Insights and news
Discovering individual animals, following their movements, identifying and locating animal and plant species, assessing their habitat, and preventing poaching are just a few examples of...
This article is published in collaboration with World Economic ForumThe total number of animals has halved since the 1970s in what some scientists have termed the start of Earth’s sixth...
Ambee helps citizens monitor pollution and take actions to avoid the most toxic areasWhat’s the issue?Invented in India to face an ever-increasing air pollution challenge, Ambee is a small,...
This eco-driving coach can help reduce fuel consumption up to 10% What’s the issue?While many topics are still open for discussion, few doubts remain over the fact that cars pollute. First,...
Looking for new opportunities, giving companies the chance to scale, taking financial risks, supporting companies... Cleantech investors have a crucial role to play in the...
The Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label is now part of the EuroQuity network, enabling its solutions to access an exclusive business partner and investor matching...
E-commerce is now part of our everyday lives. We buy pretty much anything in a matter of seconds with a simple click, and we expect purchases to arrive at our doorstep...
Drones, marketplaces, IoT and sensors, blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence… After having radically transformed our everyday lives, all these technological...
Today is the 108th International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”, and strongly focuses on the importance of women involvement in climate...
Interviews — September 14, 2018
"Antarctica is the memory of our planet", interview with Robert Swan
Written by Tristan Lebleu - 3 min read
You have been on countless expeditions to both Poles for the past 30 years. What have these expeditions taught you?Personally, these expeditions have taught me the importance of having dreams and hope. What I learnt by becoming the first person crazy enough to walk to both poles is that if you really do have...
News — September 13, 2018
The Solar Impulse Foundation and New Energy Nexus join forces to...
Written by Tristan Lebleu
“Thirty years ago, we had a chance to save the planet”.This powerful and tragic statement was made by Nathaniel Rich in a brilliant piece published this summer in The New York Times: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change. How frustrating to think that we could have...
News — September 07, 2018
Boyan Slat is launching System 001 of The Ocean Cleanup
Written by Julie Conti
In 2014, Boyan Slat raised 2.2 million USD to finance his idea of passive concentration system to catch and concentrate plastic pollution in the ocean using currents. This campaign remains to this day the biggest crowdfunding ever made for a non profit organization.The clever and simple concept of The Ocean...
Interviews — August 27, 2018
Which direction is the wind blowing? Current trends and future...
Written by Tristan Lebleu
Flying kites, floating turbines, bubble screens, bird detection radars… Many innovations are transforming the offshore wind industry. In recent years, cost reductions have led to a breakthrough in offshore wind. This energy source once considered as risky, unreliable, and costly has gained major attention and...
News — August 22, 2018
Travels in the Land of Common Sense
Written by Bertrand Piccard
We may still think it’s acceptable to produce cold air for air conditioners with electricity from oil-fired generators; to grow crops using chemical fertilizers; and to spray them all with pesticides. But not on the island of Tetiaroa in French Polynesia. Spurred on by Marlon Brando's dream of building an...
News — August 13, 2018
Lactips, the milky way of plastics
Written by Tristan Lebleu
The story behind Lactips is first and foremost about the encounter of two different worlds and two complementary people. Frédéric Prochazka, a researcher at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Université Jean Monnet, in Saint-Etienne (France), had developed a breakthrough...
Insights — August 06, 2018
China, rise of a cleantech giant
Written by Tristan Lebleu
When it comes to environmental protection, China triggers mixed reactions. As the world’s largest polluter, China emits more than a quarter of the world’s global carbon emissions, which is more than the US and Europe combined. This is essentially due to their considerable use of dirty fossil fuels,...
News — July 25, 2018
Bertrand Piccard replies to social media comments
Written by Chiara Cosenza
The series will be published regularly on Bertrand Piccard’s Social Media Channels (Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin) as well as on the Solar Impulse YouTube channel. We will not be able to reply to all the comments and questions but we will select a few of them on a regular basis.On the first episode of this...
News — July 19, 2018
We are 1000 Members!
Written by Tristan Lebleu
Today was no ordinary day for the Solar Impulse Foundation. Indeed, today marked a big step towards our goal of making our world cleaner and our future brighter. Since the success of the solar flight around the world, we’ve worked day in day out to create the largest community of cleantech innovators, investors...
News — July 10, 2018
Meet a Member: TVP Solar, harvesting the sun for thermal energy
Written by Tristan Lebleu
TVP Solar, founded in 2008 by Piero Abbate and Vittorio Palmieri, designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative solar thermal panels. Less notorious than photovoltaic panels, solar thermal panels are also a very efficient alternative to fossil fuels. The main difference of...
1000 Solutions — July 05, 2018
Zify, the daily carpooling app
Written by Tristan Lebleu - 1 min read
In the US, according to the latest American Community Survey, over three quarters (76.3%) of commuters still drive to work alone in their cars. Surely, Americans have an intensive use of their cars, but the figure is still high in Europe: more than half of Swiss commuters (52,1%) drove to work in...
News — June 27, 2018
Who are the Solar Impulse Foundation Experts?
Written by Tristan Lebleu
For the past months, we have been recruiting experts and building this strong community dedicated to evaluating all the solutions submitted by Members of the World Alliance and ultimately deciding if they are granted the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label. Once they receive solutions submissions form, the...
Insights — June 22, 2018
Clean energy transition: a massive employment opportunity
Written by Tristan Lebleu
“Each time I speak of protecting the environment to heads of state or government officials, they tell me that it is too expensive. I want to prove them wrong!” said Bertrand Piccard at the launch of the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label in Copenhagen in May.Indeed, protection of the environment has...
Insights — June 13, 2018
Electric, autonomous, and shared: what’s the future of clean mobility?
Written by Tristan Lebleu
In the last century, fast growing urban populations and massive development of mobility have come at a cost. Packed public transport, never-ending traffic jams, polluted cities… Not only these issues have a tremendous negative environmental effect, but they also have a big impact on our economies. Imagine...
1000 Solutions — June 05, 2018
World Environment Day: Solutions to fight plastic pollution
Written by Tristan Lebleu
The Solar Impulse Foundation, and UN Environment have very similar approaches when it comes to protection of the environment: we believe in the importance to highlight solutions rather than problems.This is why a few weeks ago, in collaboration with UN Environment, we decided to launch a call for solutions...