Swiss walk the (green) walk

DUBENDORF, Switzerland – This Friday, a team of European engineers revealed their finished, full-sized prototype of the Solar Impulse. With a wingspan of more than 200 feet and a weight of approximately 3,500 pounds, the Solar Impulse is one of the first plausible aircrafts to be entirely powered by solar energy.

After beginning the project in 2003, the team of 70 engineers was finally able to unveil the product of its labor in an old Swiss military base in Dubendorf, a small village just outside of Zurich, Switzerland. According to the project’s Web site, solarimpulse.com, some 800 guests, ranging from journalists to the project’s sponsors to well-known supporters, made the trip to Dubendorf for the presentation of the prototype.

This very important breakthrough with solar technology was led by one very famous Swiss man: Bertrand Piccard. A very charismatic, optimistic, and pioneering individual, Piccard has become quite the national hero for the Swiss people. And with his powerful declarations, one can see why.

“The Solar Impulse project is not only an airplane, it’s also a message,” he said at the presentation of the Solar Impulse plane. “We can have a good quality of life in this world, we can solve the financial crisis, we can fight poverty, and we can protect the environment, only by inventing the future with enough pioneering spirit.”

It is this pioneering spirit that an American student finds when walking around in Switzerland and talking with its people. In general, the Swiss people are not waiting around until new breakthroughs happen; rather, they are actively working toward solutions. The people in many cases choose to give up trivial conveniences for the greater good.

One example of this spirit can be seen in recycling. Every house in Switzerland recycles, not because it is easy or convenient, but because they feel that it is something that needs to be done. Recycling is not a fashion statement – nobody wears green recycling T-shirts. Instead, recycling is simply a necessity.

Everybody sorts trash, everybody has a compost bin, everybody takes cardboard and glass to be recycled. The law is set up in such a way that people have to pay per bag of nonrecyclable things they throw away, and the state pays for some of the recycling expenses. So at least in Switzerland, it is also more economical for individuals and families to recycle.

Compared to my small hometown in Indiana and the IU campus, the Swiss people recycle with fervor. Most trash is recyclable, and after having lived in a Swiss house for a month now, recycling has just become a natural habit and part of living here. I no longer think about recycling, I no longer notice that I recycle, but I simply do it because that is what is done. And this is good.

Overall, in their avid recycling and in their support of Piccard and the Solar Impulse project, the Swiss people are really investing in the future. Switzerland has decided that when green energy begins to flourish, they want to be ready for it and they want to be a global leader in it.

As a result, all of Switzerland will be watching when Bertrand Piccard takes off in the Solar Impulse for the first time this fall.