Biodiversity Over Concrete: SIGA's Sustainable Approach

SIGA products are free of residential toxins. The production works with own electricity from photovoltaics. It is therefore not surprising that the surroundings of the Innovation Centre Schachen are sustainable.

The environmental design of the factory and office building in Schachen, Lucerne, follows an overall concept. Right next to the company premises, the small river Emme flows by, a shallow river that characterises the landscape. Therefore SIGA has used the materials of this environment to create near-natural areas around the factory premises.

Local overall concept

The ruderal areas on the company premises were designed with gravel from the Emme. In the areas with exclusively native sown plants, “Steinmannli” were piled up for decoration. These can also be found along the Emme, mostly created by children and hikers. There are also piles of dead wood. These provide a habitat for beetle larvae and lizards. Here too, alluvial wood from the Emme has been used consistently. A total of around 200 plants were planted. Cairns have also been placed at the rear of the building to provide shelter for small rodents, hedgehogs and weasels, for example.

Promoting biodiversity

Such “wild” areas offer something for the environment and for business. This type of environmental design promotes biodiversity, which is endangered in the age of monoculture, grazing land, forestry and fertiliser. Wild bees, beetles, butterflies, frogs, hedgehogs and even weasels find shelter here. If every unused area were to be designed in this way (instead of being concreted over), many millions of square metres would come together, which would benefit nature and, ultimately, us humans as well.

Little work, little cost

The idea is that you only need to weed unwanted plants once or twice a year. For example, the Chinese summer lilac, which has immigrated from China. Otherwise the plants will sow themselves again for the next year. Mowing or pruning is only done once a year, before winter. Compared to lawns, box trees and tuja hedges, these wild areas are very easy to care for and maintenance costs hardly anything. Win-win for nature and business.