23.06.2025
Sustainable from the inside out: at PostFinance’s Impact Days, employees help their own sustainability ideas to break through. This post looks at what went on at this year’s workshops, and why participants get involved with the Impact Days.
On its path to greater sustainability, PostFinance is offering its employees space to champion sustainability ideas. One example is the company’s Impact Days. During this event, employees fine-tune solutions that they themselves put forward. The challenge: these ideas must contribute towards PostFinance’s sustainability goals.
Sustainability is firmly embedded in PostFinance’s strategy. Our focus is on five key topics and other sustainability issues cutting across these topics that will impact our company’s business activities.
We also pursue cross-cutting sustainability objectives to anchor sustainability holistically in our company – including as part of our market services, our participations and procurement.
The Impact Days were held for the third time in May 2025. “Employees from different units submitted ideas. After a rough feasibility test, we sent eight of these ideas to the kick-off meeting, where they were presented to workshop participants,” explains Marilou Jobin, Sustainability Manager at PostFinance. They included proposals with different alignments:
Participants were able to select an idea from this pool to develop in groups and with the support of mentors for a day and a half. “It was impressive to see how quick and committed the teams were to fleshing out the ideas,” says Marilou, who organized the event. The aim of the workshops was to cast a critical eye on the ideas and, if necessary, to discard them and come up with new ones − quickly and in an agile manner. The participants were able to draw on the expertise of innovation experts from Impact Hub Bern and VNTR | Innovation & Venturing by PostFinance , who were ready to lend a helping hand.
A total of five teams presented their ideas to the jury at the end of the workshop, with the aim of being given the go-ahead for the next stage of development. This year’s decision-making committee included members of the PostFinance Executive Boar Ron Schneider (Chief Transformation Officer) and Kilian Imboden (Interim Chief Business Unit Officer for Payment Solutions), as well as Rahel Tanner (Head of Procurement), Vivien Büchler Bezzola (Co-Head of Corporate Responsibility at Swiss Post) and Thomas Jakob (Head of Sustainability at PostFinance). And which ideas were given the thumbs-up by the jury? “Following the pitches, the jury decided to pursue the ‘PF-ellevate: women’s network’ and ‘Eco Score’ ideas as specific measures, while the mobility and loyalty programmes require further clarification and work,” says Marilou.
Participants and mentors will now also be supported after the Impact Days to develop their ideas further. At a debrief session, the teams will reflect on the jury’s feedback and decide on next steps. In two subsequent working sessions, the Impact Hub Bern will provide methodological support to help flesh out the idea. In between these sessions, the groups have time to work on the idea individually. If required, the teams have the option of applying for a small amount of funding from the Sustainability team to help with initial validation of the idea.
Once a project is ready, it is transferred to the usual business processes and departments.
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