Let's be optimistic
Dear friends,
there is no doubt: 2022 was a challenging and at times difficult year. The surprises encountered all along were pretty special and challenging.
The year is now over.
Time to reflect and to spell out our positive and rewarding highlights.
Waste to Value
The project that kept me really busy all along the year was the implementation of our “Waste to Value” strategy at Selfrag. We started construction of our 35’000 TPA plant in Full-Reuenthal and immediately faced unexpected challenges due to broken supply chains and the Ukraine war.
The way our teams faced these hurdles was not only astonishing but also totally motivating.
Yes, we face today cost overruns and delays. And yes, we will start-up our project in March 2023! Our motivation is driven by the fact that
We are convinced that our project will have a positive impact on our environment and that it will contribute to the closing of a circular economy.
The Letter
October saw the launch of THE LETTER at the Vatican. Of course, also this project faced the COVID challenges and the related delays and overruns.
The result was moving: the best documentary on climate change I have seen.
The film has had an outstanding global reaction.
We were able to gain YouTube as a partner (over 8.2 MIO views in two months). The film was aired a few days ago by PBS in the US with over 1 MIO views. And the global roll-out is only at its beginnings. My involvement in this project allowed me to connect to engaged and outstanding personalities.
It fully opened my eyes to the catastrophe we are all heading to if we do not act now.
Arouna
THE LETTER also brought us closer to Arouna, one of the key characters in the movie. Arouna has experienced what it means to be a child slave.
He is the voice of the poor in THE LETTER.
His experience since he was 4 let’s you cry. Today, his determination and power to move forward gives us hope. Over the last 12 months Melinda and I accompanied him in his Baccalauréat year. He made his bac, and we discovered a friend:
a fighter for life.
Today he is in first year of university in Dakar. I’m convinced that we are going to hear a lot from him the years to come.
forteq and Dartfish
forteq progressed in moving away from the combustion engine to the electrical vehicle markets. This is encouraging. We will continue working on it. Dartfish realized good inroads in the development of our “computer vision” technology as well as our VAR (video assistant referee) solutions. Exciting opportunities are in front of us.
Lorenz
Everybody in our small family faced a turbulent and engaged year. Lorenz is realizing his dreams to work in the space sector at the European Space Agency. He works on the Mars Sample Return campaign to bring back samples from Mars to Earth to
unlock the secrets behind the origin and evolution of life.
Fabian’s restaurants have become
the place to be in Geneva.
He has so developed a unique hospitality company.
Melinda
He relies on Melinda’s financial management discipline. Her interior design skills are regularly being put into action and always full of wonderful surprises.
2022 was also a year of
gratifying encounters.
First of all, the many exchanges with engaging personalities on the themes related to the status of our planet. Or the conversations with friends and athletes in Eugene (OR) for the Athletics World Championship.
Through a series of coincidences, we got to make good friends in Vienna and to meet
Marin Alsop.
What a personality and what a conductor: affaire a suivre!
Disappointments
Of course, 2022 also brought its package of disappointments. I decided to follow the stoic’s advice and it did help (the best book I read in 2022 was “The Lives of the Stoics”. Highly recommended).
So let me quote Seneca:
we are more often frightened than hurt and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.
Not a surprise but still a disappointment that does frighten is the fact that the CO2 concentrations continued to increase in 2022.
From 415 ppm in November 2021 to over 417 ppm in November 2022.
I wanted to run again a marathon in 2022.
Only a few weeks before this year’s NYC marathon I got the “no go” from my doctor: a fatigue fracture in my left foot. Of course, a disappointment after all the training sessions. At the same time a great opportunity to go to NYC without the stress of the marathon and to so have the time to take pictures of the runners. I witnessed very inspiring moments:
Learn to run when feeling the pain: then push harder.
Thanks and see you all in 2023
Today, I’m looking forward to 2023: the challenges that will be tackled and specially
all the great encounters with you all my dear friends!