Contours of Change: An interactive experience for sustainability
ETH Sustainability is opening new ways of communication with “Contours of Change”. First unveiled at the Sustainable Switzerland Forum 2025, the installation will soon invite audiences at ETH to experience it, too.
With “Contours of Change”, ETH has developed a playful format that explores new ways in user-centered science communication. At its core lies an interactive dialogue zone with themed figures. By adopting different positions, participants can discover and develop fresh perspectives on pressing social and economic policy issues. Each figure represents a theme relevant to the transformation toward sustainable development—topics of particular importance to the people engaging in the exchange.
Tailored applications
At the Sustainable Switzerland Forum (SSF) 2025, the figures were dedicated to event-specific themes such as circular economy, artificial intelligence and energy management, supply chain tensions, community engagement, reporting, and business travel. Depending on how the figures are positioned in the dialogue zone, conversations unfold around sustainability goals within these fields —how they can be advanced, and which measures are needed to achieve them.
Circular thinking in communication
Contours of Change also stands for sustainability in design. In collaboration with the external page Cerca Research & Design Lab and using materials from external page Offcut — a provider of reclaimed and surplus materials for reuse — this interactive communication zone was created. All elements are made from repurposed materials that have been creatively transformed and given a new life cycle, including components from this year’s UEFA Women’s EURO fan zone in Zurich. The installation is designed as a flexible format: modular, easy to transport, and adaptable for a wide range of uses — from large-scale events to small workshops. Certain components of the figures can be customized to a particular context, enabling perspectives on additional current transformation topics. In this way, the principle of reuse is consistently applied to a communication tool.
Institutions and organizational units interested in using Contours of Change for their own events are welcome to borrow the installation. For inquiries, please contact ETH Sustainability at .
Further information on borrowing, customization options, and upcoming deployments of the format can be found on the Contours of Change website.
Further Information
Note on the translation
This text has been translated for your convenience using a machine translation tool. Although reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, it may not be perfect. If in doubt, please refer to the German version.
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