HOW | Toni Piëch Foundation

Our work is impact-driven, which means we truly ask ourselves the questions: Where can we make a difference, where are blank spots of crucial actions needed? Where are ideas or technologies at an early stage that should be further developed? And we are using the power of communication to advocate change. We are convinced that bringing people together and being a catalyst for transformation will gain momentum for the topics that are crucial for the future of humankind.
We think it’s obvious: we need to go the fast lane when it comes to climate change and the transition to renewable energies. We need to deliver especially in the cities, where the big questions of tomorrow show themselves with force. With regard to unavoidable climate impacts cities need to do both: increase their resilience while reducing their ecological footprint. The Toni Piëch Foundation seeks to help providing cities with research and concrete tools to embark on this transformative journey.
Dealing with Climate Change nowadays means to stop greenhouse gas emissions but at the same time finding ways to adapt to unavoidable impacts. Both is important to make societies more resilient – which first and foremost requires a better understanding of practical and implementable solutions. The Climate Change programme of the Toni Piëch Foundation therefore keeps its focus on projects that have an immediate impact with regard to its overall mission.
Cities can host billions of people while still providing space for an enriching urban life. Or they can be an ecological human disaster – 'the triumph or the tragedy' of cities it is. Projects of the Toni Piëch Foundation will be looking at the climate footprint of cities e.g. that of buildings as they are among the biggest single sources of emissions in the world. The global construction sector is on the brink of a huge transformation towards using carbon absorbing materials. We seek to accelerate this shift and to help clean construction to thrive.
Our day to day life is attached to electricity or thermal energy use for heating and cooling, transport and electricity uses. It’s important to maintain and expand these services of energy but to better interlink the different sectors (sector coupling) and switch to modern green sources. The socio-economic benefits of renewable energy deployment are widely known. And global welfare gains could also increase – the Toni Piëch Foundation will help to accelerate the transformation.
“If you can’t describe it in one sentence you simply don’t understand it well enough”. A quote attributed to Albert Einstein nails it: complex subjects such as Climate Change need to be explained. Not so much the technical or physical dynamics but rather what they mean to us and our day to day lives. And it needs to be communicated in a way that offers positive outlooks. By deploying an explicit sensitivity to the storytelling, we seek to ensure a compassionate but forward-looking approach in our projects.
The Toni Piëch Foundation is a member foundation of Philea, the Philanthropy Europe Association.
The non-profit foundation evaluates where it can support the most, conducts research, communicates future-based scenarios or points towards solutions.