How it all started

Over the course of just a few years, myclimate has evolved from a student project to a professional and internationally active carbon offsetting organisation. The innovative premise and the passionate involvement of participants distinguish myclimate to this day.

In the spring of 2002, a group of professors and students at the ETH Zurich flew to Costa Rica. Their destination was the yearly gathering of the Alliance for Global Sustainability, an alliance of leading universities around the globe for sustainable development.

Keen to take action toward sustainability rather than just talk about it, the students of the department of environmental science developed a simple flight emissions calculator and asked all participants to offset their emissions with a payment.

The contributions were then used to replace a diesel generator for heating water at the hosting university with solar collectors. The first myclimate carbon offsetting project was created!

In the autumn of 2002, the myclimate association was launched and opened the first branch office in Zurich. A majority of the development work in the initial years was done by volunteers and other supporters. It certainly helped that myclimate became an official ETH spin-off not long after its foundation, which, among other things, allowed it to take advantage of the ETH Zurich infrastructure.

myclimate made a huge leap forward in 2006: The association merged with "The Climate Protection Partnership" foundation. Both organisations had been promoting voluntary offsetting for several years and decided to join forces for the climate from that point forward. A new organisational structure was created for this: myclimate consisted of a foundation and a support association, both called "myclimate – The Climate Protection Partnership". In June 2009, the organisational structure got simplified by dissolving the association. From that time on myclimate is consituted as a foundation.

myclimate saw strong growth and a significant increase in the amount of projects implemented in recent years. Today, the branch office in Zurich has around 40 employees.

What began as a student project has grown into a professional organisation with numerous partners in business, politics and research. In doing so, however, it has retained its capability for innovation along with expertise, involvement and pragmatism. Among the sponsors of the foundation "myclimate - The Climate Protection Partnership" are organisations like the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), Brugger and Partners Ltd., Caritas Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz, EAWAG), Econcept AG, the Canton Glarus, Seecon International GmbH, and Dr. Rolf Jeker.