf, CEO Weisse Arena Bergbahnen AG, Martin Candinas, President of the National Council, Marcus Caduff, Government Councilor, Department of Economics and Social Affairs and Prof. Dr. Thomas Stocker on tourism regions between value creation and nature conservation. Concrete examples from the mountain railways in Davos, St. Moritz and Zermatt impressively demonstrated the possibilities and potential of implementation in the area of ​​sustainability.

Federal diplomas for 26 cable car specialists

There was a reason to celebrate for the newly qualified cable car specialist and 25 cable car specialists. After 18 months of part-time instruction, several intermediate exams and the professional exam, they were able to receive their federal specialist certificate in Davos. The cable car specialists can now take over the technical management of a cable car company and begin the path to becoming a federally qualified “cable car manager”.