This franc matters

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One franc – what’s the difference? You can’t get much for this from the big retailers. A little more than half a liter of Swiss organic milk or 0.8 organic eggs. There is nothing more.

One franc won’t get you far, but it can have a high symbolic value. More precisely, 1.10 francs. That’s how much we unwittingly earned in April with our new photovoltaic system. It has been installed on a flat roof next to our Masoala rainforest for about a month and is busy generating electricity. For us, as a conservation organization, protecting nature at the local level means, first of all, the rational use of resources.

Of course, electricity, heat and water are required to provide habitats for endangered residents and entertain our guests, but the source of these resources must be as sustainable as possible. We have come a long way when it comes to thermal energy: almost 100 percent is produced from a mixture of geothermal energy and our own wood chip power plant and provides heat to the entire zoo.

As for electricity, we are constantly expanding our own capabilities. In recent years, photovoltaic systems have been installed on the rooftops of the Zurich Zoo. New buildings, such as those in Lewa Savannah, are also equipped with such systems and produce electricity. With the new power plant next to Masoala, we can produce much more electricity.

For comparison, last month the new photovoltaic system produced about 22,100 kWh. All other systems in the zoo together produced about 11,000 kWh in the same period. Of course, 22,100 kWh covers only a fraction of our electricity needs in Masoala, which, in addition to the rainforest, also includes our Masoala restaurant and shop. However, on a sunny April day, a new situation was to arise. On the one hand, the Masoala rainforest needs little electricity on sunny days. Then the ventilation flaps open and we do not need electricity for artificial ventilation. At the same time, there was little activity in our restaurant Masoala, which means less electricity consumption.

In this situation, for the first time, we produced more electricity than we needed ourselves, and it was fed into the grid because the supply to the rest of the zoo was not working. For this reason, we received from the electricity company the corresponding amount of 1.10 francs. It is small, but shows that we are on the right track. This year it is also planned to equip the roofs of other zoos with photovoltaic systems in order to constantly increase the share of their own production.

Speaking of francs, our guests can also do a lot of good with one franc. Since Easter, we have introduced a voluntary environmental franc into our daily tickets, which is fully in line with our conservation work. One franc on its own isn’t that much, but if each of our approximately 1.4 million guests each year volunteers to pay a franc, that’s a huge boost to our commitment to conservation. A global counterpart to our local commitment to greater sustainability and conservation.

Source: Blick